Opinion: Defense and Intelligence Win Championships

What qualities separate the elite fighters, especially the world champions, from everyone else? Nowadays, there are a bunch of skilled contenders in almost any weight class. All of them can wrestle. All of them can throw technical, effective strikes, whether with the hands or feet. Many can even string together gorgeous combinations. Most are very good on the ground. Yet the vast majority will never become world champions or even have a realistic shot at doing so. Why? What makes the difference? In recent weeks there were two very instructive fights, one for an Ultimate Fighting Championship title and one “merely” a battle between top contenders at men’s bantamweight, the most highly skilled weight class in MMA, whose elite are as good as or better than the champions of other divisions. I'm specifically talking about Alexa Grasso’s win over Valentina Shevchenko at UFC 285 and Cory Sandhagen against Marlon Vera in the main event of UFC on ESPN 41. In both matches, the reasons for victory were primarily defense and intelligence. Let's examine them more closely, working our way backwards.

Sandhagen vs. Vera

I was surprised when I saw that the betting line for this matchup was so close, as I viewed Sandhagen as a higher caliber of fighter than Vera. However, if one discounts movement, defense, and intelligence, it suddenly makes perfect sense. Both Sandhagen and Vera throw powerful, accurate punches, kicks, knees, and elbows, and can put together amazing combinations. Both have outstanding cardio and are tremendously tough. Both have slick BJJ.

In a roundabout way, it was Vera who identified his own shortcomings when, after delivering a highlight-reel head kick knockout of Dominick Cruz last August, he dismissed Cruz, the greatest bantamweight champion ever, by saying “the way he fights is kind of very low level.” Vera had it exactly backwards, however; it is his own approach that is low level. Let me explain. Vera spends fights looking for a big opening where he can throw his deadly strikes, either knocking his foe out or, after hurting them badly enough, finishing with a lovely submission. If no such openings are forthcoming, however, Vera can be very passive, standing in place and absorbing strikes, being taken down, and losing rounds.

This is why Vera is traditionally such a slow starter, even losing Round 1 against the far less skilled Guido Cannetti a few years ago. Even average fighters at bantamweight are tough to crack in the opening stanza no matter how good one's striking is. This strategy of losing on points in the hopes of getting a finish is not unique to Vera. Brian Ortega had a similar approach. However, there is a big difference. Ortega used this strategy to attain a perfect record of 14-0, but after losing in a UFC title bid against Max Holloway, radically adjusted his whole approach in his very next fight, dominating Chan Sung Jung for five rounds. It took Ortega only one defeat to ditch the approach. Vera, meanwhile, had seven losses coming into the Sandhagen fight. His most recent one, to Jose Aldo in December of 2020, was merely the older, savvier Aldo taking advantage of Vera's low-level approach. Aldo won the first round easily, the second was much closer, and with Vera looking to break through with strikes in the third thanks to his superior cardio, the Brazilian legend switched matters up and wrestled instead.

That is what happened against Sandhagen. Sandhagen has really nice, energetic movement across the cage. He has a very good sense of distance. He uses feints effectively. He has solid defensive instincts. In short, he is a very hard man to hit. If Sandhagen and Vera stood in the middle of the cage and engaged in a toe-to-toe battle, Vera might well triumph, but high-level striking is more than that, and Sandhagen used his movement and defense to bamboozle the Ecuadorian—to hit and not get hit in return.

Of course, that wasn't all there was to it. Sandhagen is constantly improving and evolving as a mixed martial artist. Vera has improved his striking, but has largely stayed the same in other areas, with both his porous takedown defense and inability to get back up being liabilities. Thus, Sandhagen wisely used his improved wrestling to take Vera down, where he kept him and inflicted heavy ground-and-pound. Vera's chin is made of pure granite and he is endlessly tough, so this wasn't going to be enough to win the fight by itself. It meant, however, that Sandhagen was up two rounds to none with only three rounds remaining in the fight, already putting Vera behind the eight ball. Vera is an excellent fighter, but thanks to Sandhagen's vastly better defense and intelligence, he ended up dominating him in a largely one-sided affair.

Grasso vs. Shevchenko

There is a tendency to compare Shevchenko's defeat against Grasso as a giant favorite to her rival Amanda Nunes' loss to Julianna Pena. However, I consider them utterly different. Nunes lost the fight against Pena, while Grasso won against Shevchenko.

Yes, Nunes and Shevchenko, easily the two greatest female fighters ever, are both past their primes now, in their mid-thirties, but Nunes' loss to Pena saw her easily dominate and nearly finish her challenger before gassing out horribly in Round 2, being beaten up before succumbing to a submission. Pena showed amazing heart and toughness, certainly, but it was Nunes who lost.

By contrast, Shevchenko was in good shape and fought very well overall against Grasso. Grasso simply took the title from her, anyway. Again, the two key factors were defense and intelligence. On the feet, the Mexican challenger prevented Shevchenko from finding her usual counter-striking options. She did this with a good sense of distance and beating Shevchenko to the punch with quick, aggressive one-two combinations, keeping her from ever getting comfortable. More importantly, she showed even better defense against Shevchenko's grappling. She moved around a lot on the outside, making it difficult for the champion to grab her, and even when she did, Grasso was much tougher to ground. But eventually Shevchenko did get her takedowns, and Grasso was ready here, too. She knew Shevchenko would work towards her beloved crucifix position, one that she has used to stop Katlyn Chookagian, Jessica Andrade and Lauren Murphy in past title defenses. Grasso expertly timed her scrambles and hip-escapes for when Shevchenko tried to improve her position, managing to regain either her feet or return to a safe position on her back. Thus, taking away her main weapons in the striking and grappling, the deadly Shevchenko had to battle on far more equal terms with Grasso, forced to try to merely out-point her.

In terms of intelligence, Grasso displayed this in two areas. One is her improvement as a martial artist from fight to fight. When Grasso was competing at strawweight, the idea that she could match the skill of Shevchenko was utterly unthinkable. But with her looking better and better with each victory at flyweight, especially her last decisive triumph over Viviane Araujo, suddenly the gap to Shevchenko was much smaller.

The second and perhaps most important area was Grasso's decision-making during the fight itself. Despite all that I have written, Shevchenko was up two rounds to one and clearly winning the fourth on the feet halfway through the stanza. Despite Grasso fighting as well as she ever had, and doing everything right, she still appeared on her way to losing a competitive decision. Grasso never became discouraged, though, and in a scramble, saw a golden opportunity to take Shevchenko's back. The champion made a mistake, and Grasso crashed through in glorious fashion with a winning rear-naked choke. That rare Shevchenko error only occurred thanks to the pressure Grasso had exerted on her for over 18 minutes at that point. And it was only thanks to Grasso's intelligence that she noticed and took advantage of the situation to sink in a submission.

The next time you're wondering what distinguishes two top fighters, ignore the flashy nonsense about whose left hook is a little harder, or who has a slightly faster head kick. Concentrate on the decidedly technical, unsexy aspects of defense and intelligence.