Prospect Watch: Ade Permana
As MMA is a new sport, it still has a fairly linear development curve. With some exceptions, each new generation of fighters is generally more skilled than the last, and the meta-game is constantly evolving. Although MMA is better today than ever from a skill perspective, there’s arguably something lost in its increasing systemization. As the sport improves, fighters continue patching weaknesses and closing large gaps in their skillset. While this results in higher level contests across the board, it’s also true that some of the most exciting moments in combat sports are a result of those large gaps.
Take submission grappling as an example - it’s often more exciting to watch purple or brown belts compete than elite black belts. A solid purple or brown belt is still good enough offensively to make a match interesting, but they have defensive gaps that lead to continuous and exciting transitions. Elite grapplers more often engage in a game of inches - they are so skilled that they successfully close those windows of opportunity and snuff out transition openings.
There was a time when MMA seemed to be regularly producing that kind of high-octane scramble fest. They would usually involve at least one Japanese journeyman, the quality of grappling wasn’t all that high, and they could usually wrestle just enough to bring a willing opponent to the mat, but what they lacked in skill, they made up for in workrate.
Ade Permana is a throwback to the age of the scramble-fest. A fast-paced grappler with a keen eye for transitions, Permana competes in the Indonesian organization One Pride. He’s an Atomweight (105lbs), and both Sherdog and Tapology list his age as “N/A”. Permana is also incredible early in his career, starting professional competition in late 2018.
There isn’t much to say about Permana’s skillset on the feet. He seems fairly sound in terms of technique and form when he throws his strikes, but lacks any kind of process or overall “game”. He hasn’t yet figured out how to create linkages between his striking and grappling or to systematize his striking so that it builds off his highest percentage attacks.
So far, Pemana’s striking amounts to a sharp straight left and some tricky kicks. The tricky kicks don’t often land, but he has a decent body kick that he’s capable of timing on his opponent’s entry.
Permana likes to operate at a long distance and hasn’t looked very comfortable closing it or fighting in the pocket so far. There is one element of his striking that stands out above the rest, however:
Permana is incredibly diligent at countering his opponent’s kicks, either by stepping in and blasting a straight down the middle or catching the kick and dumping his opponent. His propensity for kick-catching makes me think he may have some Sanda experience, as this is a rare skill for MMA fighters to possess, especially so early into their careers.
The striking is only a means to an end, however, and Permana does most of his work on the ground. He isn’t much of a shot wrestler, mostly getting on top through the clinch, where he works with solid trips, overhook throws, and some quick but sloppy bodylock work.
There’s a lot to like about Permana’s clinch game, but equally much that needs to be shored up. He has a good eye for using head position and frames to manipulate his opponent’s balance and create space to strike or grapple - in the above clip, you can see him set up an outside trip by using head position and blocking the hip to force his opponent to pressure in, before angling off to hit the trip. He’s lazy about pummeling for underhooks though, and can be bullied by stronger wrestlers who are able to fight for head position and bypass his frames.
While Permana’s game lacks process in its current form, with little connection between his striking and grappling, he has shown some promise in that direction. He’s shown himself to be at least thinking about how to put them together, which is encouraging from a fighter at such an early stage:
Permana will occasionally use a non-committal low kick or a left hand to duck into the clinch, closing distance while drawing out and avoiding a counter. In both these sequences, however, he ends up in poor position on entry and is forced to work out of it - first by catching a kick and then by muscling past his opponent’s frames, where a craftier opponent could’ve closed off the entry or punished him.
Although Permana has trouble maintaining strong positioning in the clinch when opponents are diligent and strong with underhooks, he’s a decent clinch striker and can deal some damage when he secures a control position. Here he uses a whizzer and frame on the face to isolate his opponent’s underhook and run him into knees, before funneling him into a front headlock and jumping on a guillotine.
The real meat of Permana’s skillset is found in his top game. While he lacks somewhat in his ability to take the fight to the ground, many of his opponents so far have been willing grapplers. Once on top, Permana mixes quick-fire guard passes with deft ground striking.
Leg drags are one of the more consistent passes in MMA, as they combine perfectly with punches, allowing a standing fighting to toss his opponent’s legs aside while punching past the guard. Permana makes excellent use of these leg drags and uses misdirection to flatten the opponent’s hips when he’s having a tough time securing the pass, feinting directions changes and shucking the legs until an opening is presented.
Once past the guard, Permana looks to mount and take the back. He can get a little over-eager, but his control from the back is one of the stronger points of his game. He he posts out to avoid being bucked off as his opponent turns and uses near-side hook control to realign his hips and wiggle out from underneath his opponent. As his opponent rapidly turns, he stabilizes the position with underhooks, eventually posting his right foot on the hip to create space, before sneaking the knee inside and solidifying back control.
Right now, Permana’s back-takes all come out of forcing opponents to turn in mount, or capitalizing on poor positioning mistakes. As he matures and starts fighting better competition, he’ll likely need to develop new routes to the back, as both of these methods are less consistent against higher level opponents who won’t allow you to settle in mount or make those kind of positioning errors.
The front headlock has seen increased use as a control position over the past few years in MMA. While a number of submissions can be launched from the front headlock, it also has a lot of utility in shutting down transitions. If the man on top is already past one of the opponent’s hips (in half guard or side control), their options to stand up are fairly limited. You either turn into your man or away from him. If the bottom player turns in, the front headlock is there and with it, a submission attempt or a route to the back. If the threat of the front headlock forces the opponent to turn away, the back can be attacked directly.
Permana has an emerging front headlock game that, while not fully developed, provides great utility in its connection with his passing and top game. Not only has he shown the ability to funnel opponents into the front headlock when they’re able to turn into him on the ground, but he also has a keen eye for dealing damage in transitions. He hasn’t yet been able to achieve extended control with the front headlock, but he can slow their ascent and deal damage while they attempt to escape. One point against his use of the front headlock, however, is that he relies too much on low-percentage guillotines to defend takedowns, which often winds him up on the bottom.
By far the most unique aspect of Permana’s game is a ground striking arsenal as creative as it is deadly. One Pride allows knees to the head of a grounded opponent and also seems to allow the 12-6 elbows banned under the unified rules. Permana makes excellent use of these weapons.
His ground and pound isn’t only punishing, but also conceptually sharp. He mixes up targets well, alternating body and head attacks, and creates positions that allow him to strike with impunity. He’ll force the opponent’s face into the floor to break their posture and tee off with knees, or pin a wrist down with his shin and drop 12-6 elbows on their face. He shows great ingenuity in his targets, and it isn’t rare to see him brutalize an opponent’s rib cage with 12-6 elbows.
I mentioned before that Permana was a throwback to the age of the journeyman grappler, and part of the reason his fights are so fun is that he makes a ton of mistakes. He’s fighting competition befitting a 4-0 fighter who’s only been competing for two years. None of his opponents have over 5 fights themselves, but many were still able to capitalize on his errors enough to produce the zany, free-flowing scrambles that have become less common in high-level MMA.
In the first sequence, Permana allows his opponent to sneak in an underhook while he pushes the leg to pass half guard. He underhooks on the near side himself, which only serves to trap his own arm. Instead of whizzering to put pressure on the underhook, Permana tries to pin the head and arm - a tenuous position itself in no gi - but he also fails to control the near elbow, allowing his opponent to sneak out the back. In typical fashion, he quickly recovers with a high-amplitude throw. In the second sequence, he passes to mount with his head and arm trapped and his opponent rolls him over, but Permana uses it to attack an armbar.
One of Permana’s more persistent errors in positioning is that he tends to square his stance while standing up in guard. Most fighters approach a grounded opponent in a tall, bladed stance to avoid upkicks and maintain balance. By squaring his stance while posturing up and punching, Permana leaves a weak plane in his stance in the same direction his opponent’s hips are facing, which makes it easy for them to grab the legs and hip in to knock him backwards. Permana leaves himself in an undesirable mid-range guard, neither pressuring in heavily nor controlling the legs on the outside. Posturing up in guard like this is fine as long as you have grips that prevent your opponent from getting to your legs, but Permana quickly abandons his grips to start striking. As the position is not stable for striking, Permana tends to get knocked off balance.
This video demonstrates some of the positional concepts around ground striking that Permana struggles with. Notice especially how GSP is either pressuring in or controlling the legs outside when standing above the guard, preventing those kinds of sweeping opportunities.
Finally, there’s the matter of Permana’s takedown defense. To put it mildly, there isn’t any. Permana primarily defends takedowns by threatening guillotines and attempting to scramble off his back, but there’s very little in terms of early-stage takedown defense. While he’s been able to outscramble and wear down his current competition, the lack of takedown defense will be a big issue if he starts fighting stronger wrestlers and top players.
His entire defensive wrestling arsenal is essentially Michael Johnson’s guillotine attempt on Khabib Nurmagomedov
When discussing the weaker points of Permana’s game, it’s important to keep in mind how nascent he is. He’s only N/A years old (according to MMA record sites, although Google translate of the official ONE Pride page lists him at 30 years old), with less than two full years of professional competition under his belt. His game has barely started developing, and he’s still trying to figure out who he is as a fighter - what his most consistent weapons are, how to build threats around them and find routes to his favored positions, and how to navigate challenges in his opponents’ skillsets.
Permana reminds me of a very early version of Charles Oliveira, and if he continues developing his game to a high level, I think he’s likely to look something like that. His biggest weapons right now are his top game and his clinch, and he links those together with the front headlock. A high level version of his general strategic outlook resembles Oliveira, who uses his striking and clinch to funnel opponents into his front headlock and bodylock takedowns.
When I write prospect pieces, I usually make a projection on the talent’s ceiling. I’m not going to do that with Permana, because it’s too early in his development to get a good read on his potential outcomes. He has a solid bare-bones framework to build upon, but most of the work necessary to take him to a high level still needs to be done. There isn’t much information on his training situation - and indeed, I don’t know if he’s able to get the sort of wrestling training he needs in Indonesian camps.
But regardless of whether Permana is able to “put it all together,” the fact remains that his fights are worth watching on an entertainment basis alone. In some way, perhaps it’s his rawness as a competitor that produces such interesting scramble-fests.