Edson Barboza Shares A Sweet Set Up To Land A Hard-Hitting Elbow!
Add This Gnarly Feint To An Up Elbow Into Your Arsenal And Become Even More Dangerous On The Feet With Edson Barboza
Having good technique for throwing elbows can totally reshape your whole game. Hitting an opponent with a good elbow in the right spot can absolutely be a fight winning strike. It is not as simple as just throwing your elbow, it is all about the proper setup and finishing mechanics. Good technique goes a long way.
When you start to add these to your game, it has the potential to change everything. You will start setting them up in ways you never thought of before, and it will help to make your combinations and overall strategy more creative. One of the best ways to begin to do this is with feints.
Feinting is good for so many reasons. First of all, it keeps your opponent on their toes. Additionally, it causes them to start telegraphing and giving you reads on how they are going to react to certain things. As you begin to properly read their reactions and pair it with good timing, you will be landing strikes left and right.
In this video, Edson Barboza shows an awesome takedown feint to lower the guard of his opponent and finishes with a nasty up elbow right down the middle. Check it out below!
The Technique
The technical part of this move is fairly simple; the difficulty lies in selling the feint. When you drop levels to go for a double or single leg takedown, oftentimes your opponent will down block with the arms and sprawl to prevent you from grabbing the legs. This is exactly what you need them to do in order to create the space up the middle to land the elbow.
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Standing in the orthadox stance, Edson drops levels and uses his lead hand, which is his left hand, and reaches for the opposite side leg of his opponent. When doing this you can even tap the leg to really sell the feint. The reason you go for the far side leg in this scenario is that your partner is also standing in an orthadox stance, this will be his lead leg and is the closer leg to grab.
Naturally your partner is going to lean back to begin to sprawl which will cause his head to lower, and he will likely drop his hand to attempt to block the takedown. This clears a direct path to his head for the elbow.
As you feint the takedown, you take one step into the pocket to begin to close the distance. As your partner reacts, you take a second step and turn slightly to get to a distance where you can be accurate and line your elbow up with his head. From here you are simply taking that lead elbow right up the middle and landing a potentially fight winning blow.
This is an extremely effective technique, so you want to make sure that when you go for it you are going to be able to land it rather than missing and giving away what you are looking for. To be sure you do this at the right time, you may want to actually go for a few takedowns beforehand. Maybe you actually get one and you can attack with your ground game, or maybe you put in your opponent's head that you really want the takedown.
What makes feints effective is when they are believable. If you go for a few takedowns or even land one, your partner is going to be paying extra attention to trying to counter and defend your shots. When you put this in his head, you are going to get better reactions that will really start to open up opportunities to attack.
The second step when throwing the elbow is also an important detail to pay attention to. The first step gets you into the pocket and really makes the takedown feint believable. It puts you at a good distance to land punches, but you need to be a bit closer to really put the power behind the elbow. The second step is imperative to making sure you are at the right distance to make this elbow as effective as possible.
Edson has had success with this at the highest of levels while fighting in the UFC. When you start to utilize feints and techniques like these, it really has a positive impact on your fight IQ. It starts to open up this whole world of possibilities when it comes to putting together combinations and techniques. On top of elbows, this takedown feint serves as a great setup to numerous different attacks.
About Edson Barboza
Edson Barboza is a Muay Thai kickboxer who fights in the featherweight division in the UFC. He began training Muay Thai at the age of 8 and racked up a successful record in kickboxing before making the tradition to MMA. As his MMA career began in 2009 in the Ring Of Combat, he soon signed with the UFC for his debut in 2010.
He has had wins over some of the most high level guys in the organization such as Shane Burgos, Dan Hooker, Anthony Pettis, and many others. He continues to test himself and succeed at the highest level, having just earned the Fight of the Night award at UFC 262 in May 2021.
About Edson’s Instructional
Edson has devoted most of the instructional to buzzsaw kicking mechanics, however he covers many other Muay Thai fundamentals. Included you will find techniques such as creating power in the leg kick, spinning back fist, flying knee, clinch work, multiple variations of kick counters, and so much more.
Edson seems to currently be at the peak of his career and has never been sharper. He continues to beat the best guys in the game with technique that’s as good as it gets. Dive into the high level Muay Thai that your arsenal is craving, and learn how to add these devastating elbows to your repertoire. Check out his instructional here!