Poatan Kicky Defense
Newsletter - 2025
Today, I would like to show you a ridiculous low-kick defense 'invented' by Alex "Poatan" Pereira, who is probably the best striker to ever live.
But for the record...
I believe that this technique is the actual best low kick defense in the world... also flawlessly executed by Alex Pereira.
Now... if you are a true scholar of MMA, you might be saying to yourself, "Ah ha! That's the same defense that Anderson Silva used to knock out James Irvin back in 2008!"
But you would be WRONG... smartypants!!! How dare you think the thoughts that I deliberately feed into your brain!
The difference is that Silva had to eat a kick to the thigh before knocking James Irvin's lights out.
Pereira raises his leg and seems to catch the kick in the crook of his knee for a fraction of a second... before passing it to his hand, and then blasting the guy.
This would not only lessen the impact of the kick, but also secures the guy's leg for a brief, crucial moment before dropping his arm to catch the kick.
That 3/10ths of a second just might buy you the time to make sure the kick is aimed at our thigh and not your head, before dropping your head-protecting arm in order to catch it....
And now let us tie this whole newsletter together, like the technique-savvy MMA nerds that we are!
(I was going to put a picture of a chatGPT generated "MMA nerd" above this sentence, but instead, I will share with you the entire fascinating conversation that I had with the image generating robot.)
Poatan's 'new' defense provides us with extremely cool versatility, when it comes to your weight distribution when defending low kicks.
Think about it... In order to shield a kick traditionally with your front leg , your weight needs to be on your back foot, so that you can actually raise your front shin.
If you're caught with your weight evenly planted on both legs, the Anderson Silva defense is probably your best bet... since you may not have time to shift your weight into either leg.
So, just eat the kick, catch it, and fire that cross.
To execute Pereira's 'new' kick defense, your weight will be on your front foot, so that your REAR foot can hinge forward to block the kick..
The logical conclusion is that if you practice all three of these techniques, you will have an effective low kick defense, no matter where your weight happens to be.
If you're bouncing around, throwing attacks, and doing general fight stuff, your weight is probably going to be all over the place... and you don't get to pick and choose when the guy tries to kick your leg.
You might be heavy on your front foot, because you're slipping in under a punch.
You might be heavy on your rear leg because you're fleeing backwards from an attack.
You might be heavy on both legs because you're a silly person with a nonsensical fighting stance.
Well now you have something to flow into, no matter where your weight happens to be... and no matter how much nonsense is involved in your stance.
Enjoy!
-Trav
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