Combat Archives

State Change in Combat and Self-Defense

Combat, Features | 13 July 2024

State Change: Alex Pereira vs. Jamahal Hill

The draft for this blog post got started as soon as Alex Pereira knocked out Jamahal Hill in UFC 300. Alex got kicked slightly below the belt, pointed it out, abruptly stopped Herb Dean from halting proceedings, then pulled down Hill’s lead hand to hit a short left hook for the knockout. Jamahal Hill has since expressed disbelief at the result and reiterated that he wasn’t hurt and that moment was a chance occurrence that doesn’t conclusively prove that Pereira is superior to him. What I think happened to Hill at that moment was a state change, an underdiscussed concept in fighting that we shall look at more closely in this blog post. (more…)

Kickboxing: The Linux of Combat Sports

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Kickboxing | 27 June 2024

People are weird. There are those who eschew violence altogether, so they steer clear of combat sports, which is understandable. Then there are those who are connoisseurs of violence like myself, so they consume every combat sport under the sun and even participate and compete in them. Finally, there are those who are somewhat into that violence and are casually receptive to combat sports, but there’s a gaping hole in the shape of kickboxing. (more…)

Most People Don’t Understand Muay Thai

by: Sonny Go

Essays, Muay Thai | 14 May 2024

Muay Thai is one of the most popular martial arts in the world, as well as one of the most enigmatic. There are only around 69 million native Thai speakers in the world, most of them residing in Thailand, and very few of them are knowledgeable in the martial art. Translating both language and culture to explain both its physical and spiritual aspects is difficult. Most of it gets lost in translation, which is why most people tend to misunderstand Muay Thai. This is an attempt at clarifying what this martial art is really trying to present itself as. (more…)

Combat Nobelitis: Being High Off Your Own Supply

by: Sonny Go

Boxing, Opinion | 25 March 2024

One of the major factors to the continued mainstream relevance of combat sports is its perceived usefulness in real world physical conflicts. You can’t say the same for basketball, football, baseball, and so on (but perhaps volleyball has some crossover). However, things do get silly when you start theorycrafting about which style is best for real fighting. Gordon Ryan, the best grappler in the world right now, did just that with boxing. (more…)

Naoya Inoue Really is a Video Game Character

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Boxing | 29 December 2023

That’s my conclusion after Naoya Inoue’s eventual destruction of Marlon Tapales, who had a pretty solid game plan that was giving him trouble. Tapales found a way to nullify the Japanese champion’s vaunted right hand, but the ninth round then saw Inoue solve the problem by throwing it harder and more often. The tenth then saw him become sure of that solution and blasted through Tapales’ guard like a wrecking ball going through a condemned building. (more…)

Colby Covington: When a Bad Guy is No Longer Believable

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Mixed Martial Arts, Pro Wrestling | 20 December 2023

I’ll keep this short since there’s not much analysis to be had here. It’s just a short note on the current predicament of Colby Covington, the one-time interim UFC Welterweight Champion and now three-time title challenger. He lost all three title shots, and he’ll not likely get a fourth at the age of 35. How he carried himself and insulted his opponent Leon Edwards before the fight, handled his decision loss to the champion, and how fans reacted to his apparent lack of self-awareness is a case study for anyone looking to use antagonism for their own public image. (more…)

There’s No Weight Behind Your Attacks, Demon Girl

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Anime / Manga, Combat | 27 November 2023

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End — Stark vs. Linie

My anime of the year for 2023 is Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. I don’t watch much anime these days, but I had been looking out for this anime adaptation of one of the best manga I’ve read in recent years. Not only does it have a compelling premise, but it also has lots of juicy ideas in it. The writing of Kanehito Yamada and the animation of Madhouse combined make for one of the best anime series for even non-weebs. For my first post on this show, I’d like to talk about a specific episode that briefly gets into an important martial arts concept. (more…)

Where Does Punching Power Really Come From?

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Combat | 18 October 2023

When beginners start learning about fundamentals in martial arts, they’re told what armchair coaches on social media tend to parrot. After all, seemingly esoteric knowledge for beginners and casuals is surface level information to longtime martial artists. Those tidbits on why you should keep your feet planted and turn your hip as you punch or kick are mostly true, although not the complete truth. The power does indeed come from the ground and from the hips, but not really. Knowing the whole truth can help practitioners take their punching power to the next level. (more…)

Get Out of Your Own Way

by: Sonny Go

Life and Philosophy, Mixed Martial Arts, Opinion, Pro Wrestling | 08 September 2023

After the recent news of a particular individual being given the boot out of a certain company, I had to write about not only that situation, but also what I think is the cause. It wasn’t just an organizational problem, but also a personal one. I’ve wanted to write about ego and how it can affect a person’s judgment and their ability to work well with others. The greatest trick your ego can pull is to convince you that you’re one and the same and that you need that ego to be who you are. That’s a path of self-destruction, and many never learn to get out of their own way. (more…)

More on Playing Lame and the Art of Defense

by: Sonny Go

Combat, Esports, Features, History | 06 December 2022

Winky Wright, Admiral Yi Sun-sin, and Hungrybox

This is a follow-up to one of my favorite blog posts I’ve ever written. It’s understandable why defense is seen as lame and boring, while self-sacrificial offense is seen as valiant and entertaining. We can have idiots who deliberately put themselves in harm’s way and get people cheering their lungs off while downing gallons of Bud Light, then not be given even an ounce of shit about when they can barely remember their own names years down the line. That’s especially true for combat sports, but we can also look at other fields as well and see how the fundamentally sound are also given the short end of the stick, even in hindsight. (more…)

Canelo vs. GGG 3: Perfectly Calculated Risk

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Boxing | 22 September 2022

Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is in an interesting spot in his career. He’s in his prime at the age of 32 and is one of the most technically interesting fighters in boxing today. He tried to capture the light-heavyweight world title only to be upset by Dmitry Bivol, who turned out to have the perfect game plan against Canelo’s style. Having taken the second loss in his career, he set out to prove that he’s still the king of middleweight not by fighting the other top contenders of the division, but by completing a trilogy with a 40-year-old Gennady Golovkin. I can’t promise much with this analysis of Canelo vs. GGG 3, but it’s a nice conclusion to what had been an exciting trilogy. (more…)

The Three Levels of Combat

by: Sonny Go

Analysis, Combat | 19 September 2022

My eternal quest to find the parallels between real fighting and video games will go on for as long as I live because I have to compensate for my lack of skill and talent in both. My unwillingness to dedicate a significant amount of time in practicing either of them is equaled by my overwhelming need to seem knowledgeable and insightful by bridging the gap between them in increasingly convoluted ways. Let’s now talk about the three levels of combat. (more…)