7 Ways UFC CHAMP Alex PEREIRA Applies WING CHUN In MMA

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Unlike several other UFC fighters and champions for whom there is footage of practicing Wing Chun, I haven’t seen any of Alex. But that’s not what I’m claiming. I’m not saying he studied Wing Chun. I’m saying that whether he studied it or not, he’s applying certain Wing Chun techniques and concepts that I learned through my practice of Wing Chun-a martial art that is over 350 years old. Techniques and concepts that any good Wing Chun school should teach. There are those who are going to say that those are just sound fighting principles that can be found in other styles. And, I’m not arguing against that either. But I _am_ saying that those sound principles were _combined together_ in Wing Chun first-a 350+ year old system. Pereira just happens to put more of these principles on display than any other fighter at the moment. Nobody with eyes to see can deny that Pereira’s style is very unique at the moment. So just brushing it off as “sound principles” or “regular kickboxing” isn’t enough. There’s more to it than that. I’m not saying that he studied Wing Chun. I’m saying that he’s doing the closest version of Wing Chun in combat sports atm whether he studied it or not. Thanks for watching!

[@MatheusSilva-zl2jp]

From Brazil here really interesing that alex uses technics similar as Wing Chun i like that martial art, thanks for the Review 👍

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@brunolucas3869]

Ive been telling people the only discipline that endorse punching like that is Wing Chun. But i guess there is some genetic in the strength.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

His strength is otherworldly. Definitely a mix of genetics and working at a tire shop. Did you see how fast he can manually change a tire? It's impressive. Thanks for watching!

[@johnnychannarong5484]

Funnily enough, he hasn’t trained wing Chun before . Yet the wing Chun people who fight can’t even do it properly . The wing Chun people can’t even fight generally and it takes non wing Chun to demonstrate how “ effective “ wing Chun is ?

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Sad isn’t it? That’s why they’re champions… adaptability. I hope more Wing Chun schools start seeing the light. Thanks for watching!

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Have you noticed that more and more UFC fighters today are adopting a stance and a guard that are very similar to ours?

[@RealGigaMind]

Lomachenko used Wing Chin technique to break guards

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Absolutely! I made a short video on him as well. Thanks for watching!

[@devinnorsworthy9154]

Win Chun works, but... not on its own. Just like boxing, boxing doesn't work on its own, or wrestling. Etc etc. I learned Win Chun, combined it with some boxing, and wow. It was astounding, I whooped an alpha male while receiving no damage, I spun him around like a ballerina. It was my best performance to this date. Win Chun works, but many practictioners don't understand you don't just use Win Chun alone for 1, for 2 you also need to become physically conditioned as a fighter to use it in sports. Many practice the art alone... fighting is not an art form, it's artistic athleticism. Many Win Chun practictioners neglect athleticism. Bruce Lee didn't just dance, he did feats of strength too.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

In MMA especially, like you said, no style works on its own anymore. And cardio is incredibly important; along with strength and conditioning. I think that the major thing holding Wing Chun back is that 98% of schools don’t spar; not that they don’t cross train in boxing. I believe that when over 50% of schools start sparring, Wing Chun will get its just due. Thanks for watching!

[@122222770]

At 1:25 you can also see how rooted he is. I think as fighters keep training they will incorporate more and more wing chun concepts. This is inevitable as the fighters are trying to get better and better they'll end up doing what's most effective and useful: wing chun . Sean Strickland is another good person to look at.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I agree. Whether it be from trial and error or from actually studying and analyzing Wing Chun, more and more fighters are going to do more and more Wing Chun.

[@zacharyhynes4177]

🔥video!! Are there more UFC analysis videos in the pipeline?? I’d love to be able to share them with the guys at my gym!

[@GaryMaWingChun]

More to come!

[@juliencolombie3603]

Wow! That’s really interesting! Thank you for this great analysis on Alex Pereira techniques.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@platinumblast8610]

I think you should consider doing a similar breakdown on prime tony Ferguson’s use of wing chun, as he actively practiced it and incorporated it into his training unlike periera who’s style simply has elements of the martial art. Respect and Informative video 🙏

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Great suggestion. Thanks for watching!

[@K-NectingDots]

Yo, I see the techniques your talking about with Alex P!!!

[@GaryMaWingChun]

It’s pretty awesome isn’t it?! Thanks for watching!

[@122222770]

More videos like this!

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I’ll see what I can do. Great fighters like this with that many similarities to Wing Chun are not common. But I have a feeling they will become more and more common. 😉 Thanks for watching!

[@122222770]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGLagqiEhLafg8k Not a great video but what he mentions about strickland is very similiar to what you're showing here. Maybe you could do it justice and make a better breakdown.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think he did a pretty good job with his video actually considering that I think he said that he's never trained Wing Chun. A lot of people who do train Wing Chun wouldn't even be able to see it.

[@zedopikao]

there are literally no cons in punching with a vertical fist instead of a horizontal fist

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Thanks for watching!

[@ike804]

On how he checks calf kicks, another great example is Jose Aldo, one of the greatest UFC fighters OAT. He loves to check leg kicks by lifting his calf outwards or backwards. Charles Oliveira also checks leg kicks that way. Seems like a very high percentage technique.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Yes, absolutely. All champions! Thanks for watching.

[@godofredo404]

Very interesting analysis, do you believe that Sean Strickland also has some wing chun influence over his style?

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Sean Strickland, definitely! I'm glad I'm not the only one who can see these things. Plus, he now spars a lot with Alex Pereira since they fought. I just watched a clip of the Jaxxon Podcast a few days ago where Daniel Rodriguez, a UFC fighter and training partner of Sean's, says that Sean is hard to hit upstairs because he's got this "weird like Wing Chun kinda style". Pro fighters are definitely recognizing the effectiveness of Wing Chun, but unfortunately, most casuals still cannot see it yet. Here's the clip I'm referring to: kzbin.infoUgkx0ICgkPCfmmL-qnr7KMG08CChTXbPL38D?si=zDpWzpeuv4OH5Pol Thanks for watching!

[@godofredo404]

​@@GaryMaWingChunwow nice find. I'd like to see a video on him aswell, the way he uses trapping and such. His stance is very reactive, sometimes he will seeminly do a 1:1 of the wing chun foward facing stance, ironically enough there have been made memes made about his "karate kid" stance.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I’m working on a couple of ideas right now, but I’m going to double back and take a deeper look at Strickland’s methods. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@ajibaderidwan1219]

I remember Israel Adesanya also used the same punch using the last knuckles you talked about to drop Paulo Costa, do these guys have knowledge about this stuff?

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I’ll have to rewatch that fight. Thanks for the suggestion. The only thing I remember from that fight were Izzy’s antics after he won. Which I wasn’t a fan of. But I’m currently preparing another video with some Izzy snippets. I can’t be certain whether they have knowledge of it, but my guess is that they do since they are pro fighters and study each other, and Anderson Silva (whom Izzy fought) is one of the greatest of all time, and there’s footage of Silva practicing Wing Chun/JKD. Why would you not study one of the greatest of all time?…

[@Zark_0001]

Big fan of your work sir from 🇧🇷

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Thank you very much!

[@smoketj4830]

Tony Ferguson 🇲🇽 doing wing chun vs Anthony Pettis , also the Mexican hook is powerful because the pinky finger is straight and is connected to the wrist. Jack Dempsey talked about it in his Book.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Jack Dempsey is the man. He figured it out and applied it well. Champ. Thanks for watching!

[@cassiuslives4807]

I think it's more difficult to see because he doesn't use classic angles and footwork like we do e.g. no toi ma, no jun ma, no bong sau. Also his punch angles seem to be more on the inside and there are more round shots.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Yes, it depends on how one defines Wing Chun. A lot of people think of Wing Chun more as a “style” that has to “look” a certain way. Others, like myself, think of Wing Chun more as a system based on _principles_ .

[@cassiuslives4807]

@@GaryMaWingChun the employment of particular principles causes the style to look a particular way. That's why the hand strike angles and footwork for Pereira aren't quite Wing Chun. I guess we will have to share which principles we are talking about in another chat at another time.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

There’s also the difference between theory and practice. Actual fighting will never look 100% like playing the forms. Adaptation is necessary. And optimizing for rule sets also creates “styles”. To me, it isn’t an all or nothing judgement. There are many factors to consider. But within the realm of MMA, Pereira is a good representation of Wing Chun from my point of view. Anyway, thanks for watching!

[@TWreckz11111]

If you guys created every technique in the book before every one else how come none of you are in the UFC?

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I never said we created every technique in the book. BJJ, boxing, wrestling and Muay Thai all have their distinctive techniques and specialties, and are all #1 under their respective ruleset. However, no single style works alone in MMA anymore, not even BJJ. Stand like a conventional boxer, and you’ll get leg kicked or head kicked. Stand like a traditional Muay Thai guy and you’ll get taken down. Stand like an olympic wrestler and you’ll get kneed in the head or eat uppercuts. Nobody gets to the belt with a single style anymore. But more and more UFC Champions are using more and more Wing Chun in the Octagon. They’re just not saying it. Videos can be found of very popular and successful fighters such as Rose Namajunas, Brian Ortega, Anderson Silva and Tony Ferguson integrating Wing Chun into their MMA training. Connor McGregor’s coach is a JKD guy which is based on Wing Chun. The problem with Wing Chun isn’t in its techniques, principles and concepts; the problem with Wing Chun is that 95% of schools don’t spar. I believe that when 50% of Wing Chun schools start to integrate sparring into their training, the conversation will begin to shift. But it will take some time. Thanks for watching!

[@TWreckz11111]

@@GaryMaWingChun I do believe as a martial artist you have to learn every style I do believe in close to close combat Wing Chun an Kung Fu would be perfect I Love Donnie Yen in Ip Man, I Love Bruce Lee and Respect to Jackie Chan but Grew Up with Jet Li I believe in his prime would give Bruce Lee a run for his money with numb chucks and Jet Li with his preferred weapon of choice absolute Genius I actually believe that Chinese have some of the best fighting techniques because back in the day a challenge could cost you your life so you had to be perfect but being a master in one art in the cage is not good I believe you need to have knowledge of every background like Jeet Kune Do I do think Jiu Jitsu is something everyone should know not saying its superior to any other art cause if you can knock this guy out like a wrestler it’s useless but if the guy knows what he is doing an takes you down it could be pretty much over. I do get mad when I don’t see a lot more people from China competing I don’t know if it’s because of humility, religious beliefs or warrior codes and hiding knowledge to foreigners but out of a billion people in China I would love to see more representation I believe Donnie Yen in his prime could’ve competed if he wasn’t to busy being a super star in film productions, I also believe in other countries as well because of war and different beliefs their are warriors hidden from society maybe special earth protectors that don’t compete as well just my opinion. Religion, Native American tribes, and Martial arts all have one thing in common they all think they are all better than one another but if we can all come to together an learn from each other an put are pride away we could make a better future and society

[@yaboisquacks2495]

Its an interesting concept, but other then guessing I don't see any solid proof here to say Alex is using Wingchun.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

Thanks for watching! 🙏🏻 Unlike several other UFC fighters and champions for whom there is footage of practicing Wing Chun, I haven’t seen any of Alex. But that’s not what I’m claiming. I’m not saying he studied Wing Chun. I’m saying that whether he studied it or not, he’s applying certain Wing Chun techniques and concepts that I learned through my practice of Wing Chun−a martial art that is over 350 years old. Techniques and concepts that any good Wing Chun school should teach.

[@kostoglotow]

@@GaryMaWingChun So you're saying he's using sound fighting principles, that ALSO happen to be found in Wing Chun. Let's get real, our ancestors (reaching back into the depths of time) have been exploring this game for a loong time, and there's only so many ways to attack/defend given the body configuration of an upright ape. Anything further is just confirmation bias running wild.

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I’m saying exactly that. But I’m also saying that those sound principles were _combined together_ in Wing Chun first-a 350+ year old system. Pereira just happens to put more of them on display than any other fighter at the moment. Nobody with eyes to see can deny that Pereira’s style is very unique at the moment. So just brushing it off as “sound principles” or “regular kickboxing” isn’t enough. There’s more to it than that. I’m not saying that he studied Wing Chun. I’m saying that he’s doing the closest version of Wing Chun in combat sports atm whether he studied it or not. Thanks for watching!

[@yaboisquacks2495]

@@GaryMaWingChun very level stuff

[@tranminhnhat2977]

Can you cover Sean Strickland?

[@GaryMaWingChun]

I’m working on some ideas right now, but I’m going to double back and look deeper into Strickland in a bit. Thanks for watching!