Quote:
Originally Posted by Tom Yum
Interesting point.
Le's original stand up style is heavily influenced by TKD whereas most MMA fighters start off with westernized muaythai for stand up (not as much emphasis on thai-clinch and elbows, more emphasis on boxing), so Le is more comfortable throwing high, fast kicks that are not normally part of the MMA stand up arsenal.
San shou has allowed Le to keep up and sharpen his TKD skill set, since TMA style kicks are still used but also take up the push kick and thai round kick. Le also used some good kick-catches against Shamrock as well. Spinning back fists too.
Le isn't the first guy to use high, fancy kicks in full-contact fighting. There was a guy named Manson Gibson who used to fight muaythai in thailand in the 80's - I think he came from either a chinese ma background or kenpo. While he was a so-so fighter, alot of his wins were by KO with high, fancy kicks.
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all those spin back kicks, side kicks, and sidekick/backfist combinations can be trained and used effectively. people just think they are of no value because you dont see them in mma. i guarantee you after this fight, you are going to see people veering back towards those so called "fancy moves" after seeing le use them. i mean, look at the sidekick/backfist combination lee used multiple times. looks crazy, but that backfist just feeds off the sidekick. that move is a very simple one, but people will see that and think its crazy or on a whole nother level because most guys in mma just stick with boxing or mt or they were told by others that its no good.