Kickboxers have married boxing concepts to the use of the legs and feet as striking tools. UFC fighters specializing in kickboxing typically have experience in American Kickboxing, or the Thai art of Muay Thai. Many fighters also start out as children taking part in more traditional martial arts such as Tae Kwon Do or karate. Now, along with the benefits of hand strikes, fighters have the option of using feet, elbows, shins, and knees to strike their opponents. And while hand strikes can be devastating, properly delivered kicks can generate many times more power and devastation than their smaller counterparts.
In today’s UFC, fighters appreciate the strategic advantage that kicks provide. They offer the opportunity to reach out at a further distance and strike than is afforded the hands. In an Octagon that is 30 feet across, a kick that has been properly set up can end the fight before it even starts.
And many UFC fighters, like Chuck Liddell, have scored awesome knockouts using a roundhouse kick to the head of an opponent. A fighter like UFC veteran Pedro Rizzo prefers to keep his kicks lower, lashing out at the legs of his opponents. There are enough people who have experienced the power of a Rizzo leg kick to know that they are extremely effective, mainly because after taking a few of them, walking and throwing your own kicks or even planting your foot to throw a punch becomes an exercise in painful futility.
In close, knees can be brought into play. Particularly in the clinch, fighters can wrap their hands around the head of their opponent and using that as leverage, bring their knees up into the face repeatedly. If the fighter on the receiving end of those knee strikes does not get himself out of there, he may well end up having his face rearranged and losing the fight.
Kickboxing has definitely earned the respect of UFC fighters. Whatever art they choose to study to integrate effective kicks into their own arsenal, most UFC fighters keep an eye out for a chance to unleash their own brand of kickboxing on an unwary opponent.
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