In the wake of Aljamain Sterling’s decisive loss at the hands of Sean O’Malley, it took me back to a time when kickboxers were first starting to transition into MMA. We’re talking about the age of Semmy Schillt, Stefan Leko, Mark Hunt and Mirko Filipovich. I’ve been watching and following MMA for about 20 years now and in that time, there’s one lesson that I’ve learned and that much like human history, the sport is cyclical. Trends rise and fall only to spring up again in a slightly altered avatar. In the early to mid-2000s, K1 stars looked at MMA as a viable career switch from strict kickboxing. Hell, even Badr Hari tried his hand at it, but of course, without the requisite ground skills, he fell victim to a basic, day-one forearm choke courtesy of Edmunds Kirsis. A lot of these guys were taken down and smashed. In many ways, the striking arts were looked at as a means to an end. A way to try to close the distance and use superior ground skills to win the fight. Grapplers were dominating MMA at the time and even the few strikers who were considered very good in MMA did not have the crisp technical striking that guys like Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost possessed, Instead, we got wild brawlers like Wanderleri Silva and Mauricio Shogun Rua who possessed a ton of ton but didn’t have the finesse to compete at the highest level of kickboxing.
From K1 to MMA
From this move, we only really managed to get two kickboxers who adapted to MMA. Mirko Cropcop and Mark Hunt. And, it wasn’t easy for either of them. The Croatian kickboxer was already a K1 vet who was highly regarded for his patient and powerful style but he could never win the coveted K1 Grad Prix. After a victory over the inhuman Bob Sapp, Mirko moved into MMA full-time and began competing in PRIDE and almost won the Heavyweight title in an all-time classic against Fedor Emilianenko and although he didn’t get it done that day. Mirko would move on to the UFC and have a mixed record there.
Mark, on the other hand, had a rough go of it at first. He dropped his first fight via brutal armbar against the judoka Hidehiko Yoshida but rattled off a few wins in the organisation before being submitted 5 times and knocked out cold once in his next six fights. He eventually clawed his way back and even fought for an interim UFC title but did not reach the top of the mountain.
Which brings me back to the modern age of MMA. From just a cursory glance, we can see that out of the 8 weight classes in the UFC, kickboxers hold 5 titles. We’ve got Sean at bantamweight, Volk at featherweight, Leon at welterweight, Izzy at Light heavyweight and Jamahal Hill at Light heavyweight. Out of the 5 champs, they’ve got a combined submission record of 7! Volk and Leon both have 3 submission victories on their record with O’Malley adding one to that tally. Out of the 5, only Leon has a submission victory in the UFC and that came against an excellent striker in Albert Tumenov. It’s clear that even though both Volk and Leon are well-rounded fighters, they place an emphasis on striking, i.e kickboxing. Preferring to bang it out on their feet and only take it to the ground when they feel that striking could be a risky proposition against guys who are just as good as they are on the feet. It also goes without saying that all these guys are very good defensively as far as submission defence goes with only Jamahal Hill losing by armbar. And it’s not like these guys haven’t fought elite opposition either.
Back in the day, jiu-jitsu black belts and elite wrestlers were feared in MMA and rightly so. These dudes crushed the opposition and laid claim to major championships along the way. Guys like Coleman, Tito Ortiz, Dan Severn, shit, even GSP became a dominant grappler as his career progressed. We obviously can’t forget the contributions of Anderson Silva when it comes to MMA striking as he was the blueprint for the modern kickboxer but when he was ruling over middleweight, pretty much every other division was dominated by grapplers. It was only when guys like Jose Aldo, Max Holloway, Stephen Thompson and I hate to admit it, but Conor McGregor burst onto the scene that we started seeing crisp, technical striking taking over. The ear of the wrestle-boxer would come to an end with the brutal KO of Kamaru Usman at the end of Leon Edwards in a moment that is forever etched in the history of MMA.
The new era
In terms of contenders, the only one I really see as being a wrestle/boxer is Ilia Touporia. And even his striking is levels above the archetypal style. To add to that, the next contender for the light heavyweight title could just be Alex Pereira, another high-level kickboxer!
Guys these days have a much better understanding of distance management, striking from angles, feinting, cage positioning as well as the requisite ground skills required to compete at the highest levels of MMA. Just the act of wall-walking is such an evolution of the game. Again, this wasn’t the case about a decade ago. Just look at the first few seasons of The Ultimate Fighter. Guys were basically just taken down and strangled. They did not understand the techniques that are commonplace today. The correct strategy, back in the day, was to put your opponent against the cage and take him down there. It was seen as the best place for a top-heavy grappler to rain down ground and pound, but today, we’re seeing fighters move their opponents away from the cage so as to not allow them to use it to get back to their feet.
What’s Next?
Who knows what the next cycle of the sport will bring? Maybe guys like Khamzat and Bo Nickal are the new breed of boxer-wrestler archetype but in my opinion, we’re going to be seeing more guys with striking as their primary skillset rise to the top of the sport.
Again, this might just be a moot point as all these guys could lose their next fights to grapplers but the point still stands that MMA is a cycle and right now, we’re seeing the end result of guys like Mirko Cropcop and Mark Hunt.
