Everything you need to know about ground and pound in MMA

Ground and pound is a term that originated in MMA and is used to describe the process of punching your opponent on the floor whilst holding a dominant, top position. It was often used to describe former UFC Champion Mark Coleman’s style of fighting who helped popularize the term and strategy in general. In fact, such was the effectiveness of Coleman’s ground and pound is that he was even nicknamed ‘The Godfather of ground and pound.’

These days, ground and pound is extremely common in MMA and you’ll often see it being used several times during a singular event. In this article, we shall explain the use of ground and pound as well as how to defend against it.

How does ground and pound work?

Ground and pound is done from a top position on the floor. Often, this means you can do it from mount, side control, or half guard. In all of these cases, you will need to remove the opponent’s frames before hitting them. For example, in top half guard, the opponent could have a knee shield and an underhook on your arm. Although you’re in a top position, trying to land punches from here would be unwise as the likelihood is you could get swept or some kind of scramble could happen.

So, from half guard you would need to flatten them out and make sure any limbs aren’t obstructing you before throwing punches or elbows. This is easier to do in positions such as side control or mount as typically frames aren’t as much an issue here. Still, if there are 15 seconds left on the clock and your opponent tucks their head and grabs your arms, then the chances are you won’t be able to successfully implement ground and pound.

To sum up, the best way to impose ground and pound would be to remove any physical shields (by way of limbs) and then start throwing punches and elbows. Ideally, you’d also want to pin your opponent up against the cage to do this, which makes it harder for them to escape due to effectively trapping the back of their body. Ground and pound is often used to win a fight by way of knockout but it can also be used to strategically wear down an opponent and waste their energy and morale.

The modern ground and pound system

It’s no secret that Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the greatest ground and pound specialists ever. This strategy literally won him the UFC championship during his undefeated career. However, when you look deeper, his system was more efficient, modern, and effective compared to ground and pound artists of the past.

On the face of it, ground and pound can look pretty brainless, whereas Khabib’s was different. Firstly, he would always take down his opponents near the fence to stop them from escaping. Secondly, he would lock his feet around his opponent’s legs to stop them from standing up. As managing to scramble and stand is a legitimate way of avoiding the ground and pound, this took out another escaping option. Lastly, when Khabib had worked his way up the body he would often deploy the ‘Dagestani handcuff’ which basically meant holding the opponent’s wrist behind their back.

In doing this, he could effectively strike the opponent who couldn’t defend strikes to the face with only one free hand. Overall, it was a very smart system that was difficult to defend against. It’s no wonder why Khabib was so dominant with this in mind.

Is ground and pound an effective strategy?

Ground and pound is certainly an effective strategy but like everything, it also has its limits. For example, trying to do it at a lower weight is harder as your punches won’t land with as much force. For example, getting hit by Brock Lesnar on the ground would be much more dangerous compared to punches by Henry Cejudo. Although Cejudo could use ground and pound, the point is that due to being lighter it’s less effective at lower weights due to using less power in the punches.

At the same time, even at the lighter weights ground and pound is still pretty common. In other words, ground and pound is pretty good as far as strategy goes. Obviously, it can lead to winning the fight and even if you can’t defeat the opponent, you will score lots of points for landing blows. However, there are some downsides to relying on ground and pound too much.

The main issue is that some fighters will rush in to land punches quickly, rather than be patient. As mentioned earlier, if the fighter on the bottom is good at defending and uses their position wisely then they can nullify a lot of ground and pound. Basically, like all fighting strategies, you’ll want to be able to rely on various options.

Chaining ground and pound with submissions and guard passes

Usually, this means combining ground and pound with submissions and guard passes. Perhaps the best example of this was seen with Khabib Nurmagomedov who successfully combined all three of the above whilst in a top position. The point here is not to be too reliant on one tactic and combine it with other ideas to stay fluid.

One of the main benefits of using ground and pound is that it can quickly win a fight. Sometimes, you’ll see fighters with 30 seconds left trying to set up a submission or take the back. In reality, this time could be better spent using ground and pound and trying to knock out the opponent or at least hurt them going into the next round. Because of this, ground and pound is a pretty solid strategy when there’s not much time left on the clock, especially against those who are good at defending against submissions.

How to defend against ground and pound

Although ground and pound is a powerful technique, it isn’t without flaws. In short, there are two ways to stop ground and pound. The first is to avoid getting put on the floor in the first place. Obviously, this is easier said than done and is a bit of an ask. Still, some fighters are capable of doing this. Here, you’d need to be able to employ defensive wrestling to avoid takedowns and also be able to avoid getting downed by strikes.

Over the years, there have been a few fighters that have been able to avoid this and this is what makes them so great. Realistically though, even the best fighters ever will get taken down at some point, which brings us to our next point.

Another way of defending against ground and pound is by deploying Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. At one point, BJJ wasn’t as universal in MMA as it is today. However, it is vitally important from a defensive position. The idea of BJJ is to be able to fight off your back. In BJJ, this is called the guard position and is one of very few martial arts to focus on this style of fighting.

Not only can the guard be used to defend but it can also be used offensively too. Imagine being taken down and immediately put into side mount. Here, there’s a good chance you’ll fall foul to ground and pound and lose the bout.

Now, imagine getting taken down, framing, and recovering a butterfly guard. Here, you either sweep the opponent and get on top to an advantageous position, or you submit the opponent with a guillotine from the butterfly guard. These are possibilities that are available if you know BJJ. If you don’t, then getting put to the ground becomes much harder. For those who aren’t capable of defending takedowns or strikes – BJJ is probably the best option.

It’s not just punches

Earlier, we mentioned that ground and pound can be combined with other strategies too. These include using strikes to enhance the position (such as taking the opponents back from mount) and also submitting from there. In brief, there are a few options that combine nicely which is why ground and pound is so versatile.

Having said this, when it comes to landing strikes – punches aren’t the only available attacks. Due to the nature of your body, you can’t really use your lower limbs most of the time. In the UFC, it’s illegal to strike your opponent with your legs once they’re downed anyway.

However, in some rulesets such as PRIDE and One, you can knee to the head from a side control position. This changes the dynamics of ground and pound and shows that you can get creative where attacking is concerned.

On a similar note, headbutting can also be used in ground and pound, although it is illegal in most MMA promotions. Back in the earlier days of the UFC, fighters would drop headbutts from the closed guard position which made it much riskier for those on the bottom. Although illegal, headbutts from ground and pound are a good tactic if you’re in a street fight without rules.

Another common attack is using elbows which can be equally as devastating as punches if done correctly. For instance, if you’ve mounted your opponent and they stop punches with overhooks, then you can start to land glancing elbows on their head. This can easily lead to knockouts and create some deep cuts which shows just how effective elbows are. Sadly, some fighters don’t use their elbows enough which can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing.

Summary

Perhaps the biggest compliment that we can pay to ground and pound is that it’s incredibly popular and common. This alone shows that it’s incredibly useful and is a high percentage way of winning fights. If you think about it, ground and pound has actually been used for centuries in street fights and is a pretty natural part of fighting.

Remember, prior to MMA most combat sports such as boxing and Karate often reset positions when someone is knocked down which is the reason that ground and pound is a relatively new concept in sports-based martial arts. So, without over-thinking it, ground and pound has been around forever, it just never had a name given to it.

Overall, if you want to become a prospective fighter then you’ll need to learn how to win by ground and pound. Like submissions and standing knockouts, it’s an integral part of fighting that cannot be ignored. By the same token, if you want to improve your fighting skills then you’ll also want to learn how to defend against ground and pound which is equally as important.