State of the art mixed martial arts was originally Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Then striking was added. Then wrestling was added.
At present, wrestling is the dominant influence in MMA – of the ten UFC champions, seven have a base in folkstyle wrestling. The wrestling is often only subtly obvious however, as it allows the wrestler to dictate when and where the striking takes place, leaving a contest that looks to the uninitiated like weird boxing.
However, a new wrinkle is working its way into the game – Neo Footwork. This new technique can be seen in a number of fighters, including T.J. Dillashaw, Dominick Cruz, and Conor McGregor.
At its most basic level, Neo Footwork means being able to strike effectively from anywhere, rather than trying to line everything up from the modified orthodox boxing stance that predominates in MMA. There are however a large and growing number of techniques and strategies to keep at an unorthodox distance, and reach unorthodox angles.
However, the dominant style of striking in MMA remains Dutch Kickboxing. Kyokushin competitors in Holland and Japan combined western boxing with karate, and then both fought with and borrowed from Thai boxers. Muay Thai is characterized by ferociously powerful kicks, knees, clinch work, elbows, and relatively little circling. By contrast Dutch Kickboxing shows far more boxing, far less clinching and elbows, more striking combinations often ending in a kick, and more footwork.
If you want to see textbook Dutch Kickboxing, check out Nova Uniao fighters, where the great Andre Pederneiras developed one of the great BJJ teams in history, and then went to Holland to learn Dutch Kickboxing. Other examples of superb Dutch kickboxing come out of the Blackzilian camp, where Dutchman Henri Hooft serves as head striking coach.
Before his last fight, Alistair Overeen faulted Stefan Struve for training his Dutch Kickboxing with Team Schrijber in his native Holland, and that specifically, it left him unable to fully use his reach.
I know he’s training on it,” said ‘Reem. “I know that he tries to, but the Dutch kickboxing in my opinion, respectfully, is outdated. It’s not used for MMA. I know because I am the K-1 2010 Grand Prix champion. MMA is just different.
Overeem, who now fights out of Jackson’s MMA, knocked out Struve. ‘Reem formerly trained with the Blackzilians, and Hooft, took pointed issue with the notion that Dutch Kickboxing was outdated.
If Alistair said that about Dutch kickboxing maybe he should have just stayed here and trained with me and not get knocked out every fight, you know?” said Hooft. “I mean he did everything by himself. He tried to change his style.
It’s like crazy. He comes here to America and he tries to do another style of fighting where he was very successful at, and he got knocked out and he got booed and everything, and now he blames it on our sport [that] its out-dated. No. I can tell you one thing; look at Tyron [Spong], look at [Gokhan] Saki, look at Nieky Holzken, look at kickboxers and look at my fighters. Look at Matt Mitorione, look at Anthony Johnson, look all the guys that we have, you know; Gilbert Durinho, Ryan Laflare. So many people are knocking and kicking people out.
“It’s – I don’t understand why people say that. I feel I always have respect for every kind of aspect in MMA. Everything. Muay Thai, Kickboxing; and we can all learn from each other, but I think Dutch style kickboxing is very good for MMA because we do everything in combinations. We don’t just kick or do something without thinking, we do everything in combinations. If you setup kicks with your hands it’s very difficult to take somebody down if you keep punching their face first. So, it is ‘outdated’? I mean Karate is one of the oldest sports in the world and it works. Jiu Jitsu is a very old sport and it works. The fighting sports are never outdated, it’s the fighter who is outdated or just changes up after a loss.
“That’s the funny thing I like about MMA though. They lose the fight and they change the whole camp, trainer, they want to change everything. They never look at themselves or what they’re doing wrong. A fight is a fight. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and if you lose to a guy who’s better than you, or born with more genetic structure and everything, you could do nothing about it. If you lose a fight because you’re stupid then it’s your fault.
“I mean I’m a trainer. I always say that. I’m a trainer but I don’t take all the credit. I’m just an extra pair of eyes. I make sure that you’re fit, that you can fight, and that I see stuff that you don’t see, but at the end of the day when the cage is closed or you go in the ring, you’re responsible for your own stuff. I’m already done. I’ve trained you for 8 weeks, or 12 weeks, or 3 years, or 10 years. Fighting you do yourself. So again, I think Alistair left our camp, he never really trained with us, never trained with me, I never wanted to train with him – and that was maybe his biggest mistake – and then he said Dutch kickboxing is outdated? I hope he said the same stuff when he’s in Holland and talks to all the kickboxers there because they’re all going to laugh in his face.
I know one thing; I’ve seen Alistair fight a couple of times – also in the beginning when he was kickboxing. He got knocked down and knocked out by normal people. It’s not about – he is big and he is strong and that’s his strongest point, and he has a good stand up, he was a K-1 champion. Okay, he was a K-1 champ when all the guys that were very good were all not there or were over, but he won the championship. And if you have that stuff; you have good punches, good kicks, and you’re not going to use it? You’re going to walk around, you’re going to get knocked out by Ben Rothwell or you get knocked down by Travis Brown. And I have a lot of respect for all these fighters because it’s MMA, but as a stand-up guy you make a fool out of yourself.
“Again, personally I have nothing against him because I have nothing with him, but as a fighter what he shows now – especially in the stand up and then he says it’s outdated – he just makes a fool out of himself. You know? I think when a guy like him is so strong, if he gives Ben Rothwell two hard low kicks – and he can do that because he did it – if he gives him two low kicks then the guy cannot walk anymore. But what he did, ‘no I cannot throw a low kick because maybe he’s going to take me down’. That means guys, if you have the best weapons in the world you’re not going to use it because the other guy has weapons like that?
“I’m not a trainer like that. I’m like this; I have my skills and they’re so good that I don’t care what you bring to the table. My skills will be better because I believe in myself, but he’s changing. Every fight he’s changing something, and not only him. A lot of fighters. They lose and they change everything. It’s not about that.
It’s Alistair. What are we talking about? He’s number 12 or what, he’s number 10 as a heavyweight. He was supposed to be champion two years ago already if he just did what he was good at.
Hooft also likes Anthony “Rumble” Johnson’s chances vs. Jon Jones
“The pressure that Anthony Johnson puts on you and then the knockout power, the sheer knockout power that he has is dangerous for everybody,” said his coach. “That’s why he has a good chance of winning and beating him and knocking him out, because of that power and because of that raw power. I think nobody else brought that and he’s so explosive. It’s not like Glover Teixeira. He had good hands but he’s very slow compared to Anthony and not explosive. Anthony has kicks, has punches, he’s very explosive, everything comes from weird angles and it’s so hard.”
I think I have a great part to do with it, also Glen Robinson his manager who also pushed him and our sparring partners and Rashad [Evans]. They always push him to the next level, but I wasn’t always there. AJ when he didn’t make the weight against Vitor Belfort, we were in the plane. It’s a funny story; we both we drank wine and we started drinking wine. We were so drunk and he made me a promise, ‘I love you. You’ll always stick by me, you always train me, we’re going to make it.’ I said ‘let’s go. We’ll go to the small shows. I don’t care, Titan, where we go, but we’re going to come back to the top and then we’re going to knock people out.’ And we’ve stuck to it. We’ve gone 9-0 after that and knocking people out. So he made me a promise and he never lets me down.
Hooft also discussed Vitor Belfort, who he also trains, and whether the TRT ban is going to effect him.
I mean I’m not a doctor. I don’t know about what he’s physique in the fight will be but he looks great,” said Hooft. “Maybe he looked a little bit stronger when he used the TRT or whatever he used. He looked a little bit stronger, but looking stronger and being stronger is a difference. It’s not about looking bigger and stronger. He is just amazingly physically strong. He was already when he was younger, you know? He was already strong. So he’s going to be okay, he’s going to be fine.
“He’s technically so good that he has so much experience – again, and compared to Chris Weidman Vitor Belfort is never gonna be small. He fought at heavyweight so he’s never going to small. At 37 your body’s changing a little bit, but again technically and powerful he’s one of the best in the world. He’s going to be the best and in his weight class he has a very good chance of beating Chris Weidman.
Hooft also said he made the suggestion to decline a fight with Lyoto Machida for the Interim title and wait instead for Chris Weidman to return.
I was in Sweden for that time for a week and I had to go to the Netherlands for a week to do my VISA stuff,” said Hooft. “So he was already feeling bad that I was leaving two weeks and then all this stuff happened. He skyped me and I said ‘just wait.’ I mean Vitor is not a young guy anymore. He doesn’t have so many chances to fight for the title anymore. Now he finally deserves it. Just wait for the guy. You’re supposed to fight for the title, not the interim title because that’s not the real title. Not that he’s scared or doesn’t want to fight other people. Don’t take that risk, you’re 37 years old. You have a chance to become legendary being another champion again after so many years. Why throw that away? Just wait for the guy who you’re supposed to fight, who has the title and then fight the guy. That’s it.
Hooft talked about another fighter he trains, founding member of the Blackzilians Rashad Evans.
First he needs to get healthy,” said Hooft. “He’s had a lot of bad luck. That’s kind of too bad
He’s doing his rehab. I think Rashad still has it, he’ll do what he was to do. He just needs to be focused and hopefully he gets out of this injury. If he gets out of his injury now, he still can be good at whatever weight class he’s going to fight. We’re going to see what when he has a fight. I mean if Anthony is in his weight [class] and he has to go to 185 and he wants to do that, he goes to 185.
Lastly Hooft discussed the one issue that no one in the sport can avoid a present, PEDs. Specifically, he was asked about upping the penalties from the present nine months to two years, or even four years.
Of course,” he said. “I mean I never took anything in my career as a fighter. I mean I saw stuff happening around me. When I was getting really tired in fights, other people were going, going, going, getting bigger, getting bigger. I mean I never thought it was good for the sport.
“But the other thing is, people want to see freak athlete people, people want to see stuff happening, people want to see people going on bicycles three weeks on the highest mountains without stopping, and people want to see everything, and stuff like this is just going to happen. That’s just the thing that’s always going to be there. I mean they’re going to be sanctioning people, they’re going to punish people, but it’s not the problem of the fighters who are doing this stuff alone.
“It’s also people who are demanding stuff from them, from athletes, and want to see magic, and that’s not going to happen without any help, with doctors who need something. You know? So it’s not only something against the fighters, it’s also against people who are demanding stuff and bigger, better, stronger, faster, you know?”
“I’m against all this stuff and I’m never involved with anything. If people ask me about Vitor, those people they have the wrong address. I’m just kickboxing, just a stand up trainer and I try to stay with my profession. I’m not going to mix up in other stuff, but I think it’s a good thing to punish people who are doing the wrong thing, but also they have to look to the people who are demanding such big things for athletes. Not only in our sport, in every sport.”
