MMA4Real Presents: MMA's Forgotten Moves Part 1(Knees To The Body)
This will be an ongoing series that I'll be doing as time permits, in which I'll be highlighting moves that are very effective in MMA but nowadays are seldom used for some odd reason or another. If you are a regular reader of this site, you already know that I'm a big fan of fighters gaining side control once the fight hits the ground. I just think that position allows fighters to do huge amounts of damage if their top game is strong. Fighters can go to the mount position, north-south position, they can go for straight arm locks, kimura's, armbars, and so on.
However, one of the most effective moves in MMA from the side control position is knees to the body. This move accomplishes quite a few things like:
- Obviously does damage to the body affecting a fighters cardio
- Can force fighters to turn over and give up their back
- Can cause distractions making fighters vulnerable to submissions
Check more details and animated .gifs showing what knees to the body are capable of after the jump.

In the above .gif Yuki Kondo makes good use of knees against Mario Sperry at PRIDE Shockwave 2003. Now of course knees to the head of a downed opponent isn't legal in North America. However, if Kondo were to use his right knee instead of his left knee, he could have done a lot of damage to Sperry's body as well.

In the above .gif, George St. Pierre stops Matt Serra with knees to the body at UFC 83. Check the amount of leverage GSP is able to get from this position as those are some serious shots being thrown. Stay tuned for MMA4Real's next episode of MMA's forgotten moves.
.Gif's courtesy of MMA Core
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Yea
You can knee anywhere as long as it’s not to the head…and other obvious illegal places like the groin.
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Yeah…I often wonder why fighters don’t do this.
I understand the leverage factor and not wanting to lose focus and/or position at times but it’s almost as if the fighters wait for their corners to yell KNEES KNEES
Good writeup, man!
by The Real T-Bone on Jul 7, 2009 10:09 AM EDT reply actions
Might be a control issue
Look at the GSP gif. If Serra wasn’t already tired out, he could have easily stood up when GSP was loading up those knees. I wonder if that’s also the case when the top fighter is in side control; it might be that loading up the knees takes some pressure off the bottom fighter for a second, thus causing a scramble.
I’m basically thinking out loud, feel free to correct me.
Nah
It’s a valid point…and one that Neil and I discussed the other day….which is why I pointed out that you have to have a good top game…
You really don’t even have load up like GSP did in the .gif…short/compact knees to the body do damage as well…
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do not forget knees to the body when both fighters are standing. Fighters frequently send their knee to the head. The body knee is much easier to hit and fighters do not protect against it as much. Machida sent Tito to the ground with one.
"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin
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True
However, knees to the body standing are used way more frequently…we hardly ever see knees to the body while on the ground…
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I like this Thread. Because in my last fight I hit the guy with two knees from the side. Both of which hurt him. The second one hurt him bad. So I agree they should be used more.
I think knees to the body are under used. Because it doas sacrafice control alil. that knee that you are throwing from side control is usually supposed to be glued to you opponents hip, because any space is enough for you apponent to try and get his knees back through to gaurd.
For example. . .if your guy is on the bottom doing all the right things. like if they are digging for underhooks. Then you wont beable to pull it off. Beacuse you are feeling squerlly from the top anyway, BUT. . .If you are dominating the guy or he just isnt going for the proper escapes then you can do this. if you are dominating the underkooks from the top, knees to the body should be easy to throw.
Found an example
of what I was talking about. I was watching the first Nog/Barnett fight, and about 5 minutes in, Nog’s got Barnett in side control. Nog throws a knee, and Barnett uses the momentum of the knee to sorta toss Nog to get him back in half guard. The fight can be found using google video.
Check it out

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