Issue 107
November 2013
Celebrating 20 years of the UFC, FO examines the evolution of fighting styles inside the Octagon.
When Royce Gracie first stepped into the Octagon on November 12th 1993 he revolutionized the world of martial arts. Brazilian jiu-jitsu has since garnered fame and recognition across the world, but in those days – outside of Brazil – it was virtually unheard of. Yet he tied much bigger fighters in knots en route to the UFC 1 tournament title.
Fast forward 13 years and Gracie returned to the Octagon, this time challenging welterweight champion Matt Hughes. No less than 70 Ultimate Fighting Championship events had transpired in the interim. The Unified Rules had long been introduced, fighting styles had changed, Gracie had changed, and in the opening round Hughes tackled the veteran Brazilian to the canvas, mounted his back, and rained down punches until the referee’s intervention.
The bout lasted just four minutes and 39 seconds. Inside five minutes the world understood that the sport of mixed martial arts was not the same as it once was. Not even close. In less than five minutes the reign of jiu-jitsu was all but over, and the era of ground ‘n’ pound was in full effect. It was May 27th 2006, and Matt Hughes was untouchable.
Fast-forward seven months, to UFC 65: Matt Hughes vs. Georges St Pierre II. Hughes is rising from the canvas, his eyes wide and stunned – you can practically see the stars circling about his head – and the referee has to help him find his corner. The first round is over, and Hughes has barely escaped having endured a roundhouse kick from the challenger. Soon enough the Canadian is the new owner of the 170lb belt, and Hughes is on the flat of his back, as the rolling wheels of progress continue.
Five years later, Anderson Silva front-kicks Vitor Belfort unconscious during the main event of UFC 126 to solidify his crown as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time. Silva, the most dominant champion in UFC history, defeated his opponent with a technique every budding martial artist has learned and practiced, but Silva’s came with ruthless efficiency that only he has at his disposal.
And yet, in another clear sign of the sport’s ever evolving nature, Silva has just had his 17-fight undefeated streak smashed to pieces by Chris Weidman, and while there is a rematch set for the end of the year, change has taken hold of the world’s most competitive sporting arena once more.
Since its inception, the Ultimate Fighting Championship has undergone several evolutionary phases. In the beginning, it was Royce with his little known Gracie jiu-jitsu that dominated. Most fighters had never seen a grappler like him. Until that moment most martial artists’ ground games, outside of South America, were practically non-existent. Gracie and his unusual techniques altered the way most people viewed martial arts, as if an entire landlocked community had suddenly been exposed to the sea.
Enter the new world: the land of the grappler. Because of the exploits of Royce, traditional martial arts were viewed as ineffective in real-life fighting environments, as the vast majority of fights – sanctioned or otherwise – go to the ground; and so it made sense to become a ground-fighting specialist. And from out the throng of tapped-out boxers, kickboxers, karatekas and self-styled street fighters emerged the next paradigm of MMA.
The technique of ground ‘n’ pound is fairly self-explanatory: take your opponent to the ground then pound him into defeat. Simple, effective and wrestlers excel at it. With strong wrestling, you could neutralize some of the advantages afforded to jiu-jitsu players. And the Octagon, with its caged walls, served as the perfect medium with which the powerhouse grappler could express himself. This was the time of champions like Evan Tanner, Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture and Matt Hughes, when the vast majority of the UFC roster was composed of savage former American collegiate wrestlers.
There were obvious exceptions – Chuck Liddell, for example, though he too was a collegiate wrestler – but if you had a background in grappling, you had a leg-up on the competition. Notice, too, the dichotomy prevalent throughout these years: you were either a striker or a grappler. There was, relatively speaking, little overlap.
But the wheels turn; fighters adapt. Just because a hunter has been shown the ocean doesn’t mean he abandons his spear; he figures out a way to lance the waves. Fighters began to train themselves to be elite on all plains – striking, clinching, sprawling, grappling – and with the development of truly complete mixed martial arts, the UFC once again entered a new age.
Today, more and more fights are settled on the feet. On average a third of all fights contested inside the Octagon end via TKO, compared to less than one fifth of submission finishes. That’s an incredible change from the early years of the UFC when submissions counted for as much as 72% of all matches (1994). It’s no longer enough to merely shoot for the takedown. The adaptation won’t allow it. You have to know how to put fist to flesh. You have to be complete.
For a time it felt as if, within the sphere of combat sports, the traditional martial arts were the epicenters of much derision. Why bother with taekwondo when the fight’s just going to end up on the ground anyway? But now, with the era of three-dimensional MMA fighters, the traditions are making a comeback.
Take current UFC light heavyweight champion of the world, Jon Jones. ‘Bones’ is a masterful and innovative striker, he’s inventive and ruthless on the ground, and, if you’re a fan of fighting, he’s simply a joy to watch. Tall, thin, streamlined, Jones conducts himself with a mild-mannered air and doesn’t look at all like you’d expect the greatest fighter on the planet to look. But he personifies the belief that to succeed inside the Octagon you must be well-rounded. In fact more than well-rounded – you must excel.
Likewise, while St Pierre may be best known for his long jab and exceptional wrestling, many forget his background is steeped in traditional striking (which he says is more responsible for his shooting power than wrestling).
Apart from his black belt in BJJ and Olympic-caliber wrestling skills, he’s also a third-degree black belt in kyokushin kaiken (a form of full-contact karate), a black belt in gaidojutsu (a system of mixed martial arts, created by coach Greg Jackson), and a black belt in shidokan karate.
Across the globe there appears to be a resurgence in the study and application of the traditional martial arts. Vitor Belfort, for example, stiffened Luke Rockhold with a spinning heel-kick at UFC on FX, and boxing standout Junior Dos Santos knocked Mark Hunt cold via a spinning wheel-kick less than a month later.
And for those of you who are more analytically minded, a recent study of 905 fights held on UFC main cards over the past 20 years shows the number of victories claimed via submission has dropped dramatically to 19.10% since the Unified MMA rules were introduced at UFC 28 on November 2000. But it would be far too simple to suggest that the decrease during those 13 years is solely down to the introduction of the shorter three-round format because the study also shows that the overall fall in submission victories throughout UFC’s history stands at a staggering 30.83%.
And just to add some more meat to the bone, the highest percentage of fights finished by TKO was in 2002 where an impressive 58.06% of bouts ended with the referee stepping in; and the highest percentage of victories scored by KO was in 2001 where 32.14% of fights were finished by knockout.
And so the coin spins, the wheels turn and the sport evolves. We can observe the rapidity of this evolution by scanning the lineage of its champions over the past 20 years. In 1993, when Royce Gracie changed professional fighting forever, ‘mixed martial arts’ wasn’t even a term, and there weren’t weight classes. Brazilian jiu-jitsu was the apex mode of victory. This continued – more or less – until 1997, with the institution of weight classes, and it is here in the sport’s history that the aforementioned era of ground ‘n’ pound begins to take shape.
Poignantly illustrating the transition of styles are the lightweight and light heavyweight divisions. The first champion of the light heavyweights was Frank Shamrock, crowned when he defeated Kevin Jackson on December 21st 1997. Shamrock was a proto-all-rounder shootfighter in the tradition of his brother, Ken, and he seized the title via armbar submission.
Following his undefeated reign of 703 days, he vacated the title, which was subsequently claimed by wrestling phenom Tito Ortiz on April 14th 2000. Ortiz proceeded to ground ‘n’ pound his way through the next three years, until he met fellow standout wrestler, Randy Couture. Couture defeated ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ on September 26th 2003, and he retained the belt (minus a brief loss to Vitor Belfort), for a period of roughly four years. Then he met Chuck Liddell for the second time, in April 2005, and ‘The Iceman’ knocked Couture unconscious.
Liddell would hold on to his title for two years, defending the belt a record number of times, and while he was counter-punching and kicking his name into superstardom, the sport was shifting beneath his nose. This was when mixed martial arts stopped meaning ‘two men of different disciplines fighting’ and began to become a sport of its own.
Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson took the belt from Liddell in May 2007, and when he did he set into motion a chain of changing champions that would persist until Jones staked his claim, utterly savaging Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua on short notice in March 2011.
In this timeline, beginning with Frank Shamrock and continuing through Ortiz (wrestling), Couture (wrestling), Liddell (striking), Jackson (hybrid), Jones’ ascension to the championship can be seen as the pure realization of MMA as its own discipline. The lightweight lineage, beginning with Jens Pulver in 2001, is no less remarkable. After Pulver was stripped of his title, the belt passed to Sean Sherk (ground ‘n’ pound aficionado), to BJ Penn (jiu-jitsu), to Frankie Edgar (MMA), and on to Benson Henderson, the incumbent champion. Henderson, like Jones – and St Pierre – is the epitome of a well-rounded fighter. In no area of the cage is he not wholly comfortable; in no single discipline is he not elite.
Yes, the progression of the sport is staggering. And yet, for all its progress, the foundations of its greatest sons and daughters are built on principles learned in the traditions: discipline, respect, honor, humility, heart, versatility, technique.
A HISTORY OF SUBMISSIONS
Submissions dominated the early years of the UFC as Gracie jiu-jitsu-inspired grappling saw an average 65% of all fights from 1993–1995 ended via choke or hold. Compare that figure with the most recent three years, where submissions now average less than 20% of all UFC results.
Throughout the past 20 years there has been a 30.83% decrease in submission victories proving the level of BJJ in the UFC has skyrocketed making it harder than ever to make your opponent tap out:
UFC RESULTS: 1993–2002
(T)KO - 39%
Submission - 38%
Decision - 20%
Draw - 1%
NC - 1%
DQ - 1%
UFC RESULTS: 2003–2012
(T)KO - 33%
Submission - 24%
Decision - 42%
NC - 1%
SUBMISSION BY STRIKES PERFORMANCE BREAKDOWN
Events 1-50: 16%
Events 51-100: 4%
Events 101-150: 2%
BY THE NUMBERS
20
The UFC has been in business 20 years; that’s 7,305 days of people working day in day out to evolve the industry from the forbidden ‘human cockfighting’ of the early era to the world-leading fight sport we enjoy today.
52
52 combatants and athletes have been crowned UFC champions of the world, but only five of those were able to regain their title after losing it, with ‘Captain America’ Randy Couture alone in regaining a UFC championship three times – twice at heavyweight and once at light heavy.
1.6 million
Pay-per-view sales hit a record high for UFC 100 in July 2009. When WWE superstar Brock Lesnar faced Frank Mir, an estimated 1.6 million PPV buys tuned in to watch Brock shock the world via TKO one minute 48 seconds into the second round.
28
Since its debut on 17th January 2005, The Ultimate Fighter has been a huge success with a total of 20 seasons spreading across several countries crowning 28 TUF champions in seven different weight classes.
55,724
The highest attendance at a UFC event was when 55,724 fans packed out the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, to watch Georges St Pierre defeat Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April 2011. The lowest attendance to a UFC event was at Ultimate Fight Night 4 that saw just 843 fans attend a card headlined by an all-out war between Stephan Bonnar and Keith Jardine.
$700,000,000
On August 18th 2011, the UFC announced a seven-year US television rights deal with Fox reportedly worth a staggering $700 million, netting parent company Zuffa LLC $100 million per year for the programming package.
$4,320,000
Chuck Liddell managed to pick up a whopping $4,320,000 from his announced fighting salary, plus bonuses, throughout his fighting career, more than any other fighter in UFC history. However, that could soon be eclipsed by Georges St Pierre, who currently sits on a $3,972,000.
9
Anderson Silva has taken just two hours, 28 minutes, 21 seconds of fighting in the UFC to cement his legacy as the greatest UFC middleweight in history. On average that’s a little under nine minutes per fight, including his recent defeat to Chris Weidman.
12
The slightly dubious title of competing in the most UFC fights before winning a UFC championship is jointly held by Chuck Liddell and Evan Tanner who both fought 12 times before securing belts at light heavyweight and middleweight respectively. However, Frankie Edgar took the longest time actually fighting to earn a belt, with one hour, 52 minutes, 17 seconds spent in the Octagon before he won his lightweight title.
16
The fastest time to win a UFC championship was enjoyed by Frank Shamrock who won the UFC light heavyweight belt at UFC Japan on December 21st 1997, submitting Kevin Jackson via an armbar in just 16 seconds to win the belt on his UFC debut.
195
GSP has spent the most time in the Octagon defending his belt, with a staggering three
hours and 15 minutes (195 minutes total) banked as UFC welterweight champion.
THE NOSTRADAMMAUS EFFECT
So what’s next when it comes to results inside the Octagon? Can the statistics of the past show any significant trends to help predict what’s coming in the future? Well, if they do, then one thing you’ll be happy to read is judges’ decisions, which have skyrocketed from less than 30% just 10 years ago to almost 50% in recent years, do seem to have plateaued – with 2011’s 49% of scored contests hopefully never to be repeated.
Fans of strangleholds like guillotine chokes, arm triangles and rear naked chokes also have plenty to look forward to, as they’ve steadily increased as BJJ has become more of an MMA staple. Plus, one-off submissions are also on the rise with more ‘individual’ holds (such as the twister, and Suloev stretch) occurring inside the last five years than ever before.
And best of all, 2014 falls into a three-year cycle of (T)KO explosions, dating back as far as 1996! Whilst knockouts have sustained a 5% increase since 2010, next year should see a further leap up in numbers – if the stats are anything to go by. According to records; 1996, 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011 were all big years for strikers, and so here’s hoping 2014 follows in the same tradition.
AND FINALLY. . .
Judges were first introduced at Ultimate Ultimate in December 1995 and the number of decisions has increased steadily since, from just 12% in 2006 to as high as 49% in 2011.
Knockouts and TKOs were most prolific in 1999 and 2002, when more than half of all fights inside the Octagon were ended via strikes inside the distance.
Despite Anderson Silva claiming the longest title defense run with 10 fights that spanned over six years, seven months, 24 days, plus a 16-fight undefeated streak from 2006–2013, Georges St Pierre has his statistical claim to being the greatest MMA fighter in history. Since gaining the interim welterweight championship with a dominant armbar victory over the legendary Matt Hughes at UFC 79, and then winning the undisputed welterweight championship with a victory over Matt Serra at UFC 83, the Canadian has recorded eight straight title defenses.
