SFUK Guide to training Mixed Martial Arts Worldwide

In the old days of mma records didn't mean shit. That's because for the most part people didn't even have a record, except maybe a criminal one. Guys would step into the octagon having never thrown a punch at anything more threatening than a heavy bag. There were also some of the most ridiculously manufactured records ever attached to a fighter, records that would make Rickson Gracie (400-0) blush. Patrick Smith came into the UFC with a fraudulent 250-0, Andy Anderson with 86-0, Thomas Ramirez 250-0. The common denominator being each of these set-ups was stopped in the first minute of their first fight. Thankfully, with the explosion of mma at a grassroots level the pros of today are building genuine records with genuine fights. And thanks to the Sherdog.com fight finder, you can inspect a guy's stats and learn an awful lot.

Losses tell you more than wins

Sad but true. In boxing this is especially vivid. A guy is carefully matched against a line of dominoes to build up a glossy 15-0 mark, all guys who don't even know what direction to throw their punch in. Then there comes the 'test' against a respectable journeyman, where the manager finds out if its worth continuing the investment in their young stud. Most fighters come out of it 15-1, and we now know they don't have what it takes to compete at that level. If you check their record a few years later, you'll normally see a collection of wins and losses following that first wake-up call, suggesting they've plateaued. Occasionally you find another win-streak. This tells you one of two things: He's dropped down a level to feast on bums (oo-er), or he learned from defeat and became a better fighter. Check the records of his victims and you'll know which is which.

MMA fighters don't have the advantage of long-term career planning like boxing prospects, but their records usually offer a condensed version of the same story. Call up Patrick Smith on Sherdog, for example. He's 8-11 and his record shows a familiar pattern: beat a no-hoper,lose to a real fighter, beat another no-hoper, lose to a real fighter.

To be the best you have to beat the best

Muhammad Ali isn't the Greatest because he went 19-0 against guys like Herb Siler and Duke Sabedong. It's cos after that he beat Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, George Foreman and Ken Norton. Rocky Marciano is the only heavyweight champ who won every fight (49-0), so losing the '0' doesn't matter if you come back and beat the top guys. There's a guy in Denmark called Brian Neilson. A few years ago he ran his record 49-0 and alot of overly patriotic Danes were talking about this being the guy to finally eclipse Rocky's record. The problem being that Neilson had never fought a guy who could stand up in a light breeze, so when they imported limited American journeyman Dick Ryan the result was a TKO 10 loss for the fat Dane.

There's another heavyweight out there with a fantastic record called Don Steele. He ran himself up to 42-0 (42 kayos) and on paper was a killer. Look at the records and you'll see that the combined win/loss records of his opponents (at the time he met them) was 189-613-13 !!! He fought 21 guys who never had a single win, and one guy had lost 81 fights (that guy is now 16-118-15). The only impressive thing about Don's record is that his manager found him 42 guys who he could knock out.

So when checking out a record, look for the notable names on it. It doesn't matter if a guys got some losses, so long as he's shown that he is actually capable of beating a top guy on a good night. When one fighter has a clean record of nobodies and his opponent has losses but also a notable win or two, go with the proven quality.

Are you being sold a Great White Hope?

The latest hits are the greatest hits and this holds true in MMA like anything else. Duane Ludwig kayos Jens Pulver, suddenly he's world no.1 at lightweight. Emelianenko Fedor humbles Antonio Rodrigo Nogeuira and now he's unbeatable. Don't be swept along with the hype. As they say in football, form is temporary but class is permanent. Mario Sperry was apparently a washed up nobody after Igor Zinoviev beat him, then he came back and submitted a still-fearsome Igor Vovchanchyn.

If you're the latest hit with an undefeated record, then watch the bandwagon gather speed. For every fantastic fighter with a clean record (at various times Dan Henderson, Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera, Emelianenko Fedor), there's a Mark Kerr or Hidehiko Yoshida just waiting to be exposed. Beware. Spotting a GWH is hard unless you've seen him fight, and if you do see the tape then trust your instincts and not the press clippings. First of all inspect the win-loss records of his victims on the win-streak. Let's look at Mark Kerr for example: He's 6'3. 250lbs and looks like a killer. He ran up an impressive 11-0 mark including a WVC bare knuckle 8-man tourney win and 2 UFC 4-man tourney wins. The real deal, then? Call up the record and have a look.

-TKO 300lb Paul Varelans (9-9) who's never beaten a good fighter and never beaten a big fighter

- DQ win over Mestre Hulk (4-4) who's tough but has no actual skills

- Decisioned 200lb Fabio Gurgel (3-2) who is much smaller and has no notable wins, yet went the full 30 mins with Kerr

The record continues in a similar pattern with wins over unremarkable little guys (Dwayne Cason), zero-talent jokes (Greg Stott, Nobuhiko Takada) and decent guys who were just physically outmatched (Hugo Duarte, Pedro Otavio). Throughout the entire 11-0 there is no guy who is Kerr's size who has skills.

Contrasted with Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera who until recently was 19-1-1. He's got wins over Valentijn Overeem, Dan Henderson, Jeremy Horn, Enson Inoue, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring, Sanae Kikuta, Bob Sapp. That's the difference between a GWC and a Great. And when the hope (Kerr) finally met a great (Vovchanchyn), it was Kerr who ended the fight lying semi-conscious on his face.

So the lesson to learn is inspect the record, and inspect the quality of the opposition. One single win over a good fighter is worth 20 wins over tomato cans.

How often does he fight?

Generally speaking, the active fighter has the advantage over the inactive one, due to retaining his cardio and sharpness of skills. If a guy hasn't fought for a couple of years, don't expect him to win. There'll be a reason he hasn't fought and it was probably one that bodes ill for his chances. In particular, don't believe that a guy with a long lay-off is gonna come back into the ring anywhere near the skill level that he had when he left it. Classic example is Mike Tyson.

Some guys can come back, but they are special. Guys like Frank Shamrock. But for the most part the guys who come back end up like Ken Shamrock, Tank Abbot and Kazushi Sakuraba. If the fighter is fighting below his normal level (like Frank just did), the disadvantage of the layoff is much reduced, but as a general principle put your money on the active fighter.

Is he on a win-streak or losing run?

This isn't horse-racing, but neither is it roulette. Form matters, it's just not the be-all and end-all. Rather than concentrate on the streak, try to find the reason behind it and evaluate that. Valentijn Overeem put together a win streak that included top-class guys like Renato Babalu, Jerrel Venetian and Randy Couture, then went on to lose to low quality guys like Aaron Brink and (gasp) Rodney Faverus. Things like that are kinda inexplicable and make you wonder if mma results are just random. But its not usually like that.

Frank Shamrock lost 3 of his last 4 fights before meeting Enson Inoue, but since then he's been on a 8-0 streak that put him in Fighter of the Year contention. And there's a reason for it. After John Lober brawled his way to a decision win over him, Frank re-evaluated his goals and dedicated himself to the sport. That's the sort of win streak that is likely to continue. Tito Ortiz is riding a 6-0 streak since he learned the value of conditioning in his loss to Frank, all of them wins over good fighters. So long as same-day weigh-ins aren't introduced, that's likely to continue.

Losing streaks often go the same way. Rumina Sato couldn't even win a work the way he's going these days. He seems to have lost his spark, his open style doesn't work at world level, and opponents know to expect his blistering submission attempt. Shooto have tried to downgrade the quality of his opposition and he still can't win. Expect that losing streak to continue. Likewise with Kazushi Sakuraba. He's been fighting too many big, heavy handed guys, in too many tough long fights. So his body has broken down and he's become a 'shot' fighter. Don't expect him to win many more.

When analysing a streak, try to figure out the 'why?' If he's winning cos he dropped down a level or two, he's still gonna lose when he steps back up. Likewise, if his losing streak was built up in Pride, chances are he's gonna start winning again in King of the Cage. If he's joined a new gym, with a good fight team (e.g. Jeremy Horn moved to Miletich's camp and won about 25 straight) then expect wins. If a guy does well at C-level but wants to stay king of his little gym, the wins won't be forthcoming at B and A level.

How does he do against different types of fighters?

Vanderlei Silva has never submitted, but he has been knocked out and stopped on cuts. Heath Herring looked great till he met guys with a better punch (Fedor, Mezhidov, Belfort). Kevin Randleman can take down people of any size, but gasses like crazy when he's hit by a puncher. Tom Erikson was a monster till he faced another guy over 250lbs. Some guys just don't match up well against certain other guys and their record will normally indicate it.

Look up Heath Herring's record and look at his losses. He doesn't do well against guys with decent hands, good takedown and lots of stamina. Take out the stamina and he's fine (Erikson, Kerr), but all three trouble him. Gilbert Yvel is fantastic against guys who can't take him down, but racks up losses to guys like Fujita, Horn and Belfort because they put him on his back and held him there. Also, he can punk out most guys but falls apart against an even tougher hombre (Frye, Vovchanchyn, Barkaleav).

Check out a guys record and try to answer a few basic questions:

- Can he handle grapplers?

- Can he handle strikers?

- Can he get off his back?

- Can he handle bigger guys?

- Is he intimidated by the punchers?

- Is his reputation for kicking/punching/grappling based on dominating guys who aren't good at kicking/punching/grappling?

That last one is a bit tricky. Sakuraba's hands were overrated because he was beating up grapplers like Royler and Renzo. So when he faced good punchers (Vanderlei, Crocop), he took a pounding. Likewise Ian Freeman is a puncher against UK guys and grappler's like Frank Mir and Tedd Williams, but bigger and better punchers like Valentijn Overeem and Andrei Orlovski put that in perspective. Mark Kerr was known for his ground and pound, but when he met guys who could actually take it (Fujita, Vovchanhyn, Herring) he fell apart. When a guy has a reputation for outpunching the punchers (e.g. Quinton Jackson handled K-1's Cyril Abidi and also Igor Vivchanchyn) then you sit up and take notice.

Experience

Young, undefeated stud meets old battleworn veteran. Who wins? It's a classic scenario as every new legend is made by stepping over the carcasses of the old champions. The fact is, you need fights to get experience but every fight takes something out of you. At some point in your career the balance of factors works against you. Smart matchmaking lies in putting your young guy in with a fighter that is shot, just nobody knows it yet.

Experience is not the same as having alot of fights. If you kayo a bunch of stiffs you learn nothing but confidence. If you lose a great fight, you might learn more than winning an easy one. So when looking at a record, run these questions through your mind:

- What's the longest match he's had?

- Has he lost, and did he come back to win his next couple?

- Has he fought at a high level?

- Are all his wins quickie kayos / subs?

- Has he battled back from adversity to win a match?

- Has he travelled abroad and won?

- Has he been in a big show?

Fighters can be unnerved by all sorts of things, so having been in there before is a great help. Klitschko recently found out he doesn't know how to fight southpaws and got himself kayoed in two. Rumina Sato never had to go more than 6 minutes till he met Kaoru Uno, and once it got past that mark he tired dramatically before losing to what was effectively fatigue. If a guy is fighting in Pride, in a 20 minute match, against a puncher and all of those 3 factors are new to him - then put your money on the other guy.