Israel Adesanya: Ringcraft in MMA
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 10: (R-L) Israel Adesanya of New Zealand and Anderson Silva of Brazil battle in their middleweight bout during the UFC 234 at Rod Laver Arena on February 10, 2019 in the Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Positional awareness can set apart the good from the great in combat sports. The greatest strikers that the world has to offer all have an exceptional sense of where they are relative to both their opponent and to the area they are fighting in (ring, cage, etc). Good positional awareness allows fighters to turn potentially dangerous positions into advantageous ones to exploit. In MMA, positional awareness lags behind. Think of former champions, Tyron Woodley or Anthony Pettis, neither of whom could consistently dissuade or diffuse a sustained pressure attack, almost always finding themselves without an exit along the fence. Woodley and Pettis are two prominent examples, but how many blue chip prospects or high level contenders have we seen unable to escape pressure or cut the cage off?
The focus of this article is on Israel Adesanya, and how the middleweight champion sets himself apart from the pack with excellent ringcraft (or cagecraft, as it were). Adesanya has a keen awareness of where he is in proximity to the cage at all times and constantly works to turn in positional advantages for himself. To win every exchange in a 25 minute fight is impossible, but by placing a specific focus on circumventing bad positions, Adesanya can limit his opponent’s opportunities whilst creating more opportunities for his own offense.
Preliminary Ringcraft
In any sort of combat sport, the most common form of bad positioning is being backed up against the ropes or cage. Against a barrier, it is harder to generate power for punches or takedown attempts, tougher to evade strikes, and it is extremely uncomfortable and claustrophobic. The barrier “flattens” the stance out, which allows for no weight transfer in the strikes and does not allow for tradition footwork patterns. Preliminary ringcraft refers to the initial steps taken by a fighter in the open space to prevent themselves from being put against the barrier in the first place. This is something that Adesanya excels at. The most important tenet of preliminary ringcraft is to never retreat in a straight line.
As Vitor Belfort blitzes in, Wanderlei Silva has no choice but to retreat. He does so directly in a straight line, eventually running his back into the cage and letting Belfort get inside to land the knockout blow. Wanderlei had no angle from which to counter or exit from, unless he wanted to challenge a blitzing Belfort head-on. (You can understand why he did not - that seems painful.)
By retreating in a straight line, counter-punching is extremely difficult, as is angling off to exit or efficiently defending while moving backward. Your options are to either put yourself directly in harms way or run out as fast as possible. If the advancing fighter continues to push forward, the retreating fighter will eventually lead directly to the cage, even if the retreating fighter can initially stay out of range. This becomes makes evading strikes or takedown attempts more difficult, and it indicates to your opponent that a linear advance can be used nearly all the time. Taking the initial steps to prevent this habit is key. The first tactic Adesanya employs is an angled retreat.
Gastelum wants to push Adesanya back, but Adesanya steps to his right on his retreat - angling off moving backward. This gives him an inside foot angle, which threatens his rear hand/kick by shortening the path of travel. Gastelum becomes tentative to walk in, and the angle lets Israel fire off a kick to defuse the pressure.
Adesanya retreats to his right at an angle, allowing his head to easily move out of harms way. Simultaneously, he lines up a counter punch while Gastelum is forced to turn and face Adesanya. This angled retreat also allows Adesanya to keep pressuring instead of merely being pushed on the backfoot.
Adesanya’s angled retreat keeps him from backing onto the cage and the angle makes it significantly harder for a fighter pressuring him to land strikes. Retreating in a straight line means the exchange is always neutral. (In other words, both fighters are facing directly at each other.) In a neutral exchange, the attacking fighter can throw strikes at will. On the other hand, retreating on an angle gives the retreating fighter an advantage, as the pursuing fighter will have to constantly turn with their feet, angling with them in order to get into a range to land meaningful strikes. A general rule of thumb is never take more than two steps back in a straight line before angling off and Adesanya follows this guideline.
Angled retreats are not the only step he takes however. Adesanya will often not retreat at all, rather he will hold his ground and look to counter the first shot his opponent throws.
Whittaker attempts to push Adesanya to the cage. Adesanya holds his ground, counters the first shot with a check hook and follows it up with a rear hook and knocks Whittaker down.
Adesanya holds his ground by only slightly stepping out to evade the first shot, lining up his cross counter perfectly.
Holding the ground to counter has one big advantage - it immediately sets a consequence for entering in (the counter). This consequence discourages future attempts to blitz in and makes it much easier to control the cage for the remainder of the fight. However, it does put the fighter directly into an exchange, which takes a lot of experience and skill to consistently deal with and counter. With his depth of kickboxing experience, Adesanya possesses those qualities in a way that few in MMA fighters do.
Holding the ground can also be connected to defensive pivoting. Instead of countering the first shot, Adesanya defends it with either a slip, guard-up, or parry and then pivots off-line to reset the exchange. In pivoting, Adesanya instantly changes the dynamic between pressure and outfighter. Adesanya does not do this as frequently as angled retreats or holding the ground to counter, but the pivots themselves remain present.
Combining his counter-punching and pivoting, Adesanya is able to defuse Whittaker’s pressure and force him to reset, while Israel can continue to move toward the center of the cage.
Pivoting is the best option for instantly changing the dynamic between pressure and outfighter, but it also takes the most positional awareness. Evading the first shot in an exchange is often risky, requiring great timing and defensive acumen to pull off, but the result is worthwhile (as it completely resets position without any extended exertion). Jose Aldo remains the best - and one of the only - examples of consistently pivoting to diffuse pressure in MMA and this is largely due to his fantastic first line of defense that opens up the opportunities for him to do so.
Ringcraft
Despite Adesanya’s excellent initial steps to prevent positional disadvantages, those initial steps alone will never be enough to entirely deter a dedicated pressure fighter. Eventually, a good pressure fighter will figure out how to draw counters out and push their opponent back, or they can angle their steps on the way inside to preemptively deter an angled retreat. No matter how good the outfighter is, the pressuring fighter will always have a shorter distance to cut off than the outfighter has to escape. The tactics used to deny this is known as ringcraft.
To cut the cage off, Adesanya’s opponents have to keep up with his lateral movement, which is aided by his rapid direction shifts, feinted direction shifts, and excellent sense of when to square his stance. Maintaining a strong and balanced stance is crucial, and its importance cannot be overstated. A solid stance provides a base from which to defend or attack with strikes/takedowns and a squared stance leaves a fighter with no base to deliver any power or explosion into takedowns. But, this is not to say that squaring the stance is completely useless. Squaring at the correct time (and only for a quick moment) allows Adesanya to push off in either direction, either as a committed exit or as a feint, before swiftly moving off laterally. Squaring the hips alongside rapid lateral movement works to trick Israel’s opponents into committing to a side (by either planting or shifting weight to one side), which then allows Adesanya to sneak off to the opposing side while the opponent is stuck heading one direction.
Adesanya squares his stance up and feints a direction change to his right before hopping left. Gastelum slightly pushes his weight to the left to anticipate moving there, allowing Adesanya to hop outside of his lead foot easily, as Gastelum bit on the feint. Now, Gastelum has to chase to catch up, opening up rear-side counters. Gastelum chases, allowing Adesanya to turn back to center, re-taking control. Notice Adesanya’s sense of exactly when to square his stance and when to regain his normal stance.
Just before hitting the cage, Adesanya squares his stance up. He pushes off to the left, forcing Silva to chase after him and opening rear-side counters once again.
The most important thing that squaring the stance accomplishes is forcing the pressure fighter to stop attacking in a straight line. Pushing off to the pressure fighter’s side forces the pressure fighter to turn on the spot and chase to stay in range to punch or kick. If a pressure fighter can always blitz forward in a straight line and never has to turn on the spot or angle their steps, the outfighter is always going to be pinned along the cage, getting wailed on. Squaring the stance is one way to solve this, but not the only way. Adesanya will also employ “back-stepping”, which is a step back and away from the opponent into the opposite stance.
Gastelum comes forward, Adesanya “drops” back into the opposite stance. This quickly changes the angle that he is retreating to and puts him outside of Gastelum’s lead foot. Gastelum is forced to readjust to come forward, but Adesanya is already far outside of his lead foot and can predict his punches coming in, allowing him to weave under them to angle off. Notice how this elicits the same “chase” response that squaring the stance did.
Adesanya begins moving to his right, forcing Vettori to track him down. As Vettori gets to neutral, Adesanya back-steps away from Vettori. The instant angle taken, as well as the hand-fighting, convinces Vettori to over-commit, which leaves him planted as Adesanya can circle to the center.
Circling the cage, forcing opponents to chase, and rapidly shifting direction are all effective tools for ringcraft, but they cannot be the only tools. As was mentioned earlier, the pressure fighter is always going to have a shorter path to travel to cut the cage, compared to the path the out-fighter will need to take to circle and evade. Eventually, that distance will close. Adesanya’s stance is an effective tool in doing just that.
Back-stepping and squaring the hips also serve the purpose of closing the distance by drawing over-commitments from the pressure fighter, opening up opportunities to escape the cage. Breaking stance, even just for a second, gives the allure of vulnerability. If an attacking fighter sees their opponent fall out of stance, obviously they are going to want to chase and try to catch them when they are in this compromised position. Adesanya will add feints before back-stepping, which easily draw out predictable, over-committed punches. From there, he can weave in order to angle off the cage.
Adesanya feints his rear hand directly after he drop-steps. Gastelum takes the bait and over-commits with his lead hooks. Adesanya is prepared for it and is able to easily move out of range, before weaving under Gastelum’s rear hook and angling to the center of the cage as Gastelum is recovering.
Adesanya’s drop-stepping mid-exchange would frequently draw out Whittaker’s over-committed overhand rights. Adesanya could easily predict this response and weave. With one of Whittaker’s primary weapons nullified, Adesanya commanded the cage, constantly turning Whittaker’s pressure into his own by exploiting the over-commitments.
Breaking stance mid-exchange is not the only way to draw out punches however. Probing with offensive tools like non-committal punches or a front leg lean are also effective tools Israel uses in order to draw out over-committed punches.
Adesanya leans his head over his lead foot, pushing his weight over the lead foot. This gives the illusion that he is closer than he is and Gastelum takes the bait, committing in with a lunging lead hook. Adesanya was prepared for the response, easily weaving under the hook into the clinch, where uses underhooks to turn to the center.
Adesanya uses his lead straight in a non-committal way, using it to set up his back-step. Gastelum attempts to counter, but Adesanya is ready for it. In responding to an opponent’s reaction to his feints, Israel can angle off of his punches and kicks to retake the center of the octagon.
A stout pressure fighter will be able to force a few exchanges along the barrier no matter what. However, drawing the exchange first with the aforementioned tools allows Adesanya to dictate the exchange on his terms and use it for his own positional advantage. Adesanya is able to funnel his opponent’s offence into predictable attacks, where he can either a) defend the initial strikes and then angle off or b) close the distance and use his clinch or frames to turn himself to the center of the cage.
Offensive Tricks
Using an opponent’s offense to control the cage is integral to Adesanya’s ringcraft, but so is using his own offense to create openings for escaping the barrier. Adesanya’s constant lateral movement helps him immensely in tandem with his own offense, as it allows him to surprise his opponents when he stops on a dime and fires off a strike. Firing off a strike allows him to redirect his opponent’s attention, forcing them to defend upstairs, before repositioning his lower body with pivots, shuffles, and circling to get off the barrier. To sum this up, Adesanya is capable of accomplishing three things at once with his ringcraft, without bailing on his own initiative.
Adesanya’s rear straight masks his side-step outside. As Gastelum attempts to work in, Izzy kicks, forcing Gastelum to stop in his tracks and defend. As Gastelum is focused on defending and countering, Adesanya shuffles out to the center of the cage.
Adesanya’s kick masks his movement toward the center of the cage while forcing Gastelum to remain still and defend.
As Adesanya’s teammate and fellow UFC fighter Brad Riddell explores in this video, shuffling off of rear-side strikes is a very effective way to angle off of the barrier, but it is not the only way to use rear-side strikes. Adesanya will also use a combination of a “dart” (a hop-step off to the side from a straight) and frames in order to take control of the octagon.
Adesanya trails his rear foot while throwing his straight, which momentarily squares his stance, giving him the ability to hop-off to the side, forcing Gastelum to turn with him. In order to prevent Gastelum from crashing in to the clinch, Adesanya also employs a frame on the neck and bicep. The frame both keeps Gastelum at bay and destroys his posture, making it tougher to develop any power in a potential counter strike.
As we have explored throughout the videos in this article, Adesanya’s framing and clinch turns provide a second layer of protection from an opponent keen on grappling along the fence. Taking these proactive steps often keeps Adesanya from lazily hanging in the distance to be driven to the cage in the first place.
Adesanya’s ringcraft is spectacular, but not infallible. As fights ware on and fatigue increases, his focus on ringcraft is usually one of the first things to go. His lateral movement will sputter and Israel will accept stalling out on the cage at points. Adesanya is also not the most active fighter with his defensive pivots, as I mentioned earlier. They are clearly a portion of his game, but he does not use them consistently as Jose Aldo or Pernell Whitaker might. Pivots would go a long way in conserving energy, as they are low-effort movements that can still serve the duty of turning opponents, resetting, and allowing opponents a very small window to capitalize on.
Adesanya’s fight with Paulo Costa will be a unique and challenging test of his ringcraft. Costa’s relentless pressure, conjoined with his ability to consistently pressure with his feet underneath him (unlike Gastelum and Whittaker), will force Adesanya to layer his ringcraft. Adesanya committing to one ringcraft tactic to deter Costa could be a death sentence. If Adesanya just commits to dedicated lateral movement, feinting direction shifts, squaring his stance, and back-stepping, Costa and his relentless pressure will still be able to cut the cage off eventually. If Adesanya strictly tries to draw over-commitments, he will find himself being kicked on his exits and ripped to the body and head with hooks, as Costa is able to constantly angle his steps and keep his feet underneath him. If Adesanya just tries to angle off of his offensive attacks, he will find himself stalled against the cage with a charging Paulo Costa coming in at him. The point is: Adesanya must use his all of his ringcraft tactics together and seamlessly adjust to what Paulo Costa is doing in order to win this fight. Can Adesanya do that? Well, that is the big question. I think so, but let us know what you think on Twitter, Facebook, or the comments below.