Athletes
Jonathan Martinez | The Art Of The Leg Kick
Take A Look Back At Jonathan Martinez’s History Of Devastating Leg Kicks Before His Clash With Marcus McGhee At UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic
Leg kicks continue to play a bigger role in mixed martial arts, and few fighters have used them as effectively in recent years as UFC bantamweight Jonathan Martinez.
There are plenty of UFC athletes who rely on leg kicks as part of their game, like Alex Pereira, Justin Gaethje and Edson Barboza, just to name a few. There are also standout moments, like Dustin Poirier’s first win over Conor McGregor, where Poirier chopped down McGregor’s calf before landing the finishing shots upstairs.
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But Martinez’s last couple of wins inside the Octagon are perfect examples of a fighter making low kicks so effective that even when his opponent knows they're coming, they still can’t stop them from having a fight-changing impact.
In his bouts with Vince Morales in 2022 and Said Nurmagomedov a year later, leg kicks certainly played a role in getting his hand raised, but it was his one-sided, dominant performances over Cub Swanson and Adrian Yanez that really opened everyone’s eyes to how debilitating those strikes can be.
Against Swanson, Martinez started the fight with a flurry of high kicks, and it wasn’t until midway through the first round that he started going downstairs. Martinez ended the round with a knee to the head to score a knockdown, then followed up with a knee to the body against the fence to nearly finish the fight.
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Late in the second round, Martinez focused on Swanson’s legs, particularly the inside low kick he targeted earlier. With 90 seconds left in the round, Martinez dropped Swanson to his knees with his first leg kick of the second frame. Five seconds later, he did it again. Then, with 45 seconds remaining, Martinez landed the most destructive inside leg kick of the fight, sending Swanson crumbling to the canvas and forcing referee Herb Dean to step in and stop the fight.
After edging out a close decision against Nurmagomedov a few months later, Martinez returned to a leg kick-heavy game plan against Yanez, and it worked to perfection.
The fight lasted just under seven and a half minutes, and during that time, Martinez landed 29 of his 36 total significant strikes to Yanez’s legs. With 2:20 left in the first round, Martinez delivered a low kick that forced Yanez to spin 360 degrees. To his credit, Yanez managed to stay on his feet and return fire moments later.
But, with a minute to go in the round, Martinez blasted another inside kick, sending Yanez to the mat. Yanez fought through the rest of the round, but the story was all too familiar in the second, as Martinez continued to chop him down until Yanez couldn’t stand, resulting in Martinez's second leg kick TKO of his UFC career.
This Saturday at UFC 309: Jones vs. Miocic, Martinez faces rising prospect Marcus McGhee, who has won all three of his UFC fights thus far. We’ll see if Martinez’s low kicks once again prove to be a determining factor when they clash at Madison Square Garden.
UFC 309: Jones vs Miocic took place live from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on November 16, 2024. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
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