As head coach and striking instructor at the Grudge Training Center, in Denver, Colorado, Trevor Wittman has helped finetune the pugilistic skills of a number of elite-level mixed martial artists, including Rashad Evans, Nate Marquardt, Shane Carwin, and Brendan Schaub. This month, Wittman and mixed martial artist Lorawnt-T Nelson show readers how to up the anti by adding the uppercut and uppercut-counter to their arsenal.
COUNTER THE LEFT JAB WITH A RIGHT UPPERCUT
1) Wittman begins in an orthodox stance. Nelson throws a lead left jab, but Wittman slips the punch to the outside and closes the distance with his feet. As Nelson pulls his left elbow back, Wittman throws the right uppercut underneath Nelson’s elbow so that he cannot see it coming.
COUNTER THE LEAD UPPERCUT WITH AN OVERHAND RIGHT
2) Wittman begins in an orthodox stance. He throws a lead uppercut without closing the distance by throwing a left jab. This leaves his left shoulder low and his chin exposed, and Nelson throws an overhand right. This is the counter-punch that Rashad Evans used to knock out Chuck Liddell at UFC 88.
LEFT JAB TO RIGHT UPPERCUT
3) Wittman begins in an orthodox stance. He throws a left jab over Nelson’s right shoulder to close the gap with his feet. Wittman follows up by throwing a right uppercut, while keeping his left shoulder high so that Nelson cannot counter with an overhand right.
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