Mike Zambidis, one of the greats?

Steve, just wondering what you think about little iron mike. In my opininion one of the greats, loads of tenacity. Here's a clip of some of his highlights, the first half is a bit crap but persevere the second is wll worth it... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNByTd65bPw&NR=1

Though of all the super welterweights I’ve always favoured Buakaw, Mike Zambidis nevertheless is a great fighter and you can learn a lot from this guy, particulary with regards to the ferocity and persistence of his attacks, his level of athleticism, conditioning and skills and most importantly his ability to take good shot and come back with an even better one. He’s also a great example of total body movement and commitment to what he needs to do physically to win. Watch the ways he adjusts and positions his feet, uses his legs, pelvis, trunk, shoulders and head to deliver a wide variety of potentially and actually destructive shots, a total contrast to the the clips of UFC 79 that Joe S asked me to look at.

http://selfprotection.forumotion.com/q-a-with-steve-morris-f16/links-to-ufc79-t5388.htm

From MZ on how to produce power

http://www.ironmikezambidis.com/ENG/Training.php

I believe that the real power is in one's internal energy combined with the right relaxation. Many times when I make contact with my opponent it feels like my energy passes over to him, like when I hit F-16 Forrester on his guard and still knocked him down. It's like the tail of a whip, on its own it has no real weight or impact power, but when one cracks it properly and it hits you, you really feel it!! When I feel well in the ring it's like I am boiling over with energy; on the one hand I feel light as a feather and on the other hand, it feels like my punches have the power of a heavy weight

I like the 'energy passing' image, he may image this visually and/or kinaesthetically. In the clip he certainly is pssing his enrgy to his opponents, no doubt about that. Also the whip analogy is clearly shown in the clip.

One of the main reasons I posted this clip was because of how he puts his whole body into his strikes and uses his head in a similar way to how you describe. He also fights how he trains and vis versa, as in he uses techniques forged in the gym. Conversely if you look at Silva on the 'access all areas' clips he was training running up stairs with a snorkel taped to his face to improve his lung capacity. Whats wrong with just training harder on the pads/sparring etc? Seems like some of his team are trying to justify their jobs by inventing new training regimes.
Back to iron Mike, some of his punches remind me so much of the original iron mike where the head leads and sometimes ends up very low and forward as the punches connects, so much energy, great to learn from, Cheers Rob

I agree with the Iron mike bit, it's pretty clear he takes a lot from Tyson. Which is the kind of thing Steve advocates, if he has indeed taken inspiration from the violence the young Tyson dished out to his opponents, which seems likely, there is reason to believe that he uses other 'psych' techniques such as imagery. It certainly transfers nicely to the ring!

Conversely if you look at Silva on the 'access all areas' clips he was training running up stairs with a snorkel taped to his face to improve his lung capacity. Whats wrong with just training harder on the pads/sparring etc?

Or why not combine the two, or at least padwork with the snorkel. In fact there are lung capacity devices that can be bought for about £50 that are certainly less obtrusive than a 'taped snorkel' and which have been tested scientifically and proven to work, not sure the snorkel ha though. It would seem that Silva's team is not especially uptodate with the scientific lit!

http://www.fitnessmonitor.co.uk/category.respiratory_training.htm

..and of course Silva lost. This may sound very sycophantic(sp?) but Steve does talk so much sense about fight specific training etc, as I said I think some of these trainers are going well off track, just my opinion, I'm not a sports scientist. Cheers Rob.

another thing Zambidis does, which we also practice, is using the forward momentum of the kick to land a punch... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YGJ-GE-46E this clip shows what I mean, you land and punch rather than bring your leg back and then punch. We've been drilling this for ages and it also works well off a jab cross combo using the right leg to kick and then land and punch with the left. Cheers Rob

Here are two articles which might be of interest with regard to the whiplike motion of the body and the generation of forces. Though I'll be discussing it in more detail, the trick lies in how you use the forward walking and backward action of the feet to generate and transfer those forces of the body to the hands through the conservation of momentum, and crack the whip.

http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/17894

Having trouble getting the second one to come up as a link, but you can copy and paste the url to access it:

http://www.math.princeton.edu/~mcmillen/papers/2002-PRL(whip).pdf

About Fedor and the UFC, I'll come back to that one as well.

hi steve,
thanks for the links to those articles. looking forward to more detail you may want to share. much appreciated.

and speaking of fedor, did you see his less-than-impressive appearance in the recent event Yarennoka?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxMNs39ld88

melvinfferd wrote:
and speaking of fedor, did you see his less-than-impressive appearance in the recent event Yarennoka?

SPOILER BELOW!!!!!










Less than impressive?!? Seemed like a pretty solid performance to me!

He was fighting a man mountain, yet was still able to manage (and ultimately close) the distance, firstly to clinch and attempt a take-down. Granted, it failed, but maybe Hong Man Choi's weighing over 160kg and choosing to drop that on top of Fedor might have had something to do with that!

More importantly, from the bottom position Fedor still remained active and was able to strike and set up the submission whilst being subjected to g'n'p ('threading the needle in the storm').

After they returned to their feet, Fedor again managed to control the distance and caught Hong Man Choi with a cracking left hook, following it with an attempted takedown. Again, although it failed as he ended up on the bottom, he managed to stay active and, while HMC was trying to strike, Fedor set up a winning submission without being hit once (watch the slow-mo replay at the end)!


He worked a successful strategy, if you ask me!

Less than impressive, I must be easily impressed. Outstanding work.

Jeez, how big is that bloke? The difference in head size is amazing, he has to be 7 and a half foot surely....

Well done Fedor, I agree.

wow, interesting to get different points of view. from a sport perspective i guess it was a successful application. i was just expecting so much more from fedor. that was only hong man choi's second mma fight and lets face it, a c-grade fighter, skill wise, that had no business being in the ring with one of the best mma fighters in the world.

considering fedor has been so inactive of late, i was hoping for a big performance. he could have steamroll hong like he did gary goodridge or ogawa. but no he played it save and went in for the clinch (no great feat considering the opponent) and got pancaked twice for it. as for securing the submission, well hes the current sambo world champ and hong has next to no grabbling ability.

the strategy by fedor was the easy way out. sadly this is what mma has turned into for many fighters. even melvin manhoef, normally a super aggressive standup fighter, resorted to the takedown when he recently faced a japanese boxer in k1. until kicking to a downed opponent returns to a big promotion imo we wont be witness to the level of real mma that we were treated to under pride. now its a tactical sport instead of a fight. ahh those were the days ...

Fedor obliterated the guy in about two minutes with an armbar. I fail to see how that is not impressive. I wonder how many of us could replicate a feat like this. And make it look so easy?

I don't understand your criticism about fedor going for the clinch. You seem to be saying that he should have stood and fought standup with Hong, and by going to the ground took the "easy way out." I don't want to put words in your mouth but that seems to be what you are saying.

If so, I totally disagree. Groundfighting is a part of MMA, as I am sure you are aware. The ground portion of the fight is there for whoever wants to/can take advantage of it. Fedor's background is Sambo, the ground is his speciality, why shouldn't he take the fight there????

That's like saying Crocop should have groundfought with Big Nog, and by trying to keep the fight standing he was taking the "easy way out."

Fedor is the number one (disputed) MMA guy in the world, and it really seems he can't win.

He gets in there and wins EASILY and people still aren't satisfied! Pretty much everytime he fights now, there is a huge list of things he did wrong, or should have done better, or he shouldn't have done at all. And all this WHEN HE WINS! Fuck. I'm dreading to see what people wil accuse him of when he loses.

By the way, it's true that Choi is not a top level opponent. But he's not the "Can" some people were saying he was. He has got in there with the likes of Semmy Schilt and done well , so he's no Giant Silva or Zuluzhino. Not by a long shot.

No he's not a great opponent, that's why he lost so easily! Fedor is a great champion, that's why he knew not to play stand-up with a giant. I hope you agree this argument should really stop now or move to another section. Cheers, Rob.

I've put my reply up on the UFC79 thread to try to keep the discussion in one place.

https://selfprotection.forumotion.com/q-a-with-steve-morris-f16/links-to-ufc79-t5388.htm#55783

Bloody Nuisance wrote:Fedor's background is Sambo, the ground is his speciality, why shouldn't he take the fight there????

true hes a decent grappler but his specialty? his reputation has been built on his aggressive striking (standing up and on the ground).

Bloody Nuisance wrote:That's like saying Crocop should have groundfought with Big Nog, and by trying to keep the fight standing he was taking the "easy way out."

i disagree with the comparison. crocop and nog both have top games in different ranges. whereas choi has limited skills in all ranges. imo fedor could have taken out choi with whatever he wanted. i was just disappointed that we werent treated to the level of violence that he is capable of displaying.


getting back to opinions on great fighters ...

steve,
id be interested in your view on igor vovchanchyn. hes one of my favourite fighters.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=177864124266643577

though his strikes are different to your cyclonic strikes (my understanding anyway), they are still extremely wave-like. the angle and placement of his ko strikes interest me the most.

melvinfferd wrote:

getting back to opinions on great fighters ...

steve,
id be interested in your view on igor vovchanchyn. hes one of my favourite fighters.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=177864124266643577

though his strikes are different to your cyclonic strikes (my understanding anyway), they are still extremely wave-like. the angle and placement of his ko strikes interest me the most.

I second that motion - great fighter prototype sprawl n brawl man .

Sort of a mini Fedor. The way he took out those huge guys in IFC with strikes was unreal . Before that the concensus was that you could only do that by taking the fight to the ground.

Igor showed the way to do it by defending takedowns and strikes instead.