Thread by @crwate01, Let's talk about Power: One of the common mistakes in early combat [...]

Let's talk about Power:

One of the common mistakes in early combat sports fandom is doing 1:1 correlation between power and finishes. While the two are correlated, it's more complicated than that.

I generally think of power in two varieties:
True Power
Athletic (Speed) Power

Covering the second first, speed kills. I think most everyone knows the classic saying, "It's the punches that you don't see coming that knock you out." and one of the best ways to land those sort of punches is speed.

Michael Johnson is for my money the best example.

Johnson is best known for his KO's, of Dustin Poirier in particular, but actually only 4 of his 11 UFC victories come from finishes. Out of those 4 though, 3 are straight KO's.

One thing to note about this is that of those 4, all of them are in the first half of the fight.

This is one of the things that separates athletic punchers from power punchers. Someone with real power will carry there power through a fight. Someone who needs speed will usually land their finishes early.

One of the most powerful punchers in the UFC is Dustin Poirier. Note how he had the ability to be damage and then finish Justin Gaethje after an absolutely grueling fight:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/ImpressiveDearGardensnake-size_restricted.gif

The other important aspect of "true" power punchers is that their strikes wear on their opponent consistently. Let's look at two of the most striking examples from recent years.

First is one of the most monstrous punchers in boxing, Beterbiev.

This is from the last round of his fight against Gvodzyk, a borderline Top 10 P4P opponent who won his belt by defeating an incredible puncher in Adonis Stevenson. After 10 rounds against Beterbiev though his body simply can't take it:

https://giphy.com/gifs/icO9NGGnyXZTCYLJ3e via @GIPHY

Anyone seeing this with a familiarity with MMA will almost certainly be reminded of the recent Gaethje-Ferguson finish. Ferguson proved totally mentally unbreakable, but every body has limits:

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SpitefulShorttermBongo-size_restricted.gif

Gaethje and Beterbiev are able to fight with the attritive styles they have in part because they know their power will tell overtime. It's unavoidable. Still, if someone with that type of power lands clean, you are going out.

https://giphy.com/gifs/1Ag3wrjQq4H9gEFEC9 via @GIPHY

This from probably the hardest puncher ever in Muay Thai, Saensak Muangsurin:

https://giphy.com/gifs/UtzEJwRqRe7xnKUc24 via @GIPHY

That's what to look for inside of the fight. Outside of that overall finish %'s are a fine start, but generally what I'm really looking for is who did they finish? Take Dustin Poirier again.

Alvarez and Gaethje have made careers as damage sponges, but Dustin finished them both. In addition, guys like CDF, Yancy Medieros and Bobby Green had extended careers without being finished by strikes until they met him. He them all in about 8 minutes combined.

This brings me to the final point which is that of course some guys, and I think Dustin is probably the best example in MMA right now, do combine the athletic and "pure" styles. Anthony Johnson is probably the best pure example from MMA off the top of my head.

Mike Tyson is probably the most famous example, but I'll leave off with two other guys who combined both.
Thomas Hearns (Don't worry Duran people, not that one):

https://giphy.com/gifs/lrQHCkCL1vYkjkps2r via @GIPHY

And maybe the best pure puncher in combat sports of all-time, Julian the Hawk Jackson:

https://giphy.com/gifs/Jr4Ss8xX7FG3cp6Nki via @GIPHY

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