What Makes a Successful MMA Fighter?

The Five Essential Ingredients of a Successful MMA Fighter

In MMA, just because you’re a master of striking doesn’t mean that you can’t get taken down and submitted. Likewise, just because you’re good at submissions doesn’t mean that you can’t get knocked out. To be a good, successful MMA fighter, you need to keep yourself well-rounded. Let’s take a look at the five essential MMA strategies to keep in mind on your road to success as a fighter.

MMA Ingredient #1: Stand Up

These include strikes of all kinds – kicks, punches, knee strikes, elbow strikes, and head-butts. To become a great fighter, you need to become versatile in all of them. When practicing, be sure that you are working on your offensive strikes (which include jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, and front kicks) as well as your defensive techniques (which include parries, bobs, and weaves).

MMA Ingredient #2: Clinch

The clinch is sort of a grey zone between striking and grappling. But it still needs to be mastered. There are dozens of different clinch combinations, but they all boil down to the same basic principles of controlling the head and either striking with elbows or knees or going for a
takedown. Muay Thai clinches are quite popular, and will allow you to have full control over your opponent as you land devastating knees and elbows.

MMA Ingredient #3: Takedowns

Start practicing MMA strategies that help you become good at takedowns. Takedowns are what will ultimately allow you to get your opponent on the ground. If you can’t take an opponent down then it doesn’t matter how efficient you are as a grappler because you won’t be able to use those set of techniques. On the same token, it is important that you practice your takedown defenses, which include sprawling, pushing the head down, and creating space with your hands.

MMA Ingredient #4: Submissions

A large portion of MMA fights are finished via submission. Even if you aren’t the best grappler, you should become proficient in moves like the triangle choke, arm bar, rear-naked choke, heel hook, ankle lock, and Kimora. MMA strategies suggest that you practice these moves daily, preferably against a stronger grappler. This will dramatically increase your submission game and help you tap out bigger and stronger opponents.

Portland MMA Technique: Clinch Control with Straight Arm Elbow Push

MMA Ingredient #5: Transitioning Between Moves, Positions, and Combinations

All great successful MMA fighters are excellent at transitioning from move to move and from position to position. Whether it be from the side position, guard, clinch, or the standup, you always need to have a series of moves ready to use at your disposal. If something doesn’t work, you should be ready to immediately transition to something else. Developing this intuition takes time, and requires years of train to fully master.