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
Loading comments...