Left Hook Liger: Dan Ige's Left Hand Tricks

VANCOUVER, CANADA - JUNE 10: (L-R) Nate Landwehr takes a punch from Dan Ige during the UFC 289 event at Rogers Arena on June 10, 2023 in Vancouver, Canada. (Photo by Jordan Jones/Getty Images)

UFC 289 had quite a few fun fights (including the PPV opener between Barriault and Anders, winner of the Fight of the Night Award), but in my opinion, the best fight of the night was starred by featherweights Dan "50K" Ige and Nate "The Train" Landwehr.

The stocky Hawaiian, Ige, had a rough patch, losing four out of five fights. This included fights against high-level competition; he dropped unanimous decisions in 5-round main events against Calvin Kattar and The Korean Zombie, and also lost decisions to now-former interim title contender Josh Emmett (in a fight I thought he won) and rising prospect Movsar Evloev. His only win during this period came via a very quick knockout against Gavin Tucker back in March 2021.

Ige flatlines an incoming Tucker with a right hand

He bounced back last January, facing a lower level of opposition from the still dangerous and tricky Damon Jackson. Here Ige put his best attributes to good use, as his athleticism, speed, power, and striking craft and tricks allowed him to get a beautiful counter left hook KO.

Right hook to the body, left hook upstairs

Now he found himself on the main card of a PPV for the first time in more than three years. Standing on the opposite side of the octagon was Nate "The Train" Landwehr. The 35-year-old saw a shaky start to his UFC run, going 1-2 and getting knocked out by knees by both Herbert Burns and Julian Erosa in the opening round of both fights. But he has since mounted a 3-fight winning streak, establishing himself not only as a certified action fighter but also as an incredibly tough and conditioned guy who only gets better as fights go on. For Ige, this looked to be a tougher version of the Jackson fight, against a tougher, more athletic, and better put-together version of him, but at the same time, it was the fight that would determine if his days at the upper echelon of the division were over. For Landwehr, this was his ticket to the rankings and his would-be breakout moment on a PPV main card.

Left Hand Tricks

For Ige, this fight was all about setting up the left hook and he relies in an interesting mixture of good fundamentals and tricks to find a home for it. Usually the shorter fighter Ige has to either close the distance, or take full advantage when his opponent does it for him to land his money shot. Against Landwehr this was no different, as “The Train” not only enjoyed a height and reach advantage, but his upright stance and front kicks from range can make him feel longer than he is. Ige, as many other MMA fighters from varying qualities, is a regular user of shifts to close distance, that meaning he likes to change stances mid combination to cover more ground with his strikes. While shifting might be something of an oddity in boxing, in the MMA meta, fighting inside big cages, with the long distance fights are usually contested (because of the addition of both kicking and takedowns as opposed to boxing) and the defaulting to just exiting range as a mean of defense, shifting has come to be a very effective technique, even when the execution can look like a complete mess.

TJ Dillashaw and Dustin Poirier are two fighters who made effective use of shifting offense at the elite level

Ige made good use of shifts to set-up his left hook, a lot of times throwing it from the rear side as a southpaw.

But the thing with shifts, and why they are considered a risky tactic, is that they by definition make you cross your feet and lose a defensibly responsible stance, and therefore they need to be concealed against any kind of decent opposition to work effectively. This can be done with feints and conditioning. Both immediate feints mid-combination and constant long running feints ideally work together to dull the senses of your foe to avoid counters, and making said foe react to those feints by conditioning him with actual strikes will usually do a lot of the heavy lifting. That’s where Ige’s jab came into play and what allowed him to be so successful, especially early, with his shifting tactics. Ige is not the most layered jabber, but he still manages to make it work in a lot of situations. Mixing his jabs with feints not only allowed him to set up bigger movements but also to sneakily pressure his opponent or regain initiative and re-position himself if put on the backfoot.

Ige’s jab accomplishing different goals: pushing his opponent to the fence, setting up bigger shots, compete at long range with a kicker and regaining initiative safely

Landwehr wanted to counter, but he had a hard time timing “50K”’s entries, not only because of the jab but because Ige was making sure to mask his entries with smaller strikes, and use his shifts to take angles. He also varied his targets or attacked his man during retreats, making the most out of his shifting attacks.

While most of his shifting attacks began with a right hand, here, with the threat already established, Ige just uses the level change to freeze Landwehr in place, shifts into an advantageous angle, and cracks him with a rear left hand in this beautiful Mike Tyson-esque knockdown.

Landwehr wasn’t that easy of a customer, though, and as the fight went on, Ige’s shifts were less effective, not because Nate got the timing right for his counters but because he made smart tactical adjustments to deal with them:

Landwehr grabbing collar ties to deal with the shifts. Even if he was hit by the first few strikes of a combo, he was stopping Ige’s momentum and countering with knees and punches over the top. Ige managed to mostly stay safe and avoid big damage thanks to his high guard discipline and his mind to push away and/or frame at the right moments

Two other tactics that were seldomly used but proved effective were: using the level change to attack takedowns and strike during transitions; and counter-jabbing

Luckily for the Hawaiian fighter, shifts and jabs was not all he could do to land his left hand, and as the fight progressed and Landwehr, who was clearly behind on the scorecards, started getting more aggressive, it was his counter left hook the one doing the damage that his shifts were doing early.

Ige’s counter left hook mostly surprises fighters after the right hand when they think the exchange is over. But he’s also good at doubling with it and attacking it after changing levels to avoid a strike

All in all, a solid, entertaining, and exciting performance by the man they call "50K". I’m very interested to see how his career develops from here, he might not have that much time left, but either gatekeeping for the elite, or having another crack at the upper echelons of featherweight, I’ll be sure to tune in for his next fight. I’ll leave you with a clip that shows a lot of the elements discussed in the article working together.

Feño Sky