"How Not to Punch" by Josh Koscheck
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 12:46 PM EST
in MMA Technique
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PrintIt's now the fifth installment of my "How Not to Punch" series and it is nice to get a new "boxing rule" broken for this segment.
Today's Rule: You never, ever, ever bend at the waist and look at the ground while throwing a punch. Especially a "push jab" with little snap behind it.
Look at the action here. Josh starts by lunging when he throws the jab, his feet leave the ground as he starts to throw the punch. There is no reason to "jump in" with this punch for starters. It isn't like a superman punch, you're not gaining any momentum on the jab by hopping forward as you throw it. A jab is a snap punch, the power on it comes from pumping it and snapping it back.
Next, as he hops he bends at the waist. I suppose there is an argument to be made that he was "changing angles" but to me it is all part of his getting cocky in not only his new found KO power but in the fact that Thiago hadn't yet been able to really strike with him. Looking at his body positioning I can only guess that he was going to try to wing a big overhand right behind the bunny hop.
Lastly, watch Josh's eyes as he throws the jab. Where are they? Is he locked in on his target in Paulo's head? Is he locked in on Paulo's chest and shoulders to follow any potential counterpunch movement? No, he is looking downward somewhere between Thiago's legs and the ground. Josh gave himself no chance to see a punch coming in return and in the end it came down to bad jab vs. solid uppercut. Guess which one wins that clash damn near every time?
While Thiago's striking was anything but technically sound for the fight up to that point in the fight he was able to sit down on one uppercut that Josh was leaping in to the power of and not looking as it hit him in the jaw. The reason the old saying "the shot that hurts the most is the one you don't see coming" is true is because you're usually not in a position to defend it although you usually aren't also hopping like a bunny directly into the other guy's power at the same time.
Previous "How Not to Punch" Editions:
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I have to agree Brent. But if you look at Kos lips as he looks down you can see him mutter " Oh a shiny penny, how did that get there!"
Sports Commentary
In all sports the commentators have a knack for being illustrative with their words and little over the top to prove their point. But Kos seriously was staring atthe ground when he threw that punch
All very true
But he wasn’t out, I’m not even a big Koscheck fan and I was screaming at the TV that the stoppage was early. He may have been very careless and a little cocky, but fight was called too early. I felt the same about Cobb being called early although Cobb probably would have been in a world of trouble as he was clearly being over matched. I don’t know about everybody else but I didn’t enjoy these fights that much, and I saw more Enzyte commercials then anyone should have to in there life, just to watch it. All in all it wasn’t terrible but I really wish Sanchez vs Stevenson was for 5 rounds.
by despisedIcon856 on Feb 22, 2009 1:01 PM EST reply actions
People don't need to be asleep to be considered KO'd
Fall down on your back with your arms out to the side and your eyes way out of focus and the ref. will usually stop the fight. Alot of fighters complained about early stops but I personally think they were all justified stops. If this sport is going to have a future and main stream acceptance these are the types of stoppages that are going to need to become routine. As for the commercials, thats the price of a “free” show.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
Koscheck was out for the time period starting with the uppercut and ending with his head bouncing on the floor. He made no reaction whatsoever to being caught with the sloppy left hook. Didn’t even twitch.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
by iiowyn on Feb 22, 2009 1:29 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
Also compare the way his left leg is stiff and higher than his right one on the ground to Markham/Farber and Franklin/Quarry.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
Yeah, the left leg twitches oddly when he first lands.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 1:33 PM EST up reply actions
The only reason he wasn't "out"
was because Thiago was a nice guy and didn’t follow up. He saw he was out and let up.
Fighters' safety has to come first
After watching the replay, anyone can clearly see Koscheck’s eyes roll to the back of his head. It was pretty much a flash knockout. The thing with a person’s eyes rolling to the back like that usually means that their brain has been rocked with a possible slight concussion. Continued hits to the head could result in brain damage. The thing with boxers getting brain damage usually has to do with situations like this where they receive a flash knockout rocking their brain, recover, and keep getting hit in the head almost immediately after getting their brain rocked which then causes the brain damage. At least in this case, Koscheck doesn’t have to go to the hospital and can just start training again.
Cannon Jacques: How does Thiago pull off the upset in this one? You tell me, because I certainly don't know. Koscheck should be able to control where this bout goes. Koshcheck by TKO, round 2.
Answer: Catch Koscheck throwing a weak jab while hopping like a bunny with his head down.
This only works after Koscheck has become comfortable kicking your ass and gets lazy.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
Koscheck was basically saying before the fight that in training he wasn’t giving a rat’s ass about Thiago, not watching any tape, etc..
Kuwabara Kuwabara
Ok that sounded like an excuse when what I meant to say was that he shouldn’t have underestimated him.
Kuwabara Kuwabara
by J. B. Maddox on Feb 22, 2009 1:56 PM EST up reply actions
I think this is a symptom of one of Koscheck’s biggest problems: never having a set game plan. I didn’t think it would bite him in the ass during this fight, but I don’t think he’ll ever be able to be a serious threat to GSP if he doesn’t come into the fight with a specific game plan (and moreover, contingency game plans). Part of that is likely due to his enormous ego. Hopefully this loss will end up having an overall positive effect on his career and training trajectory.
I think that quote's been taken out of context
the AKA coaches watch lots of video of Kos’s opponents and tell him the game plan. Koscheck knows he’s not cerebral enough to do his own gameplanning.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Not to disagree with the general statement “Don’t take your eyes off your opponent”, which is stupidly simple advice, but isn’t that what happened in Fedor/AA? It may be attributable to luck, but that’s because Fedor has mad skillz, yo.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Feb 22, 2009 2:05 PM EST reply actions
Fedro was also keeping his eye on the incoming knee of Arlovski.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
Yeah..
watch his left hand. He moves it the entire time he is ducking into position to deflect the knee. He ducked but he knew what was coming and was prepared to block it.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 3:08 PM EST up reply actions
Cool – I’ve never noticed that before.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Feb 22, 2009 3:16 PM EST up reply actions
But
Joe Rogan has convinced me that Kos is an excellent striker, and he puts his mind to it, he wouldn’t make a mistake like this.
Koscheck is IMPROVING his striking, but it is not necessarily good
I will honestly say that Josh Koscheck is NOT a GOOD striker, but his striking is IMPROVING. The thing with his striking is that it contains many holes such as looking for that one punch knockout, not setting up his power shots, not using a variety of striking skills like knees and kicks, and leaving himself open when he commits to his strikes. While his striking is improving, it still needs A LOT of work.
Compared to when he entered the UFC, his striking is excellent. It’s just that he had absolutely zero striking before.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Feb 22, 2009 8:35 PM EST up reply actions
Moving forward on a jab
I’ve been taught to do this in my class. I never questioned the rationale, I just assumed it was to set up the next shot.
Moving forward is fine...
but are they teaching you to hop forward so that your feet aren’t on the ground when you’re connecting?
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 3:09 PM EST up reply actions
pump
theres a pump-type jab that you can throw one or two at a time where its fine to snap a quick jab while moving forward. taking a quick step up at the same time that you throw your left allows you to quickly get your opponent to move back or out. but when that snap is fully extended you def gotta have the ball of your foot planted at the same time or else you might as well be throwin it off a unicycle
by beersnbroads on Feb 24, 2009 12:22 AM EST up reply actions
Excellent post, Brent
Very thoughtful analysis, and the GIF (by Smoogy?) makes this one of my favorite BE regular features. I want more!
"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy
Once Kid Nate finishes his “me time” after watching that.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
lol
I’ve been debating whether or not to do one on that — I think I’ll go back and talk about the takedown Maia used against Quarry as well. The trip he used on Sonnen was so much like what Jon Jones did against Bonnar that I’d worry about repeating myself.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Plus Maia didn’t really even have to set up the triangle, Sonnen put his arm underneath the leg without any coercing.
The next judo chop should be about the Mortal Kombat Uppercut, a move enjoying a meteoric rise in MMA.
Power uppercut-left hook has replaced the jab-cross.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 22, 2009 9:43 PM EST up reply actions
God, this stoppage was way too early. Koscheck wasn’t all there, but look what he does when he hits the ground: he moves up to try and get back up, sees Thiago moving forward, and drops back down and raises his hands and legs in anticipation of Thiago coming in with strikes.
Stopping a fight while the “beaten” fighter is not getting hit, and is actively defending, is terrible, terrible reffing.
The ref started to run in when Koscheck was falling down completely unconscious. Even after the floor woke him up again, he was on queer street and not in a position to defend himself until after the ref jumped on him. The left hook on the way down was probably the warning signal to the ref, Koscheck didn’t react at all and continued falling limply.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
So all fights should be stopped the moment a fighter is rocked into “queer street?” Tell that to all the iron-chinned fighters out there, tell that to Nogueira. Koscheck has an iron chinned and he deserve the benefit of fighting off a good punch.
Koscheck was knocked into queer street from unconsciousness after his head bounced off the mat. The fight was stopped because Koscheck was knocked out.
A man should never waste an opportunity to keep his mouth shut.
Fine. Then Nogueira’s fight against Herring should have been called a KO as well because he was “out” before he hit the canvas.
It is fine that you don’t like Koscheck and would like to see him in a coma but don’t attack the ref.. It was a justified stoppage. No question about it.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
I agree with all of the points you made on what he did wrong technically except for a small part. You say there is no reason to “step in” on his jab and that is bad mechanics but you are wrong there. I’ve had 11 amateur boxing matches and made it to the semi finals in the 06 NY Golden Gloves just so you know where i’m coming from when I disagree with you. Depending on your trainer some coach’s actually teach you to step foward with your lead leg as you snap your jab. You can do it fluently while timing it with the exact impact of your punch and making sure you stay tight and on the balls of your feet finishing by bringing your rear foot foward. Yes he should have locked his eyes on his target and looking at the floor was a grave mistake! You pretty much covered the bases on him bending at the waist etc. Great post otherwise!
I think the bunny hop
after the step is the real sin and I doubt you’ve been coached to do that.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
I should clarify...
as you’re not the only person who seemed to think I was saying that.
Stepping into your punch = good
having both feet off the ground and “hopping” when you throw it = bad
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 3:11 PM EST up reply actions
To me...
It looked like he went for the jab, ducked an overhand which wasn’t and got KO’ed by an uppercut. It’s so easy to say you shouldn’t do this or that, but in a fight, fighters make mistakes. The victorious fighter usually is the one that capitalizes on the mistakes of his opponent. To think that fighters will never lose if they fight technically is too simplistic. The best technical fighters will make mistakes in the heat of the moment; it’s a chess match, the right anticipation scores, the wrong one hurts…as was the case here.
Oh absolutely...
I just do these when I see certain “golden rules” being broken. I’m not expecting fighters to never make a mistake. I just like to talk about what happened with a gif to show it.
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 3:13 PM EST up reply actions
The problem with the stoppage is that Thiago did not pounce, if he had at least pounced then the stoppage would have been justified. But Thiago just stands there and does not do anything. The end result remains the same as far as I am concerned. Kos got tkoed, but to call it when a fighter just stands there is wrong. This ref certainly does not have any constancy, he was the ref for one of the prelim fights, I can not remember which one though, and the guy actually gets knocked out standing, and then goes down to deliver 5 or 6 unnecessary blows to the head. But I guess he saw something no one else did. All in all it was a great card.
He didn’t pounce because Koscheck was unconscious.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Feb 22, 2009 8:39 PM EST up reply actions
Damned if you do...Damned if you don't
A lot of people got up in arms over Rampage landing a few shots to the downed Wand after he KO’ed him saying that he should have pulled up and not thrown any punches as the guy was out when he hit him. Now here Thiago should have pounced and pounded on a guy who he knocked out…
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Feb 22, 2009 8:58 PM EST up reply actions
It’s easy: you go until the ref stops you. Rampage, however, got an extra one or two in.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 22, 2009 9:44 PM EST up reply actions
Pretty much. I didn’t mind the stoppage. Safety first and all that. I also wouldn’t have minded had the fight been allowed to continue, though.
Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken
by Richard Wade on Feb 23, 2009 3:04 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah, he looks very unconscious as he uses his hands to push himself up.
It was a flash KO, no doubt, but I don’t agree with stopping fights for flash KOs. It completely ignores the fact that some fighters can recover very quickly.
by Michaelthebox on Feb 22, 2009 9:23 PM EST up reply actions
“Uses his hands to push himself up” ? He was clearly NOT able to get up and he wasn’t even sound enough to switch to guard and protect himself from an attack . Basically Thiago could’ve just jumped on him and punch him into a nasty concussion just like Vitor did to Lindland .
BTW – u don’t always continue untill the ref stops you , it was clear that Vitor saw Matt was out and stopped even before the ref realized what was going on .
Great piece, Brent
I love the How Not to Punch series.
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