Back to the MMA Newsfeed

MMA in 10 Moves: A Technical Introduction

A great deal is happening at any given time in a mixed martial arts fight. Transitions between the sport's component arts—muay thai, wrestling and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, to name only three—take place in a split second. Fighters might execute dozens of different techniques in hundreds of individual moves in any given fight, and the commentators rarely have time to explain the mechanics or nuance behind each one.

This piece examines 10 of the most common techniques that one might find in an MMA fight. It's not enough to know how to strike, wrestle or grapple; any fighter who has a hope of competing in one of MMA's major promotions has to at least know the basics of every art.