Q/A: Boxing Striking for MMA.

Here's a great question I was asked about teaching boxing striking to an mma fighter and what it can add. Rampage starched Wanderlai with an awesome left hook on the money and Mir displayed improved hand striking in his win although he still needs to improve on it a lot more.

Bottom line modified boxing striking adds a lot to an mma fighter as you'll read in my response below. Look for me to blog more on how mma fighters are adding or need to add more in the future upcoming big fights.

Rob, I wanted to know what you thought about applying boxing to mma striking and where do you see it going in the future. A lot of mma guys throw haymakers and looping punches but seem to get away w/ it (Fedor, Wanderlei Silva, etc.). Some guys (Rampage, GSP, etc) have more of a traditional stance and better technique. Do you think as mma progresses, guys will start applying more head movement, combos, and counter punching as a professional boxer would? Thanks in advance Michael.


I work striking with mma fighters using modified techniques. I can add some footage very soon. I think when it's taught right it adds a lot to a fighter and I obviously see and get this feedback as well.

You can't turn an mma fighter into a boxer with a typical boxing stance. Teaching them how to maximize their punching leverage, turning their hips, shoulders, and wrists over goes a long way to increasing punching power.

Tools that the fighters I work with dig are the maize ball ( shown in a previous post ) and the double end bag. In fact many fighters have never used these great training tools. The maize ball goes along way into improving head movement as does the double end bag along with punching far more accurate, improving timing, speed, movement etc.

You saw what happened to Wanderlai as he got stretched because he was there to be hit. Same thing with Evans blasting Chuck out a few fights ago. They can be countered on easy . Head movement is a must and not worked on enough.

Yeah I do think that mma fighter will add more modified boxing techniques to their game. They'll alo learn to relax more so the punches flow faster, more accurate, tighter ( meaning not so wide ) and harder for longer. This takes time to master.

Those gloves are fucking small so it's either kill or be killed by punches. Meaning you can get a guy out fast when you master hands or a fighter will get stretched by someone who's good if they're an easy target who walks right into shots with no head movement.

One thing I do with the fighter I work with is that when they work on the heavy bag I'll get behind the bag and after a combo or mid combo I'll thrust forward with the bag like I'm shooting in on them so they can move out of the way and back in with knees or kicks. This keeps them very sharp and prevents them from getting lazy and in a lull.