Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 1, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 (edited) Thats true also, i just aint a fan of the technique though, it deabilitates someone too quickly for my liking. The counter argument is obviously that people just need to learn to how to avoid getting hit with them and that's fair enough, but i dont think MMA is better off now everyone has started using them. Â Edited March 1, 2021 by Egg Shen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted March 1, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 2 minutes ago, Egg Shen said: Thats true also, i just aint a fan of the technique though, it deabilitates someone too quickly for my liking. The counter argument is obviously, people just need to learn to how to avoid getting hit with them and that's fair enough, but i dont think MMA is better off now everyone has started using them. Â It's all part of the evolution of the sport, though. When the UFC first started, strikers got smashed by submission grapplers, and the Gracies looked unbeatable. People eventually caught up to them by developing their wrestling and defensive grappling. I daresay leg-kicks will eventually see their day end when fighters start really developing styles to punish leg-kickers. This is something we see all across the board in competitive, tactical sports. In football, we've seen Total Football, Tiki-Taka, gegenpressing, etc. I can't comment in too much detail, but I'd imagine boxing has had something similar, with the Dempsey Roll and other techniques being obsoleted by improvements in movement training and sports science, and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 1, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 don't disagree with any of that, it's just a part of the evolution that im not enjoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 1, 2021 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 (edited) You can’t not allow something like calf kicks just because they’re too effective. It’s a perfectly valid and legal technique. And banning them because they work too well would not only be unfair on the fighters who are really good at them, it’d set a precedent and open up all sorts of silly talk about banning other techniques as well. I’d say there’d have been a better argument (slightly) for banning those push kicks to the knees just because it’s directly on the joints and could cause serious injury or even be a career ender in extreme cases. But even then, I’m not a fan of taking weapons out of MMA. It’s a huge part of what I love about the sport. The mix of styles and disciplines and how you can blend and marry them together. As Carbomb says, it is the evolution of the sport. There’ll always be leg kicks. They’ve been around on and off since Pedro Rizzo and Maurice Smith had success with them in the early days. The calf kick is just a newer spin on it that fighters are still adjusting to. It’s actually a technique that’s been around longer in MMA than many probably realise. Benson Henderson used to throw calf kicks fairly regularly a good decade ago. That’s from Bendo vs Diaz in 2012. Pretty sure he buckled Frankie Edgar with them a few times in their fights as well. It’s been massively underused until a few guys started having success with it in key fights over the last year or so. These things seem to come in phases. There was the period in the mid to late 90s where the gorilla wrestlers like Coleman and Kerr ruled. That phased out and then kind of resurfaced again a decade or so later in the Lesnar and Carwin era. There was also that period where everyone started using the front kick to the face after the Silva vs Belfort knockout. Now it’ll happen every once in a while but fighters know it’s a thing now and are more prepared to avoid it. Leg locks were all the rage for a while. Now you hardly see them at all. Jabs and body shots used to be almost unheard of in MMA, now they’re common. Right now we’re in the calf kick phase. It’s the new toy in the nursery. It’s not as fun to watch as when everyone started getting headkicked after Smith vs Coleman and Cro Cop’s rise but it’s part of the game. And when you watch how Volkanovski utilised it to beat Holloway the first time, it was a thing of beauty, in my opinion. A calf kick is just as valid as a sniper-like jab. But better really because it can instantly debilitate a fighter or make him/her have to alter their stance or their whole game plan in a more immediate way than even the most effective of jabs ever could. It’s become a more commonly used weapon recently but it’s not like every fight is being decided by calf kicks to the point it’s ruining anything. I’ve waffled. In short, I’m fine with it. And again, especially because calf kicks paved the way for this... Edited March 1, 2021 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted March 1, 2021 Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 I dont ever expect them to outlaw the kick, there probably isnt even that many people complaining it. I just dont like it. Nobody can tell me MMA fights were worse off before every fucker started kicking each other in the calf. Nothing will change my mind 😄 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted March 1, 2021 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 1, 2021 I’m not saying fights were better or worse before. It’s just the way things are at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zebra Kid Mark Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 I'm with Egg Shen here, I don't enjoy them and I'd like them to be outlawed, but like Egg Shen said, we both know this well never happen. We just have to get on with. It's crazy that Bendo was using them in 2012 and they have only now caught on. I have a feeling we will be talking about the push kick to the knees in a few years to come as well. The show wasn't the best but it was still enjoyable, I loved seeing the  DWCS S4 alum getting the job done, Ronny Lawrence looked awesome. His post fight interview was pretty much word for word the same as his one on DWCS, just very critical despite an incredible performance. At the beginning of the year when we saw the following main events lined up, Rozenstruik vs Gane Lewis vs Blaydes Overeem vs Volkov I certainly didn't expect Saturday's fight to be the dud of the 3. I'd love Gane to fight Volkov next and Lewis to fight whoever, in an ideal world he fights Greg Hardy and gives him the exact same beating he gave Blaydes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted March 1, 2021 Share Posted March 1, 2021 Calf kicks are ace. I remember in PROID, Cro Cop kicking the fuck out of someone’s leg so much he couldn’t stand and quit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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