Strike Thought

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Inspire Technique

 

Important Notice, visit my new website for updated and new content. This site won’t be maintained. 

My new website: https://strikethoughts.com/ 

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my blog where I bring you in-depth concepts and breakdowns of technical MMA skills with a primary focus on stand up. With my combat experience and eye for detail, I do my best to bring you thorough breakdowns with an emphasis on strategy and technique. I’ve received lots of great feedback from various MMA communities and channels where fighters and fans have enjoyed my content, so I hope you enjoy it too.

If you’re interested in expanding your knowledge about striking or just learning about your favorite fighter’s signature habits or various unique fighting styles, this place is for you.

“Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”

– Bruce Lee

Also check out my youtube channel to get a look at what I discovered about a fighter’s growth, their habits and interesting insights. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2417MBGZ1-cUp6itHs-N3Q 

 Technique Breakdowns

Full Fight Analysis

Technique breakdowns

 

 

If you enjoy my analysis work/writing, feel free to leave a donation. Any contribution is very much appreciated. 

Analysis Work

TOP 5 SIGNATURE TACTICS OF TJ DILLASHAW (HIGH-LEVEL FOOTWORK SECRETS EXPLAINED)
DOMINICK CRUZ: CRITICAL ADJUSTMENTS TO HIS WILD FIGHTING STYLE! TACTICS & BREAKDOWN VS. CASEY KENNEY

More analysis on the next page…or browse the direct links below

46 thoughts on “Strike Thought”

  1. Was just sent here by a friend, beautiful work! Really enjoyed it, do you have a Facebook group or account posting this? I don’t have twitter

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    1. For sure. I appreciate his skills. I have notes accumulated over the course of several of his fights to show some of his signature habits. Just haven’t found the right timing to write about it yet.

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  3. can’t wait for dominick/urijah article…
    You should do a Rory Mcdonald/Stephen Thompson too 😉

    Keep up the good work, love what u do!

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  4. Great work man I discovered your posts looking for Dominick Cruz and TJ Dillashaw’s footwork , can never get enough of that

    Could you please do the following :
    Giorgio Petroysan: (I usualy fight in a stance oppisite to my oppenent so I try to study Giorgio

    Nieky Holzken: i like liver shots and the guy is good , his set ups would be appreciated , finding ways to set up the liver kick , that would really help ,

    Mighty Mouse : If you feel he can add to your readers as much as Cruz or Dillashaw , the guy is good but how good is his footwork

    Last thing if my lead foot is outside my oppenents

    Is it wise to jab , i feel weird doing it , as i have to twist towards them then jab

    But if i place my lead foot in the jab feels natural , but when i wanna follow up with a cross do I throw it with my lead foot on the inside of my oppent’s lead

    Or do I simply drag my foot across there lead foot so i get the dominant angle then throw the cross

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    1. thanks for your comment. What you’re describing is a bit hard to picture, but as a general practice, it’s good to step outside of the opponent’s lead foot when you’re a southpaw fighting an orthodox fighter. If you use proper footwork, your body should be aligned to fire the cross right from the stance. See these examples below:

      Example

      Notice as Petrosyan steps outside the lead foot to jab, his rear foot slides over to adjust his hips where he’s aligned to fire the cross. His lead foot remains outside the opponent’s lead foot. You just have to adjust the back leg in order to align your linear strikes.

      Example

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  8. Hi, I know i already asked you for Doo Ho Choi but I honestly hope you will make McGregor vs Alvarez breakdown, i know Conor was again doing something suspicious with his timing but i Dont understand what, i watched closely for THE examples of his Hand fighting a manipulation of rhytm, but i didnt spot it, it was something different, please i hope you will in the future find some time to explain.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback my friend. I appreciate the comment and made sure to cover your request about Conor’s left hand in my recent breakdown of that fight.

      As for Doo Ho Choi, I’m still debating about finishing this piece. We’ll see how he does against his next opponent.

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  10. I have to say is good work and keep it up. It would be cool if Lawerence Kenshin and you paired up to do a strike analysis. You both seem highly skilled in analyzing the stand up game.

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  11. Thanks all my wishes came true. I know you have a lot of work with the articles you plan to release. However i have been repeatedly watching your Dos Santos breakdown and later watched Mcgregor fight with Dustin Poire. Tell me do you see what I do? Dos Santos kill the rhytm of Rothwell with feinting the jab and then exploiding the defensive pattern with cross, lead hook or real jab and i just watched the highlight of Mcgregor vs Poirer and i find his strategy the same as Dos Santos´s or am I wrong and he did difefrent things? And one more question…when you intend to follow the jab with cross is it better to use flicker jab or throw hard jab? Because I watched some Tommy Hearns and he had an amazing right hand so do you think that for sake of the momentum of the right hand it is better to use a flicker jab, because Mcgregor mostly flicks the jab as well and knocks quys with his left. Really appreciate your reply and admire your work.

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    1. It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed Dustin vs. Conor fight, I think they could be similar.
      As for using a flick jab or hard jab, either should work fine. I don’t think either are wrong answers. The most important tool to use is the one that lets you get the job done, and that can easily be either jab styles, as long as it can disrupt their rhythm. As far as generating momentum, the cross generates momentum independently from the jab, which is why you see Conor able to generate lots of power despite using a flick jab. So either styles won’t necessarily affect the cross.

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  12. Hey Buddy Loved your Connor Mcgregor vs Eddie alvarez Left hand articles

    If you could do something on The Traditional Martial Artists more like comparing Lyoto Machida , Stephen Wonderboy Thompson , Micheal Venom Page , and Yair Al-Pantera Rodriquez

    I saw your write ups on Wonderboy nothing to make your mind open up like these articles on Dynamic Strikers

    p.s Georgio since he isn’t active as of late maybe that could make you compile a good write up ?

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  13. Hi i have got a question, I have just watched Mcgregor vs Max Holloway and his tricks when he gets him to hand reaching and then breaks it with jab through the guard or hook around the guard and i couldn´t see very well if he while using his hand fighting tricks always tries to estabilish his lead foot dominance or if again fighter with almost same reach it is better not to. Thanks if you could explain to me his lead foot dominance.

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    1. Max generally moves laterally when going on the offensive, even after hand fighting. He naturally moves outside the lead foot as a result. Using lateral movement is a common principle fighters follow when going on the offensive against fighters of any size. It allows you to bypass strikes doing your centerline.

      I have more examples showing his footwork to demonstrate his movement outside the lead foot against fighters like Pettis and Lamas.

      Example: Max moving outside the lead foot

      I’m going to try to get around covering his fight against Pettis then move to do a piece about Max vs Aldo, their footwork and how they match up.

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  14. yeah and another question while simply hand reaching is it always important to try to get your lead hand into the top dominant position even if i don´t want to imediately parry it down. Thanks for your answers

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    1. You don’t have to necessarily get top hand control when hand fighting. Some fighters will simple hand-reach just to measure and/or bait out their opponent’s hand. It’s sometimes used as a way to control where they want the hand to be. You’ll notice that some fighters don’t even touch the opponent’s hand.

      Be careful of getting the opponent getting the top hand control. You’re usually left to surrender your reach because you’re left having to reset by retracting the hand. You could reset by moving back out of range, but if you’re pinned close to the cage, you won’t be able to re-position and will be stuck in striking range. There’s an example of it in my piece on McGregor vs Alvarez.

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  15. Thanks i really appreciate that, another question while breaking the hand reaching with jab throught the guard or lead hook around in southpaw vs orthodox is it always important to estabilish lead foot dominance or when i break the hand reaching it doesn´t matter where my lead foot is? It kinda confuses me. Thanks for your advices.

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    1. The best answer I can give you is that fighting is an art. You can take whatever creative direction you wish to take. If you can create the rhythm and produce the scenario for opening up chances to land your shot, you can do whatever you like. Just be aware of the benefits you acquire from good positioning.

      If you know you can breach through the hand reaching to connect your shot without getting the lead foot dominance, than go for it. I personally like to keep my movement lateral and take the lead foot dominance. If for some reason they happen to attempt a simultaneous counter while you breach through, that dominant positioning will be your first line of defense in case things go wrong. As you move outside their lead leg, it makes it harder for their counter to connect.

      I don’t want to say you always have to move that direction because it’s possible to move into the inside angle as well if you know how to manipulate the range and have solid technique. Moving to the outside angle is generally a good tactic.

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  16. Hi, just found your work and learning a lot so thank you for your knowledge. Also, may I ask what your thoughts on mighty mouse are?

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      1. Do you think there’s anything in particular that makes his striking unique, or is it only just his well founded understanding striking that makes him successful? And also what do you mean his approach has changed? Growth in striking and iq is evident but I’m not sure I quite see your point of a changed approach. Thank you for replying!

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      2. His striking use to resemble an approach similar to Dominick Cruz. He was small for bantamweight and had to rely on his technical ability to do damage and escape it. Now he’s in an appropriate division where he doesn’t have to worry about being undersized. He’s more willing to take the fight everywhere and do more work on the inside now that he’s less likely to be at a physical disadvantage.

        What makes him so good is his versatility. He change change rhythm so frantically on opponents and adapt according because of it.

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  17. Do You like to fight in an Orthodox or Southpaw stance more

    I usually fight in a stance opposite of my opponent no matter what he picks ?

    I am just sold more on the benefits even though I can and do switch mid fight

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  18. I did that because I noticed most great or interesting strikers were Southpaws , I researched it a little and joined the Bandwagon as it seems smarter to me

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  19. Hi, I wanted to ask you a question. Do you always have to step slightly to your left side with your jab or is just stepping forward all that´s neccessary and when throwing one-two combination is it best to slightly step to side with your jab for the following cross to take an angle or it just doesn´t matter?

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    1. In the grand scheme of things, what matters most is how you execute your jab. You can move any direction, but keep in mind, the key lies in how you manipulate your opponent’s perception of where you will be. You can make them believe you’ll be one way but move with your jab the other way. So you can move either left or right.

      Stepping slightly at an angle helps because you move your head laterally from the centerline in case the opponent tries to throw a straight counter. You could also easily move forward with a slipping jab instead to move away from the centerline.

      you can throw your one-two however you like as long as you keep in mind to make sure your targets are out of the opponent’s aim in case they try to time a counter. Using angles, head movement, and footwork will help achieve that.

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  20. This is one of the best site to learn about the strategies and techniques of the fastest evolving sport. I would like to see an analysis of GOAT JON JONES striking game. And your ability to explain what you have understood is second to none. You are a great teacher… Thanks…

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  22. Looking forward to that. What about Stipe vs Ngannou or Lemieux vs Billy joe saunders? Anyway everything from you is appreciated.

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  23. Hey Strike Thought,
    Your articles are enlightening. I particularly enjoy the articles about Adesanya and hopes he fights Yoel next. Out of curiosity, are you concerned about the UFC policing the internet and shutting down sites that supposedly “infringes” on their copyright? I know some youtubers have had issues with them, although I am not totally familiar with the law.
    Anyways, I look forward to your next article.

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    1. Thanks for the comment. I try my best to closely follow WordPress’ guidlines for fair use.
      https://en.support.wordpress.com/fair-use/

      Under these parameters, WordPress should see no reason as to why my content would violate their fair use guidlines. With that said, wordpress has been known to also file lawsuits against fradulent DMCA notices. So I expect WordPress to be far more supportive than sites like youtube in the event someone attempts to file a report. I would like to convert my articles into videos on youtube, but I don’t trust youtube’s politics about supporting content creators in this aspect.

      At the end of the day, I’m gaining no monetary incentive from this at all. It’s a lot of hard work, time and dedication to bring meaningful content to fans and to help build appreciation for fighters.

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  24. I love your breakdowns And I know you are busy and from what i have seen you post truly meaningful content so i believe it takes a lot of time to do. However Christmas is coming and i would truly appreciate if you could do analysis on Max Holloway and Tony Ferguson both have such a high pace and it is killing threir opponents so if You could do that i would be very gratefull. Beggars can’t be chooser they say, but still.

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    1. I appreciate your comment! I’ve been working on Max Holloway vs. Ortega since then. I’m not sure when i’ll have the time to finish it, but in its current progress, I have the fight studied and my notes for the fight done but I haven’t begun the writing and editing part yet. There’s a lot of interesting things to share about his signature moves from this fight.

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