Want to end the fight quickly? Slams are the express ticket designed to board your opponent on the pain train and send them straight to ‘lights-out land.’ It’s time to learn from the elite...
Last year, former Pride and UFC light heavyweight champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson stepped into ESPN’s Sports Science lab to find out just how hard he slams. The results were frightening.
Upon impact, Rampage’s slam measured a staggering 400G.
To put this in perspective, that’s four times the amount of force measured in an high-impact car crash. So stepping in the cage with the 205lb powerhouse may be more deadly than stepping in a racing car with a few dodgy bolts – and the car crash wouldn’t be followed up by a tirade of devastating hammer fists either.
It’s evident that the slam is an effective way to not only blast your opponent through the canvas and switch their lights out, but also a fast-track method to global glory and fan adulation. In his days storming the now-defunct Pride promotion, Rampage slam-TKO’d Masaaki Satake and later KO’d Ricardo Arona with a powerbomb that now perpetually relays any MMA aficionado’s YouTube ‘favorites’ list, while launching him into the annals of mixed martial arts infamy. But where did this supreme spectacle come from?
> Ancient Slamming
Long before the birth of Christ, in the sanctuary of Olympia in Ancient Greece, courageous warriors were battling it out in blood-stained sand in the first ancient Olympic Games. Pankration (a brutal blend of boxing and wrestling) was a crowd favorite, and with it came the dreaded slam. Fast forward to the 18th century and our more modern heroes developed ancient Greek techniques into Greco-Roman wrestling.
Yet slams really came into prominence when professional wrestling dug its heels into the American and Japanese psyche and millions of people were treated to multiple variations of the move; some designed to entertain, others developed to annihilate.
> Slams in MMA
Unlike wrestling, MMA isn’t a rehearsed series of stunts; it is real combat with real knockouts. This is why the extensive list of contrived wrestling slams doesn’t transfer well to the cage.
Of course, you could try a front facelock suplex but you’ll quickly find your opponent’s free fist pummeling into your face. Yet there are a special group of slams that do sit well in the Octagon: the suplex, the powerbomb and the pile driver...
The German Suplex
Technically known as the belly-to-back waist lock suplex, the fighter takes their opponent’s back, grabs them around the waist (often secured by a gable grip), lifts them up and falls backwards while bridging their back and legs. To finish, the fighter then slams their opponent into the canavas shoulder and upper back first – nasty.
Jon Jones vs Stephan Bonnar, UFC 94, 2009
UFC light heavyweight Jon ‘Bones’ Jones’ career isn’t exactly short of showreel highlights, but the German suplex he executed perfectly against Stephan Bonnar has to take precedence in his long list of favorite fanboy moments. Few would have given the young yet spunky Jones a chance against the wily veteran and hugely respected Ultimate Fighter season one finalist. After dominating Bonnar throughout the fight, Jones wrapped his rangy arms around his waist and used his high-pedigree wrestling to explode, throwing Bonnar (who’s known for being an oversized light heavyweight) straight over his head like a rag doll.
Rory Macdonald vs Nate Diaz, UFC 129, 2011
MacDonald, another exciting new star exploding into the upper echelons of the UFC, faced Nate Diaz at UFC 129 and although Diaz had years of experience in the cage, it was the younger and more hungry fighter who came out on top. The German suplex is a rare move to see inside the Octagon, so when MacDonald pulled out a whole series in one round it was a near-revolutionary experience.
After taking Diaz’s back inside the third round, MacDonald lifted him up and slammed him straight over his shoulder. As limbs flailed wildly, the resilient Diaz managed to regain composure, yet the relentless tenacity of MacDonald held steadfast. Diaz would see the canvas come crashing towards him two more times – with each one harder than the last – before MacDonald was awarded the unanimous decision and Diaz was left to pick up the pieces.
The Powerbomb
There isn’t a more infamous powerbomb in Pride than Rampage Jackson’s on Ricardo Arona at Pride Critical Countdown 2004, yet the UFC powerbomb crown still remains a hotly debated topic.
The powerbomb transposes to the cage perfectly as it is performed by lifting your opponent up with their legs on your shoulders then slamming them back down to the ground. If your opponent has sunk in a triangle (and you’ve got insane strength) then it is an effective way of escaping the choke by knocking them into kingdom come. Simple.
Matt Hughes vs Carlos Newton, UFC 34, 2001
For anyone who has witnessed Hughes’ sickeningly brutal powerbomb against Newton, they may have experienced their guts literally drop as he slammed Newton straight into the canvas from six foot in the air and watched his limp body lay lifelessly on the canvas.
What added to the horror was Newton desperately trying to hang on to the top of the cage beforehand, until ‘Big’ John McCarthy ordered him to let go and ultimately sealed his fate.
Gerald Harris vs Dave Branch, UFC 116, 2010
At UFC 116, Dave Branch fell victim to his own triangle choke against Gerald Harris. When Branch foolishly failed to choke Harris out with the triangle, he was subsequently lifted by the former collegiate wrestler high into the air and smashed straight down to the ground in an instant. Branch was out cold and Harris picked up an exciting ‘Knockout of the Night’ bonus and solidified his case as one of the strongest middleweights in the UFC. Sadly, in his next fight Harris was dropped from the UFC after standing toe-to-toe (and that’s about it) with Maiquel Falcao in what UFC president Dana White described as “The Ultimate Staring Contest.”
The Piledriver
The piledriver is performed in professional wrestling by picking your opponent up, turning them upside down and slamming them head-first onto the mat. In MMA, slamming someone head first is strictly illegal but this hasn’t stopped a range of fighters adapting the move so their opponent is forcefully plunged towards the ground but lands on their shoulders first. The name is taken from a piece of construction equipment, also called a pile driver, that drives countless massive impacts on the top of a large major foundation support, burying it in the ground slowly with each impact.
Alan Belcher vs Patrick Cote, UFC 113
Being an oversized middleweight can have its advantages.
Alan Belcher discovered this after eight hard minutes locking horns with UFC mainstay Patrick Cote at UFC 113.
After Cote began pressuring Belcher against the cage trying to secure a double-leg takedown, Belcher used his superior size and strength to lift Cote up, hold him momentarily in the air with his feet pointing towards the skies, and then piledrive him straight into the deck.
Stunned and wounded, Cote gave little resistance as Belcher sunk in the rear naked choke and tallied up an impressive victory.
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