Pressure's Place in Combat Sports
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Pressure is one of the most universal concepts in all of sports. However, there is currently a misunderstanding of pressure. Pressure isn't this binary “you are or you aren't”, even if a fighter is pressing forward, he may not be the one controlling the pressure of an exchange.
Even in the counter portion of an exchange, you're seeing and understanding the control of pressure.
MMA is in a state of disarray, as what is clearly ineffective pressuring is routinely rewarded with wins for fighters who are inferior to their opponent (The Diego Sanchez effect). This issue has dominated MMA and led to many outright terrible decisions in favor of fighters who understood what works, per the ruleset, in order to win favor in the judges’ eyes.
Defining Pressure
Let's differentiate between the ways pressure can manifest. There’s proactive pressure, which we distinguish as a guy coming forward, gauging distance and initiating offensive sequences. This is contrasted by a counteractive pressure fighter. Remember that pressure and position are intertwined - if you don't have solid and valid pressure, you're not going to ever be able to advance your position to win.
Both types of approach are using pressure, but seldom do we ever hear counter fighters given the respect they deserve. The increased difficulty of being able to control and dictate the limited exchanges that happen at high level in combat sports is incredible. Take for example Israel Adesanya, he understands distance enough to make guys who have great entries and who are able to traditionally succeed with pressure look flustered and amateurish against him, because he knows how to control it and redirect it. An example of an incredibly gifted and adaptable proactive pressurer is Petr Yan, who actually integrates all the different parts of his game to be able to control and dominate fights. One of my favorite parts of Yan’s game is his outside step series, which allows for him to get off the center line and set up his strikes, but also allows for duck unders and outside steps singles. Yan not only has the tools, but the blueprint to get the job done and in devastating fashion.
But another part of understanding pressure is by knowing what bad pressure looks like. Take for example Yoel Romero and Israel Adesanya’s recent fight. Yoel never saw positional advancement, because his pressure was continually stymied by Adesanya, who kept out of range and prevented the Cuban powerhouse from setting the foundations for a consistent attack. Pressure without a plan has been one of the bigger issues of Yoel Romero’s career as of late, and it used to be remediable. Not long ago, come the third round, Yoel would get the reads he needed to understand what angles he needed to take on his entry, where he needs to be, and what his setups need to be to end someone’s life. But when that pressure lacks planning, which has been the primary issue as of late, along with facing more strategically adept fighters like Paulo Costa, Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya. They weren't willing to play that “what-if” game. Because of this, Yoel sometimes looks inefficient and lacking in fights that he clearly has the ability to be able to win.
Take Joseph Benavidez’s recent loss to Deiveson Figueiredo for the UFC flyweight title. Benavidez has always been an aggressive, competent striker and exceptional scrambler who has good entries and pressures well, but his blitzing style proved largely ineffective against Figueiredo and was his undoing. Figueiredo didn’t take long to get his reads on Benavidez’s spamming entries and over-extension on the exits for every one of his combinations. It only took him a round and change to time a Benavidez blitz for ninth career knockout.
Strategy
Pressure can be beneficial in later rounds as it can accumulate and benefit the guy who's proactively implementing it. A simple way to put it is, you can't take things into deep water if you've already drowned. This blitzing style can be successful against inferior competition without the physical tools to deal with it (strength, speed, or endurance) or against those who are incompetent from a technical standing (keeping head on centerline, evading on a straight line, poor takedown defense). It often doesn’t hold up against guys who are more consistent and effective in implementing their pressure at a higher level. If the pressure you're applying isn't effective or working toward imposing your will or advancing your goal, it's not going to work. We saw this issue with Benavidez, who would just continually look for the same entries with the same strike selection and same exits, because he couldn't adapt that pressure.
An example of a poor counter fighter is Tyron Woodley. His fights are as linear and rote as they come and he fails to show adaptability in his fights. He's not particularly comfortable on the lead if it’s not a direct attempt at a knockout shot off of the strength of his right hand. Most of what he does serves the goal of trying to set up that right hand. He doesn't gauge distance particularly well with a jab, he can't really chain combos all that well, at least not against an opponent who isn’t standing directly in front of him. Woodley's skill-set is predicated on how it can feed into his physical capabilities, and when those aren't enough to cut it, he fails miserably. Where his shortcomings are the most readily apparent are when he tries to establish himself as a counter threat by backing himself all the way up to the cage, banking on the incompetence of the forward pressuring fighter and being able to land his big right hand. This has worked in the past against lesser or limited fighters who couldn’t match his physical skill or adapt their pressure, but against more disciplined and advanced pressure fighters like Rory MacDonald or Kamaru Usman, he's been absolutely decimated.
Stay Tuned
Having given an overview of what pressure means in the context of combat sports, next I will be providing three examples of defined pressure athletes. Together the three athletes will fit the criteria for a counteractive pressurer, a proactive pressurer, and one who I believe combines both approaches. The athletes that will be covered are three-time World fifth place finisher Azamat Nurikov of Belarus, three-time World/Olympic champion Hassan Yazdani Charati of Iran, and reigning 65 KG World champion Gadzhimurad Rashidov of Russia.