The Oblique kick is currently the most controversial move in mixed martial arts. Here Angel Huerta lands one on former WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres, in a kickboxing match. Linear strikes to the knee are prohibited under Glory rules, but in MMA the kick is allowed.
Ben Rothwell pointedly complained about Alistair Overeem’s oblique kicks to the knee after the pair fought at UFC Fight Night 50.
“He was doing some real dirty push kicks to my knee, and it’s just a dirty move,” said Rothwell. “It’s not honorable in my mind because this isn’t street fighting. Like street fighting, if you’re fighting in the street, I’m undefeated. And I will remain so, and if I’m not, it means I’m dead. If you want to fight like that, then I’m going to start. I’m gonna rip his eyes out, I’m gonna pull his jugular out with my teeth, and I’m gonna break things on him. I’m gonna start snapping fingers and it’ll be a lot worse on him. And throwing push kicks at the knee joint is kinda like, to me it’s the same dirty message.”
However, Overeem is a member of Jackson/Winkeljohn MMA. Coach Mike Winkeljohn held world titles in Muay Thai and kickboxing, but is and a 5th degree black belt in Kenpo karate, a self-defense oriented system that he learned under Bill Packer. Kenpo employs many kicks to the knee, including the Oblique Kick, and Jackson/Winkeljohn fighters including former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones have used them in fights, sometimes to bitter complaints.
Below Jones demonstrates the attack.
The issue with oblique kicks is not so much that they are dirty, as that they are new. Submissions in professional MMA are not applied to get a tap as they are by rule in grappling and BJJ, they are applied to break the joint. There is nothing inherently different between try to injure a joint with a submission hold, and trying to injure it with a kick.
MMA is a hurting game and Jackson and WInkeljohn are brilliant coaches. What Overeem did was very much within the rules, and acceptable. Whether oblique kicks are high percentage attacks is another question. One of Overeem’s conventional kicks landed so hard it caused severe swelling and nerve damage to Rothwell’s blocking arm, leading him to believe it was broken. So perhaps ‘Reem should have been low, middle, and high kicking more. Or perhaps Rothwell blocked the kick wrong as he was worried about the awkward oblique kicks.
The great thing about mixed martial arts is that time will tell. More fighters will follow Winkeljohn’s lead and use the oblique kick. In time, its effectiveness will be determined, and it will be regarded as no less dirty than hitting a man when he is down.
