WHAT ANIMALS MAY THINK ABOUT MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
Do you know that one of the best formulas for victory in fights may be learnt from wildlife?
One afternoon in 1988 or 1989, just after school hours, I witnessed a fight between two boys in Federal Government College Ogbomoso, Oyo State of Nigeria. One of the boys was a regular chap. His name is Ose (of course, not his real name). He was born and bred in the ancient Kingdom of Benin, in Western Nigeria, easy-going and rarely got in any trouble. The type you would call a good boy. While many parents desired such attributes in their children, being a good boy in boarding school sometimes made one an easy target for bullies. Ose was very skinny but taller than the average boy of his age (12/13 years at the time) and class but that did not stop the bullies.
Anyway, on that day, he decided to stand up to one of the bullies and a fight ensued. The bully, named Chukwudi (another alias), was stocky and of average height. He was feared amongst his classmates because of his muscular build and strength.
Ose, took an orthodox boxing position and just kept swinging his long, skinny arms wildly, while maintaining a safe distance from Chukwudi, who seemed more measured and tactical with his punching. Each landed blows on the other with Chukwudi having a clear edge. However, as the fight wore on, Chukwudi started getting tired and getting hit more. Next thing, he hit the floor! “Oluwa o” Ose had beaten Chukwudi… Unbelievable!
Fast forward to 2010/2011, when I discovered MMA through a good friend, Seyi Jeje (IG: @olukulata), and saw what skinny, 6ft 2” Anderson Silva, the Brazilian Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu Black Belter, did to all the middleweight fighters whom were stronger, bigger, stockier and equally had black belts in various martial arts!
He won 16 consecutive fights and there was almost no one left to challenge him for his title. He made me remember Oseremen and that was when I understood why he knocked out Chukwudi that day in 1988/1989, despite his lack of grace in fighting. It was mainly because of one of what I have christened the four Ss of fighting i.e. Stamina.
You see, when muscles are in use such as when fighting, they demand a rapid supply of oxygen from the blood to function effectively. With bigger muscles and the same volume of oxygen, the supply could become inadequate, cause lactic acid build-up & result in fatigue. This often gets worse with age.
The other three Ss are Strength, Speed and Sense (as Nigerians like to call it; basically a mix of Intelligence & Strategy). In my assessment, the best fighters are those who possess the right mix of these four.
Let’s examine Israel Adesanya (aka The Last Styleblender, aka “Aya bi ekun”) the charismatic, Yoruba-Nigerian middleweight champion of the Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC).
He is 6ft 4in (1.93m) of very lean muscle that tips the scale at 83.4kg — 83.6kg (183.5–184 lbs) per fight. The middleweight limit is 84.5kg (186lbs). He is a relatively skinny dude. Compare him to the freaks of nature in that MW division like Paulo Costa (Brazilian), Yoel Romero (Cuban), Jared Cannonier (American), Marvin Vettori (Italian) and Derek Brunson (American).
These dudes are huge for middleweight! Jared used to be a Heavyweight Fighter weighing well over 100Kg. So how are they so much bigger yet weigh about the same as Israel? Well, story for another day.
Israel is a perfect blend of the 4Ss.
This partly explains why he has never lost in Middleweight. He has trounced almost everyone in the category, KOing Paulo, Derek and Robert Whittaker and winning convincingly against Yoel and Marvin (twice), Brad Tavares, Kelvin Gastelum etc. He is yet to fight Jared. His 2nd of two fights against Marvin Vettori was on Saturday, 12th of June, 2021 and he was clinical as usual.
He feints incessantly and speedily (Speed), his body and head never stop moving from a calculated distance from the opponent, which makes them lose composure, and then he unleashes swift and hard punches and kicks (Strength) to the right spots on the body (behind the knees, calves, temples, behind the ears, liver, kidneys and chins) when they least expect (Sense), and he is quickly out of the way to avoid counter strikes (Sense). When cornered into a wrestling or Jiu Jitse position, he is hard trip and get to the canvas and when taken down, he wriggles out of the situation and gets up almost immediately. He can do this for 10 rounds if need be (Stamina…or call it Staying Power).
There are other key flavours to his game such as precision, great coaching/training team, ample pre-fight preparation, strike combinations, adversary attack anticipation etc. I consider all these as part of Sense.
All these were well executed against Marvin Vettori on the 12th of June, 2021.
As I watched Izzy in that fight, and indeed in all his UFC fights, I could see parallels with the duel between the Mongoose and the Snake. The Mongoose always feints, keeps a safe distance, strikes when the snake least expects, moves out of the way to avoid a counter strike and maintains this approach endlessly. As Natgeo Wild will confirm, the Mongoose usually ends up with snake for dinner! It perhaps considers itself worthy of a UFC belt.
