How many times in an MMA fight have we seen one fighter rock another with a hard punch or kick and then not capitalize and finish the fight? For me it happens far more often than it should.  Most people will point to the reason for the rocked fighter not getting finished is a quick recovery time on his part, but in most cases I disagree. One of the key things that happens in MMA when one fighter rocks another is the fighter trying to finish the fight goes head hunting. When they do this one of three things generally happens:

1)    The rocked fighter will swing wildly like Wanderlei Silva
2)    They will shoot for a takedown
3)    They just cover their head up.

This can put the fighter trying to finish the fight in a precarious position where they can either be rocked or knocked out themselves or put on their back allowing their opponent to get his wits about him.  So what's the solution?

One of the most fundamental things in boxing is to go to the body.  Once you hurt a fighter, don’t head hunt, work the body. What this does is make the other fighter concentrate on different areas that you are attacking and not be able to just cover up.  Anybody that has taken a body shot that they didn’t see coming knows how much it can hurt and when you are already hurt this can lead to a fight ending.

Especially with MMA gloves, when a fighter just covers up to avoid getting punched in the face it leaves prime real estate for the other fighter to dig a hook, knee or kick into the liver. Now when a guy starts swinging wildly what going to the body does, is it puts your head below where his strikes are coming from, since he is most likely looking for a big head shot as well. This lessens the chance of you getting caught and increases the chances that you hurt your opponent.

Now, we have seen body work in MMA, but not nearly enough. Case in point, the famous Pete Sell vs Scott Smith fight. Sell hurt Smith badly with a liver shot and as Smith backed up Sell runs forward looking for the huge KO punch to the head and Smith KO’s Sell. Had Sell been little more cautious and looked to go back to the body, he most likely wins that fight. Or in the Liddell/Silva fight, at one point Chuck had Wanderlei up against the cage trying to tee off on Silva’s face all the while Silva’s body was there for the taking.

What I hope to see from MMA fighters that are going to boxing trainers like Freddie Roach would be for them to use body shots more throughout the fight to wear down and slow down their opponents and especially as a way to end a fight. My feeling on why this isn’t used as much as a way to finish is that fighters don’t think it is as spectacular as a KO coming from a punch to the head. While some fans may think this is true, there are others like me who find a fight that ended by a body shot to be just as satisfying.

One can hope that as MMA evolves and the fighters become more well rounded that this tactic is one of the things that will be used more often because if you want to see the effects of body punches I suggest watching De La Hoya/Hopkins, Ward/Sanchez, Arce/Rojas, Gatti/Dorin and many more because all these fights ended with a body shot.  The fighter that lost I bet would tell you how effective working the body is.

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