MMA Wall Work

In brief, what skills you learn today might no longer work in a few years. The fact is it is the fastest evolving aspect of MMA.

Fighting against the cage is something unique to MMA, and has no close link with any other martial arts discipline at all.

There is an amalgam in the sport that fighting against the cage has a strong link with wrestling – however, this is completely false.

Wrestling is in an open space, with a way to sprawl or/and disengage even with limited circle space during tournaments. The hips and legs can be kept far away from the opponent at all times. Hence, one shouldn’t compare wrestling to fighting against the wall as it is two different verticals.

In Freestyle Wrestling, the legs can be kept far away at all time. If the fight goes out of the delimited circle, they will be automatically placed back in the centre by the referee.

Wall wrestling can also be seen as vertical Brazilian Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because the importance of the leverage is being used.

We are no longer in an open space area in which we can sprawl and keep the legs & hips away from opponent grabbing or tripping.

Other types of techniques need to be used to defend the takedowns which are unique to fighting against the cage, ie “splitting” sideways and keeping the feet completely stuck against the cage not allowing any space to trip them.

Khabib Nurmagomedov is considered as one of the best takedown artists in the game, but this is also an amalgam, he indeed is a great wrestler but most importantly an excellent wall fighter, most of his takedowns were initiated against the cage or completed against the cage.

Khabib initiating a takedown off the cage & to later complete it against the cage.

Khabib set up his grips against the cage & completing the takedown in the middle of the cage.

A viral video of Khabib wrestling & completely dominating one of the best high school freestyle wrestlers in the USA.

The kid got taken down against the padded wall, with a very basic wall trip, not splitting or keeping his feet against the wall, not knowing pretty much nothing on how to deal with the cage, as he power arch his back while getting shown to the floor.

Khabib bringing down a high-level wrestler against the padded wall with a simple beginner wall trip. The high level collegial wrestler didn’t know the basic defence of splitting and keeping his feet pressed against the cage.

Being pressed against the cage can work with or against you depending on your knowledge.

When used properly, the wall can be used as a leaning support to maintain you standing up effortlessly against certain takedown techniques (which works in an open space) while picking some shots and scoring points.

Founder Samir Mrabet refusing to get pulled out off the cage on a single leg, works to get back pushed against the cage & and elbowing the side of the head in a heavy split position while his opponent is parking in that position.

Fighter properly splitting sideways against the cage and taking the opportunity to deliver powerful elbows to the side of the head on a fighter who parked on his knees for too long.

The cage can also be used to stand back up to the feet when taken down off the cage, as well as serving as extra learning support to set up takedown which would have been riskier with no support.

Fighter on the bottom using the cage to stand back up.

Khabib setting the wizard and wrist control, before getting on one leg while using his own back against the cage as extra support before completing the takedown.

A beautiful hip toss being backed up against the cage and using it as extra leverage.

When the fight hits the ground, being nearby the cage does change the perplexion of the game.

It can change the preferred positions to have on the ground, as the person on the bottom can use the cage to reverse or stand back up. A position that gives lesser points in BJJ could be seen as a more advantageous position on the ground when near the cage (IE half guard >> side control & mount).

If well drilled, it has a better advantage to let the top opponent pass half guard to side control when being against the cage, and using the cage to get back up, rather than letting him stay in half guard.

Besides being pressed against the fence, being nearby the fence in the stand-up also have some implications.

It has a factor on the fight strategy, no matter if you are the one with the cage behind you or the one controlling the space.

Some combination that would easily be avoided in an open space, but becomes very hard to avoid if your back is few feet away from the cage, being in between the cage and the opponent.

Spinning kicks have a higher probability to land when the opponent has limited space to back away.

Also, if your back is a few feet away from the cage, you wouldn’t want to risk getting pressed against the cage as you could eventually be taken down. For example, you must become more cautious about throwing leg kicks which could be caught and not have enough space to defend the catch before hitting the cage. In this situation, the striking options are vastly reduced and one has to keep it simple and ready for counters in case the opponent rushes in to press against the cage.

A fighter – backed up a few feet from the cage – countering the rushing fighter with a short uppercut.

This feeling of entrapment must be trained at the gym. Otherwise, it can lead to making mistakes.

Fighter getting his kick caught with his back nearby the cage, becomes an easy target for the right hand.

Team Quest, founded by 2 division UFC & Pride FC Champions Randy Couture & Dan Henderson, are the pioneer of wall fighting. Samir, the founder of Monarchy MMA, was the first martial artist from Malaysia to go there and bring back the knowledge to the country.

In 2015, he passed the knowledge to Mehdi, a very accomplished wrestler. He was surprised about the techniques, and later on, adapted them into his wrestling-dominant MMA style.

During the wall work classes in Monarchy MMA, you will be taught how to manage all these situations so you will always know what do to in each one of these scenarios.