Let’s talk about some of the stranger kicks he does. You mentioned the cartwheel kick he did against Cerrone as well as plenty of other kicks. I’m gonna ask you plain out and gimme the best answer you can. Why aren’t some of the techniques that Anthony does more ubiquitous?
Well we saw Jose Aldo do the superman punch that Alan Belcher and Anthony have done in fights too. I think you’re gonna see, I saw online that Overeem was playing around with the Showtime knee and dos Santos was playing around with the Showtime kick. I saw online that Paul Sass was playing around with a triangle off the cage. I think you’re gonna see more people doing it. Let’s face it, people are going to see what Anthony’s doing and say, “Wow, Anthony’s getting some shine, I want a piece of that.”
What happens too after a while is everybody is getting better at striking so you can’t just throw a round kick, you have to cross it. Everyone’s understanding the basics of striking so once in a while you need a trick play to mess everyone up a little bit.
How would you describe Anthony’s footwork, what about it is unique? Footwork for a really good striker is almost like a fingerprint. Dominick Cruz has his own type of footwork and Jose Aldo has his own type of footwork. How would you characterize the footwork of Anthony Pettis?
He’s almost like a panther who pounces on his prey. One, he’s a great athlete. My father was my first coach and I’m meticulous on footwork. Footwork is everything in mixed martial arts whether you want to avoid takedowns or create takedown opportunities, if you want to create shots or not get hit, you’ve got to be able to move your feet.
Mobility is the key to fighting in my humble opinion and Anthony is very meticulous on that. He understands and it comes from years of doing martial arts tournaments. He understands how to hit and not get hit. That’s what style I brought to me from my kickboxing and Muay Thai career, the ability to hit and not get hit. I didn’t sustain a lot of damage when I fought when I used that particular style. I was aggressive, but at the same time, when it came time for me to not be hit, I was gone, and that’s what Anthony is awesome at. He comes in aggressively, steps at different angles and he’s very good at putting himself in a position where he can hit you but you can’t hit him.
But how would you say that with Jose Aldo? He’s a great striker, but he doesn’t seem to move nearly as much. Why is that?
Yeah, he likes to stalk and attack. I would say if I had to characterize his style, and I did a lot of research on Jose Aldo from when Erik Koch was gonna fight him. I know he’s trained with K-1 MAX fighter Andy Souwer so he’s got definitely what we call the Dutch kickboxing influence to his style. They’re more tendency towards trades because I trained with Dutch dudes. He’s more of a stalking style that you see in K-1 fighting or Dutch kickboxing.
And that means what, a little more on the balls of your feet, a little more moving forward and a little more emphasis on power?
Yes, definitely. That style likes to throw hard punch combos followed by hard low kicks followed by hard punches again. You’ll see his jumping knee and things like that. He’s a hell of a fighter too. I love watching Aldo fight. That being said, I love watching Cerrone fight, but I love watching my guys beat those guys.
If you had to mold and create such that one exists, the perfect striker in MMA. Would he be primarily a kicker or primarily a puncher?
I think that kicking’s cool, but if you don‘t have any weapons to set it up, it’s a very, very manic style. It’s like only living and dying as a basketball player that can only dunk the basketball or do lay-ups or only shoot three-pointers. It’s like any other sport, you’ve got to be well-rounded with your attacks. The more attacks you can display, like play action in football. Am I doing a draw, am I pulling back, is it a sweep? The more options you have, it creates more openings.
