Fight Breakdown: My One BIG Mistake, Leg Kicks & Sweep Technique

TAKING A MUAY THAI FIGHT ON SHORT NOTICE IN THAILAND

By Evan Lee

Thailand -- the birthplace of Muay Thai, and as such, there are many wild things that can happen in Thailand that would rarely if ever happen in any other place.

"Such as, Evan???"

Whoa, whoa! Hold your horses! I was just about to tell you!

Wild and crazy things SUCH AS... taking a fight on 10-hours notice.

That is precisely what our boy Sean "Muay Thai Guy" Fagan did (the wild and crazy man that he is!)

How did it play out? See for yourself.

Fight Breakdown: My One BIG Mistake, Leg Kicks & Sweep Technique (Round 1)

STANCE-SWITCHING & SWITCH-HITTING

As Sean stated in the beginning of the video, he is a big fan of switching from stance to stance to throw off his opponent. Muay Thai stance-switching and switch-hitting can be incredibly effective ways to confuse your opponent and will allow you to find a hole even in the best defenses in the world. 

Let’s look at Andy Ristie vs. Giorgio Petrosyan, for instance.

Andy Ristie is a wild fighter and the premier switch-hitter. Giorgio Petrosyan is known as the 'Floyd Mayweather of kickboxing' with a record of 85 wins, two draws, and only one loss at the time. Yet what happened when they fought? Ristie found the holes in Petrosyan’s defense and knocked him out.

If you are looking to rip through your opponent’s defense, there is no better tool than switch-hitting.

Those gaps, by the way, are not going to expose themselves, and if you’re taking an incredibly short notice fight like Sean is here (which will happen to you in Thailand), you will not have the time to game plan for an opponent and figure out where those gaps are.

That's why it is crucial to focus on techniques like the jab and the teep. These are two techniques that will never fail you. They are not only tools that help set up other techniques, but they are also incredibly safe to throw because of how little body weight they require you to commit, unlike an overhand right for instance.

Speaking of body weight, knowing when your opponent is shifting weight is crucial for landing leg kicks. Sean mentioned in his breakdown that he likes to bait his opponents forward and then step back to throw the low kick. This is effective because the moment your opponent steps forward with a strike, they are committing much of their weight onto one leg or the other.

Imagine you’re being kicked in your lead leg. If you have too much weight on the lead leg, you will not be able to lift it up to check. If you have too much weight on the back leg, you can lift your lead leg up to check, but the check will be weak because there’s no weight behind it.

This simple principle is actually the key to Ernesto Hoost’s incredible success with low kicks. The reason why the left hook to leg kick combo is so effective is because it requires your opponent to commit body weight in order to defend the hook or it pushes your opponent’s body weight onto the lead leg.

But there is more to break down, and that’s what’s coming next...