#KiwiUFC What To know About City Kickboxing: Style
City Kickboxing represent combat sports in Aotearoa to the fullest, having aligned with the fighting excellence of those who came before CKB and this lineage is not only manifest in the current existence of CKB, also in how they go about their business inside the octagon. Yesterday, I took a wee dive into some of that history that has brought us to this point and today, I endeavour to explain the style of CKB and their fighters.
Mixed Martial Arts is such an interesting sport because it blends different disciplines together and if one is supremely talented in one aspect of MMA, lacking in other aspects they can be caught nappin'. The best certainly have strengths, although they are able to work around their weaker disciplines and adapt their strengths and weaknesses to what their opponent is up to. One can't simply stand and bang against someone who wants to grapple and vice versa.
There is a general consensus that wrestling and/or jiu-jitsu is favoured ahead of striking, in the sense that as long as someone who has supreme wrestling abilities also has adequate striking, they will be dominant. Khabib Nurmagomedov is the best example of this as he is a threat everywhere, with the comfort of knowing that he can take anyone down and control the fight. Lean too far into the wrestling/grappling though and a fighter could be taken advantage of in the striking department.
Hence, what CKB does style-wise offers excessive intrigue.
CKB boosted to the top of the UFC world via their striking, or that's what it looked like on the surface as I'll explore. To keep things simple, CKB came into the UFC with something funky, something new in their striking and as I explain my understanding of CKB's excellence whether in their lineage, style or team culture, CKB came out the gate with striking excellence; it's no coincidence then that they have quickly climbed the UFC ladder.
When offering something reasonably fresh in the UFC at such a high level, you have a recipe for success. Especially when you have spent years observing what UFC fighters are doing and at the same time, CKB's current UFC fighters were spending those years honing their own craft in the lower levels of MMA.
How CKB have built and developed UFC fighters is a little note that stems from the lineage, then flowing through style and culture. The likes of Israel Adesanya, Kai Kara France, Brad Riddell and Shane Young were slow cooked, simmering away in various kick-boxing and MMA competitions, which is obviously required when working one's way up to the UFC or Bellator etc; what's cool is the patience and development of craft that is the focus during this period.
All the CKB coaches have experience in the lower ranks and upper echelons of fighting, most notably how to take the required path from Aotearoa. That's the lineage, as the coaches have gathered experience and information on the best path to prepare for entry into the best competition. With such powerful lineage, the path is clear and focused. Allowing the same idea of development to have a positive influence on their fighting style and the culture of long-term thinking, patience is established.
This has ensured that fighters are well-rounded. The striking is their main weapon and the wizardry involved is the unique factor that differentiates CKB from the rest of the UFC. If you want to dive way deeper into CKB's striking analysis, just follow your nose through the Luke Thomas rabbit-hole from the video below.
In simple terms for more casual kiwi sports fans, CKB apply that long-term mentality to their fights. Strikes aren't thrown to only cause damage, often times strikes are thrown to generate a reaction and this is then stored away for later use - either a few seconds later or a few minutes later. These strikes may be full punches or kicks, CKB's use of fakes and faints feels like the nugget here though as a simple twist of the hips, raising of the leg, shimmy of the shoulder etc to fake a strike can also generate a reaction.
When this is all put together at what appears to be a hectic, UFC-level pace, it's poetry in motion. Adesanya is the best in the world at this, tending to take his time in the first 30 seconds of a fight to assess his opponent before picking them apart. In the win over Robert Whittaker, 3:33mins into the second round is a fine example of this as Adesanya scoped out Whittaker's vibe and tendencies, before settling into a groove where he was landing as Whittaker was lunging forward.
The opposite was what made the fight vs Yoel Romero what it was. Adesanya initiated what should have been exchanges in the opening moments of that fight, faking and fainting to try get a reaction from Romero. Romero, literally did nothing and the chess match ensued as Adesanya was unable to get reactions and counter. Instead, Adesanya dictated the fight by attacking Romero from distance primarily via kicks.
The Romero fight wasn't normal, for context though; Adesanya landed 48 significant strikes, 25 of which were directed at Romero's legs and all 48 strikes came from distance.
CKB's style does have a place for some mongrel, or merely the true heart and mana of a warrior as seen in Brad Riddell's win over Jamie Mullarkey, or in Dan Hooker's loss to Edson Barboza and win over Paul Felder, or Adesanya's win over Kelvin Gastelum. There is a thread throughout these fighters of a certain spirit that sees them thrive in adversity, which comes in conjunction with craftsmanship and class.
That's evident in how CKB fighters can control a fight without landing a legit strike, for example. Their faking and fainting not only causes a reaction, it also allows for the fighter to get into range where those significant strikes are landed. CKB fighters don't pose much of a takedown threat, so their opponent may know that the CKB lad will stay on the outside and dwell in that striking precision world. When a CKB fighter is faking and fainting, causing a reaction as well as faking a strike to slide their feet forward, it becomes a whirlwind of problems to process for their opponent.
This goes back to being well-rounded as fighters can't just sit on the outside, they also have to enter range and expose themselves to being hit with heavy shots. It then seems logical that entering that danger zone is set up with a variety of small movements. Alternatively there have also been those counter-attacking CKB moments where the fakes and faints get their opponent plodding forward and the range is closed, usually in favour of the CKB fighter.
Understanding parts of this as a fighting pleb has been delightful and I can't stress enough that while individual elements are impressive or dangerous, the whole package is what makes this nek level. Ponder the fakes and faints, along with switching stances, being effective in either stance while also having the full arsenal of weapons (punches, elbows, knees, kicks etc). CKB fighters have a full arsenal of weapons, as well as a full arsenal of fakes and tricks.
The whole package. Striking alone isn't good enough and while CKB fighters aren't going to rely on their grappling in an attacking sense, the low key factor of their excellence is their defensive wrestling/jiu-jitsu; sleep on CKB's offensive grappling at your peril though.
Maybe it's the 'City Kickboxing' name that may distract some folk as CKB incorporate grappling into their every day business, as well as obviously with their professional fighters. CKB is an affiliate of Atos Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and run jiu-jitsu classes from their gym, as well as what is fast becoming an efficient wrestling layer of nuance to their UFC fighters. To the best of my knowledge, Adam Johnson is the key jiu-jitsu figure at CKB and things get super funky here as there isn't too much information floating around about Johnson other than him being one of Aotearoa's best jiu-jitsu players and Adesanya mentioned in an interview prior to fighting Romero that a guy named Adam does extensive video work behind the scenes to help prepare CKB's fighers.
In the lineage chapter, I stuck to the coaches who came up fighting in Aotearoa and there is also intriguing lineage in the main wrestling coach Andrei Paulet. Paulet competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Freestyle wrestling after moving from Romania to Aotearoa in 2005. Paulet also had a couple MMA fights and has long been part of the CKB coaching staff and can probably be credited for establishing a wrestling base in all of CKB's UFC fighters.
In recent times, CKB have been assisted by Frank Hickman, who is also the head wrestling coach at Tiger Muay Thai where he works alongside brother George. The Hickman brothers had extensive wrestling experience in United States of America before moving to Tiger Muay Thai and forming Hickman Brothers Wrestling. CKB fighters have worked with TMT for many years, as part of that development process, establishing a relationship between CKB and TMT which has now played a role in Alexander Volkanovski spending time with CKB on his championship run after he trained extensively with TMT and the arrival of Frank Hickman.
CKB now has the wrestling duo of Paulet and Hickman running their wrestling, along with Johnson to form a grappling base that can not be under-estimated. CKB has enjoyed immense success in the UFC thanks to proficient striking, arguably the best in the UFC as well as their grappling ability. The striking is what commands attention, gets the headlines and forms the basis of their attack, that this striking comes from a solid grappling base is what has seen CKB have such widespread success.
Digest some of these takedown defence numbers...
Shane Young: 64% takedown defence.
Kai Kara-France: 90% takedown defence.
Brad Riddell: 57% takedown defence.
Dan Hooker: 78% takedown defence.
Israel Adesanya: 86 % takedown defence.
That means that CKB's fighters are going to snuff their opponents takedowns most of the time. Remember though, that with such wizardry in the striking department, having effective takedown defence compounds the threat of CKB's fighters as they tend to start with a striking advantage and can double-down on that advantage by nullifying the wrestling/grappling threat of their opponent.
Compare the defensive work to CKB's offensive grappling where they all average one takedown or less per fight...
Shane Young: 0.76 takedowns.
Kai Kara-France: 0.60 takedowns.
Brad Riddell: 1 takedown.
Dan Hooker: 0.43 takedowns.
Israel Adesanya: 0 takedowns.
This paints a clear picture of the general style that CKB operate with; world-class striking and effective defensive grappling. Of course, there are instances where submissions and offensive grappling are implemented, overall though there is a visible pattern in how CKB fighters go about their work.
Most interesting to me is that it seems as though this was how the likes of Eugene Bareman, Doug Viney etc intended it to play out. In building UFC fighters, CKB understood the importance of wrestling/jiu-jitsu and ensured that there was adequate knowledge or talent in those departments to be competitive in a UFC landscape where many fighters start with the wrestling or jiu-jitsu base.
The lineage chapter explained how CKB fits into Aotearoa's combat sports history and Aotearoa's combat sports history primarily revolves around striking. I believe that's the recipe for a level of striking that many believe is the best in the world and it makes sense that from such lineage, CKB has worked their way to such a high level in striking.
Aotearoa doesn't really have a wrestling history though, unlike USA where wrestling is a notable high-school and college sport, or Russia where grappling is a priority for youngsters growing up. Jiu-jitsu is similar, especially compared to Aotearoa's culture of boxing and kick-boxing. This is the key nugget in assessing CKB's style as they have implemented the right stylistic combination of striking and wrestling, tapping into Aotearoa's striking history and developing a grappling system to be successful on the world stage.
It's easy, with the right understanding of what is happening, to see how CKB has established the best striking in the world. The brilliance of CKB is also evident in how they have sought more information, coaching and expertise in grappling to take over the world of MMA.
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Peace and love 27.