Bloody Elbow Judo Chop: Wrestlers and the High Kick with Matt Hamill and Rashad Evans
by Kid Nate on Mar 10, 2009 10:00 AM EDT
in MMA Technique
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Matt Hamill's high kick knock out of Mark Munoz at UFC 96, caught most everyone by surprise, no one more so than Mark Munoz.
Hamill had shown some decent punching power in previous fights, but this was the first time he'd shown such devastating kicks.
The highkick knock out has a pretty storied history in MMA, going back to Maurice Smith's shocking wins over Marcus "Conan" Silveira and Mark Coleman. I've discussed Mo Smith's glory run in my mma history series here and here. The shocking part about Maurice Smith winning fights with high kicks wasn't that Smith, a former world kickboxing champion, could throw a vicious high kick, it was that at the time few believed that high kicks were of any use in MMA at all.
The theory was that grapplers like Silveira and Coleman would simply use the kick as an opportunity to score a takedown and win the fight on the ground. Smith proved that if a kickboxer learned enough jiu jitsu to defend himself on the ground, he could employ high kicks to devastating effect later in the fight against tired opponents.
Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic was the second champion caliber kickboxer to excel at MMA although he never won a top title. Mirko worked his sprawl more than Smith but also had enough jiu jitsu to stall an opponent from his back and get the standup. Mirko was notable also for being a southpaw and his left high kick became universally feared.
Thirteen years later, the shocking part about Matt Hamill winning via spectacular head kick is that he's a guy who came into MMA with a purely wrestling background. It shouldn't really be that shocking anymore, not after wrestler Rashad Evans KTFO'd Sean Salmon back at UFN 8 in 2007. (Gif of that in the full entry.)
The key to both KO's was the way the opponent was lured into leaning forward into the power of the kick. Presumably Munoz, like Sean Salmon before him, or like Mark Coleman all the way back at UFC 17 against Pete Williams, thought Hamill was about to fire off a leg kick and leaned down to block the kick. Big mistake.
The other thing to note is that the impact of the kick is delivered with the shin bone, not the foot. Some martial arts -- mainly Tae Kwon Do -- teach to kick with the foot, but Muay Thai -- the main kicking style taught in MMA -- insists on using the shin for maximum impact.
Lastly, note that Hamill throws the kick with his rear leg. This makes it a power kick as opposed to one thrown with the lead leg -- the kicking equivalent of a lead hand hook.
Of course, Hamill would never have been able to land this kick if he hadn't already established an effective sprawl that foiled Munoz when he tried to shoot in for double and single leg takedowns. By the time Hamill went for the kill, Munoz was already flustered, frustrated and fearful of Hamill's punching.
We'll never really know whether Munoz or Hamill is a better wrestler, but we do know that this saturday, the more complete MMA fighter won the fight.
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Another excellent installment
I’d say best one yet, but I feel like I say that with each new one, so: Choi’d.
"It's like a flying knuckle sandwich." --Rogan
"And many men have eaten it." -- Goldy
great article.
I’ve always found the kick KOs are always the most exciting.
- the opponent isn’t usually expecting them
- the end result is usually devastating
- often the kicker is as surprised as the kickee
- many times it’s something that wasn’t expected
- a lot of movement and momentum makes the action exciting
- the added momentum when used by someone who is comfortable with striking leads to further exciting moves (kick to spinning back fist, etc)
- risk vs reward, to me the kick is very risky leaving yourself open to an easier take-down
I haven't had time to read it yet (at work)
but I’d just like to throw in a nod for the Munoz self-inflicted knee to the chin…ouch, insult on top of injury there.
Mwahahahaha
I loved this fight, Great Entry!
Might I also add that my brother and I were also back and forth on who was the better wrestler. My argument was that this isn’t wrestling, it’s mma, so i had $5 that said Munoz didnt take Hamill down a single time.
Both guys have their hands way down in those gif’s
all you gotta do is...
The really ironic part is...
Hamill’s standup in his past two fights looked really off compared to past performances, and many people have seemed to overlook this. I remember vividly getting pissed because he was telegraphing his punches in the Franklin fight and he stood akwardly as well. He could hit hard, but the lack of combinations and technique was mind numbing…
Needless to say, I was worried he’d be the same way in this fight, and I took a gamble going for Munoz.
Matt Hamill made me eat my words…hard. lol
by Kaleb Kelchner on Mar 10, 2009 10:46 AM EDT reply actions
If Hamill ever fights a decent striker he is going to be in tremendous trouble with his lack of defense and slow sluggish stand up.
I have been amazed at how bad his standup has looked this fight included. Yeah, he pulled out a leg kick KO but Munoz looked unbelievably bad that night. Any decent striker is going to KO Hamill or destroy a few of his brain cells through 3 rounds.
When I started reading this I immediately thought back to that Evans KO. Excellent comparison point. Hopefully Matt can continue evolving and improving his game like Rashad has.
http://dcrage.wordpress.com
Josh Koscheck's kick to beat Dustin Hazelett
is also a notable comparison.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Like you said Nate, looks like both Munoz and Salmon were thinking about a body kick and brought their elbow down to check it and the high kick came right over the top of the defense to the completely unprotected head. Pretty scary when guys that big are flexible enough to throw a quick and powerful high kick.
"Japan is half-Machida" - iiowyn
The Hamill-Munoz gif doesn’t show it, but it looked to me like Hamill didn’t exactly jump in after Munoz with all guns blazing. I guess he knew it was over and made kinda token effort at going after the fallen man.
Like I said, guess he knew.
by Monday Morning Martial Artist on Mar 10, 2009 12:44 PM EDT reply actions
Munoz's head bounces off of his own knee on the way down
I think even the guy at the hotdog stand knew the fight was over.
Man that drives me nuts seeing Rashad pound Salmons face with two HUGE right hands after he is very clearly out cold. I understand its not his responsibility to stop the fight, but that was just ridiculous.
there had been
a lot of Michigan St vs Ohio St smack talk before that fight.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Seriously, me too
The second wasn’t huge though, it got interrupted by the ref, but that first punch had all Rashad’s power in it, and the guy was clearly crumpled over and already out. Good thing the ref was mostly on top of it, wouldn’t be unusual for him to have gotten 2 more solid blows.
literally 20 seconds before this happened, i turned to my girlfriend and said, “see how low his hands are? he should throw a high kick.”
- BOOM!
credit to Hamill for taking what the clearly overmatched and “fed to the wolves” Munoz gave him
Gatti.
Dekkers.
Pele.
Tadahiro Nomura.
Hidehiko Yoshida.
Aoki.
Kang.
Vanderlei.
by theworldsoldestsport on Mar 10, 2009 2:37 PM EDT reply actions
So is the high kick the new offensive weapon for wrestlers? The last couple of head kicks that have gotten people KTFO are all from wrestlers. Rashad, Anthony Johnson, now Matt Hamill. Also, Kos threw a good kick vs Dustin. Is this just a fluke, or does anyone see the same trend?
Is it just because they don’t have to be worry about being taken down after they throw it or is it because people don’t expect a high kick from a wrestler?
yes
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Dustin and Burns are both Jits guys, but that is an interesting point. I guess my take on it will be proven at UFC 100.
Lesnar via kicking off Mir’s head, Round 1.
I don’t think that Burns’ specialty is BJJ, as he is only a blue belt if I remember correctly.
"I see him beating Anderson Silva. I see him picking him apart. Him at a 131 years old...(trails off)." - Tito on Belfort at Affliction:DOR
by Rundownloser on Mar 10, 2009 5:00 PM EDT up reply actions
its not a belt you can defend
so I didn’t consider it a major title — its a tournament prize, not a linear championship.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
So do you consider Frank Mir a major title holder because he snagged that trinket they call the “Interim” Championship?
I don't believe I mentioned Mir
I was comparing Mirko to Maurice Smith who won the Extreme Fighting and UFC heavyweight belts with headkicks.
"the spirit of your average dumbass with more overblown rhetoric" OR "the self-appointed savior of MMA"
Aww, that's no fun, Nate.
You’ve gotta take the bait when smoogy sets the hook, otherwise smoogy gets to have no fun :(
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
[First time] Hamill...shown such devastating kicks.
Kick‘s’? He’s only shown one, but it was certainly devastating!
Sorry Kid Nate couldn’t pass it up since you set it up so well. Good article.
PS. What’s a Judo Chop?
From Previous Judo Chops:
About the name of this feature: I chose Judo Chop because it’s an utter misnomer that is sometimes used by poorly informed MMA commentators during fights. It’s also from the Austin Powers movie. I chose it because it reflects my own lack of expertise and what this column is: my stumbling along in the dark trying to get a handle on the technical aspects of the fights. The techniques featured here will sometimes involve judo but not always. Sorry if that’s confusing.
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 Mar 10, 2009 9:04 PM EDT up reply actions
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