Tuesday, May 12, 2009

TECHNIQUE: Superman Punch in MMA

Here is an early instance of the Superman Punch used in MMA:

BIB - Beatdown in Bakersfield - Savant Young X Danny Suarez - 2006-11-17


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NOTE: The above 2 animated pix were made by me off of a youtube flv. The quality is not that good as you can see, but the source wasn't high quality:








2 recent instances of the Superman Punch. Not my pix, my thanks to the unknown gif maker(s) for them. I got them off of Spladdle and uploaded to my pichost to save on bandwidth:

UFC 92 - Forrest Griffin X Rashad Evans



UFC 94 - GSP X BJ Penn






For more info:



Expert Village's How-To instructional vidclip






It is said that some TMA like Goju-Ryu, TKD as well as Muay Thai has this punch. Just curious, anyone recall the first instance of the Superman Punch in MMA?

3 comments:

Stickgrappler said...

I posted on the Dog Brothers forum asking members if they remember when they recall seeing the Superman Punch first used in MMA and I cut and paste 2 replies I received so far:

Ryan Gruhn said:

"I remember seeing it as early as '96 in a Ohio "NHB" show by a guy with full Thai wear on; shorts, arm bands, etc. :-D Also, interestingly enough Ajarn Chai calls it "Mat Gatun" which means 'pushing fist.'"

and rio posted this:

"you might want to research Todd and Trevor Laly from Arizona Combat Sports. I remember them using the "superman" back in the late 90's early 2k's. some people think they were the innovators that punch, bringing it over to MMA with all their Muay Thai background."

My thanks to both Ryan and rio for the info!

Steven M. Vance said...

I might have something along these lines from some Burmese fights...I'm not sure, and I'll have to see if there are dates for the fights, when I have a chance.

Stickgrappler said...

ah cool. thank you Sun Bear!

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Guro Crafty Dog replied with this:


"Ron Balicki shared that with me back around '96-97. It wouldn't surprise me if he got it from Erik Paulsen."

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