How to do body shots like Stipe Miocic + my take on DC’s eye pokes

Today I’ll teach you how to do body shots like Stipe Miocic. Near the end of the video/article, we will also discuss Daniel Cormier’s eye pokes on Miocic in their recent fight.

Lead uppercut – the body shot Stipe Miocic prefers

Let’s start with body shots. Miocic was able to do around 13 of them almost consecutively in the forth round. Why was he so successful and why were most of them undefended? I’ll answer that a little bit later.

The body shot Stipe Miocic used on Cormier was the lead uppercut to the body, and I’ll teach you that one today. Let’s look at the biomechanics first, and then we’ll see how to set it up.

Biomechanics of the body shot (uppercut)

1) Start stationary first. Rotate like you would if you just executed a cross, duck a little, lower the lead hand a bit, and fire off an uppercut by directing the fist with your hip and turning the shoulders. Do that 30 times.

2) Next exercise will be semi-stationary, meaning you will just take two steps forward, do the punch, and two steps backwards. So the same thing, only with steps. Do that 30 times too.

You can do both of these alone on target. It can be a heavy bag, or any other type of equipment that is suitable.

Hitting the target – stationary

Hitting the target – semi-stationary

Body shot partner drills

Next we will do partner drills:

1. Partner feeds you the uppercut – semi-stationary
Just like before in solo drills, take two steps in, do your punch and take two steps out.

With a same stance partner

With an opposite stance partner

2. Partner feeds you the uppercut – in motion
Same as the previous drill, only now you move in all directions. The only thing that partner feeds you is the uppercut.

With a same stance partner

With an opposite stance partner

The reason behind Miocic’ successful body shots

The reason Miocic was so successful with the body shot was that he aimed for the head most of the fight so DC was defending the head mostly. Then in the fourth round he targeted the body. After he softened DC up with body shots, he then went for the head and landed a vicious cross that dropped DC. Jon Jones on the other hand was aiming for DC’s body with stab kicks most of the fight, conditioning him to defend that area, only to go for the high kick later after realizing that DC was dropping his hands.

Body shot setups

Let’s look at what setups Miocic used for landing those body shots.

1. Body shot from hand-fighting

The most frequent setup he used against DC was from hand-fighting.

Miocic showed a great ability to adapt by using body shots from this situation which DC was insisting on, and where Miocic was getting out-struck in the previous rounds.

2. Dip (slip) to the side

Dipping to the side, either by slipping the punch or just by dipping offensively is another way Stipe Miocic landed the body shot. In this case, there was no setup.

In the previous example he also dipped, but after hand-fighting first.

3. Fake jab-cross into a body shot

This can be done either as a jab-cross, or just a cross or like Miocic did it with the inclusion of lead low kick to additionally confuse DC.

Either way, it works only if you sell the cross faint properly. The opponent has to believe it to protect the face and forget about the body. The cross rotates your body perfectly for the body shot.

“Selling” the cross (slowed down)

4. Jab-body shot/lead hook-body shot

This is the case of doubling up the punch. Meaning using the same hand twice in fast succession. The first punch diverts the opponent’s attention and the second one lands to the body.

These drills can be done both with a same stance partner or an opposite stance partner.
Practice each of these drills for 5 minutes. Then switch roles.

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If you liked this video/article on how to do body shots like Stipe Miocic, and wish to learn more about MMA striking, check out my “MMA Striking Made Easy” instructional by clicking here.

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About DC’s eye pokes

Now, about the eye pokes. In my last video I showed you what I think was the reason DC lost the fight. And no, it was not the body shots. Check it out here. Many commented and criticized me that I didn’t include the eye pokes in the video and how DC fought dirty.

While I definitely noticed them, I didn’t think the eye pokes changed the outcome of the fight, and I wanted to concentrate on DC’s bad tactics.

There were 2 eye pokes out of which one was a real eye poke and another one was a punch to the eye. I don’t believe DC wanted to intentionally to poke Miocic, but I do believe he should have acted chivalrously and stopped attacking once he saw he eye poked him. I can understand the heat of the battle thing, but I still didn’t like it as DC clearly had the opportunity to stop.

One of the best examples of chivalry is Nate Marquardt vs Damien Maia. No referee was needed to stop Marquardt.