Using Punches To Set Up The Low Kick With Pedro Rizzo

The low kick is one of those viable strikes for everyone as they require very little athletic ability from a practitioner to perform. As we can see in many fights, the low kick is a vicious tool that can kill the opponent’s leg and lead to a technical knockout.But the low kick is not that easy to land; this happens because it is thrown a lot in all levels, and this makes all practitioners get used to the strike early on, which leads to many successful blocks, and evasions if the low kick is not delivered with a proper setup.

To deal with this problem, delivery systems had to be created to land our low kicks safely and gain all their benefits; let’s look now at three simple setups we can use to land our low kicks: 

First, we can use hooks to push our opponent over his targeted leg and throw the low kick safely as he cannot lift or pull away to defend the strike with all his weight over the leg.

Second, we can use a distraction, making him focus on our punches and blocking them while we follow them up with a low kick that he didn’t anticipate.

Third, we can anticipate an opponent, analyze his movements, and catch him when he steps forward as he cannot block the incoming low kick in time.

Notice that it doesn’t matter the setup we use as long as we are using one. The worst thing we can do is just throw a low kick with nothing preparing it; this way, blocking our kick is easy even for a beginner, and we can break our leg.

In this video, Pedro Rizzo is going to show us how he uses punches as a setup for a safe, low kick.

Who Is Pedro Rizzo?

Pedro Rizzo is a retired Brazillian Mixed Martial Artist known for his vicious fighting style and his Brutal low kicks, which he picked up from his master Marco Ruas. Pedro was seen as an unstoppable force back in the day, almost capturing the UFC Heavyweight title and winning over famous fighters like  Mark Coleman, Josh Barnett, Andrei Arlovski, and Ken Shamrock.

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Setting Up A Safe Low Kick With Punches

Pedro starts the video by showing us what he will do to make his opponent make a mistake and landing a clean low kick on him.Many fighters make the mistake of just standing in front of their opponent and throwing a low kick; this doesn’t work, as it is easily defended, as we can see in the video.

So what can we do to make him make a mistake and land a clean low kick?

First, we will use our punches, so he thinks about his hands but forgets about his legs. This way, we can throw a combination with our hands, and as I see him focusing on the hands, I’m going to land my low kick.

Don’t forget that I cannot stay in front of him when I throw my low kick as he can counter me; I must step out of the centerline so when he throws punches back at me, my head is not there.

The punches we throw to set up the low kick can be as simple as a single Jab; as he focuses on parrying my Jab, I throw and land the low kick behind it.

Pedro thinks that the best way to land a clean low kick is to set it up with the hands first, but he reminds us that there are no rules in a fight, and everything can work, but keeping this simple guideline in mind can help us land our low kicks safely.

Setting up the low kick is very important because if the opponent can block my kicks, I will be hurt, and the low kicks will backfire at me. Remember that if I’m using straight punches from a long-distance, I want to land the low kick with the lower part of my shin and never with my foot.

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