The thing that makes combat sports so different from any other sports is the amount of different offensive techniques that you can apply without duplicating one. Mixed Martial Arts is the combination of all combat sports (Boxing, Kick Boxing, Wrestling, Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, etc), there are more techniques than any one person can learn in their lifetime.

While there are two main components, striking and grappling, the maneuvers and techniques that fall under each category are nearly endless. By simply changing the angle at which you execute it, a simple kick can be completed in more ways than you can shake a stick at.

Boxing is a key component in the striking aspect of MMA, is a base that many fighters come in with. If you come into MMA as a Boxer, chances are you are uncomfortable at first as many things are slightly different between boxing standup and MMA standup. The biggest difference is the size of the gloves, obviously. Instead of being able to protect your entire face with the large 14-16 ounce gloves that cover your whole hand, you are only able to partially protect yourself with the much smaller 4-6 ounce open-fingered gloves.

Another big difference is the stance and the footwork. In boxing, you don’t have to worry about takedowns or kicks so you are able to stand with your feet closer together. However, with MMA, you must have a bit of a wider stance with your feet more staggered to help generate power into your kicks and to make yourself less vulnerable to takedowns. Even the actual striking is slightly different. Instead of being able to just stand in front of an opponent and throw a straight lead jab, you also have to protect yourself from them countering with a kick or ducking under and securing a takedown.

As we all saw a couple of weekends ago at UFC 124, Georges St. Pierre put on a jab clinic against Josh Koscheck. If you go back and watch that fight again, you will notice that instead of just throwing his lead jab out there, GSP lurched forward like he was going for a takedown, but instead he threw jab after jab after jab. Not only did it help set up his shot later on, it also kept Koscheck off-balance and not be able to commit to a counter attack. In addition to out-striking Josh Koscheck for twenty-five minutes, GSP’s continuous jabs also broke Koscheck’s right orbital bone and forced his eye to swell nearly shut.

GSP is not the first to use the “MMA Jab” to his success; at UFC 101, Anderson Silva knocked out Forrest Griffin with a jab. In that fight, Silva’s jab was different from the jab that GSP used against Koscheck. Instead of lunging forward and attacking, Silva used his jab as he was backing up to avoid a Griffin attack. As Griffin came forward with an attack, Silva used Matrix-like elusiveness to avoid punches and throw out a jab as he stepped back and to the side. One of these jabs connected square on the chin as Griffin was reaching forward and made him look foolish as he collapsed to the ground.

Another great use of the jab came from “The Prodigy” B.J. Penn when he defended his title against Shawn Sherk at UFC 84. Coming into the fight, Penn knew that Sherk was going to try to use his wrestling to overpower him and take the fight to the ground. By using his reach, he worked his jab and kept Sherk away and avoided his takedown. In using his jab, he was able to set up more strikes and keep Sherk from implementing his own game plan. By keeping his composure and keeping the fight at his own pace, Penn ended up rocking Sherk with a big punch and then rushing in and ending the fight with a flying knee.

Although the highlight reels are filled with high-impact knockouts and flashy submissions, without the implementation of the jab, many of those knockouts couldn’t have been set up. Without the distraction from those jabs, many takedowns would have never been able to have been secured leading up to that submission. As highly overlooked as it is, do not expect to see the jab phased out from MMA. On the contrary, expect to see more people work on it and include it in their standup game; especially after GSP showed how dominating it can be.