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The idea of an MMA fighter being well-rounded – with the ability to fight in all areas, both standing and on the ground – dates back to the UFC’s ‘Dark Ages’ of the late 90’s. Nowadays you simply can’t succeed in the UFC with a one-dimensional game – world-class grapplers like Sergio Moraes have been knocked out standing, while amazing kickboxers like Pat Barry have found themselves outclassed on the mat.
Sometimes, however, a fighter has come into the UFC as a one-dimensional – albeit brilliant – grappler and then gone on to develop deadly striking skills worthy of the best kickboxers to step into the cage. The following five men certainly belong on that list.
#1 Rafael Dos Anjos
The current top contender for the UFC Welterweight title, Rafael Dos Anjos came into the UFC back in 2008 with a reputation for some nasty submission skills – 6 of his 11 wins were via tapout, and he held a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Unfortunately for him, his striking wasn’t up to snuff – he was violently knocked out by Jeremy Stephens in his UFC debut, and lost a decision to Tyson Griffin in his next fight despite almost catching a submission early on.
RDA meandered through the next few years of his UFC career, winning some but also losing some – usually when he found himself outgunned standing and unable to take his opponent down. It wasn’t until he moved to the Kings MMA gym in 2012 – lead by vaunted trainer Rafael Cordeiro – that things began to change.
Dos Anjos had always had power in his strikes, but suddenly he was developing an aggressive, stalking Muay Thai game that allowed him to swarm his opponents with punches and kicks – making it even easier for him to set up his takedowns. By the end of 2014, he won 8 of his last 9 fights – including a knockout of former champion Benson Henderson – to set him up for a title shot against Lightweight champ Anthony Pettis.
Despite being an underdog going in – as well as a supposedly inferior striker – Dos Anjos used his newly-learned skills to destroy Pettis over five rounds, most of which took place standing, to win the title. And despite eventually losing his belt to Eddie Alvarez, he remains one of the most dangerous strikers in the UFC – most recently outpointing the legendary Robbie Lawler over five rounds. Not bad for a guy who was just a grappler when he debuted.
#2 Fabricio Werdum
Another success from Rafael Cordeiro; prior to joining with the former Chute Boxe head, Fabricio Werdum was always well-respected as arguably the best grappler at Heavyweight in all of MMA. After all, this was a man who was able to submit the great Fedor Emelianenko – from his back too – after nobody else had really come close.
Unfortunately for Werdum, for the majority of his early career his striking lagged way behind his incredible grappling skills. In PRIDE he was easily outstruck by Sergei Kharitonov; the same happened when he fought Andrei Arlovski in his initial UFC run, and of course, that end came to a run when he was violently knocked out by Junior Dos Santos in late 2008.
Four years later though, Werdum was back in the UFC and this time he was an entirely different animal. Gone was the awkward striking style that saw him throw swiping punches and in its place was a violent Muay Thai assault – the kind that allowed him to knee his way to a win over Roy Nelson and destroy vaunted striker Travis Browne on the feet over five rounds.
Werdum’s improvement culminated when he largely outstruck Cain Velasquez in the clinch before submitting him to win the Heavyweight title in 2015. And although he’s since lost the title, recent wins over Browne in a rematch and Marcin Tybura show that he’s still one of the best strikers at Heavyweight – a massive improvement from the sloppy kickboxer he once was.
#3 Josh Koscheck
Sure, former TUF villain Josh Koscheck ended his UFC career on a major slide – losing five fights in a row, including being knocked out twice – but prior to that he’d been on a massive journey during his MMA career. Koscheck debuted in 2005 after that TUF run as little more than a pure wrestler. Despite showing flashes of skill in other areas, he even earned the nickname ‘Blanket’ for his dull takedown-heavy style.
Years of honing his striking craft at the legendary American Kickboxing Academy would change him, though, and by 2008 he’d become one of the most concussive punchers in the Welterweight division – he knocked out the likes of Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Frank Trigg and Dustin Hazelett in shockingly brutal fashion, showing he was far more than just a wrestler.
Unfortunately for Koscheck his defensive striking never quite caught up to his offensive – his winging overhand rights and left hooks were dangerous weapons, but left him open to more skilled fighters standing, such as Thiago Alves, who destroyed his legs with kicks, and Georges St-Pierre, who shattered his eye socket with a jab in a fight that was basically the beginning of the end.
Still, perhaps no other pure grappler was able to harness the power in his hands quite as surprisingly well as Koscheck in his prime – and that’s why he belongs on this list.
#4 Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
An all-time great grappler with a list of credentials as long as any other in the world of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza was already massively vaunted for his ground skill when he made his MMA debut in 2003. Jacare made the error of trading punches rather than takedowns with opponent Jorge Patino, however, and found himself knocked out in the first round.
From there he went on a tear, winning 14 of 15 fights, but the majority of them were still won with that slick grappling. World-class fighters like Robbie Lawler and Matt Lindland fell to the Brazilian, but he still looked somewhat awkward on his feet. By 2012 however, that slowly began to change.
Jacare knocked out up-and-comer Derek Brunson in StrikeForce in less than a minute, and just over a year later, he was in the UFC, using the same knockout power to derail former top contender Yushin Okami. It was a steep improvement in striking that had clearly been a long time coming.
Since then Jacare has gone on to knock out the likes of Vitor Belfort and Brunson in a rematch, and even outstrike the dangerous Yoel Romero for great portions of their 2015 clash. His grappling remains his greatest strength, but Jacare now has the striking ability to stand with anyone in the Middleweight division – and be a huge danger to them there.
#5 Beneil Dariush
While he hasn’t yet broken into the very elite level in the UFC, Iranian fighter Beneil Dariush may yet make that leap in the near future. And if he does – like Werdum and Dos Anjos before him – he’ll most likely have coach Rafael Cordeiro to thank. Dariush was the very definition of a one-dimensional grappler when he emerged in the UFC in 2014 and yet you’d never know that today.
Debuting with a win over the fading Charlie Brenneman, hopes were high for Dariush due to his stellar grappling history – he’d earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in just five years, and had become a world champion at blue, purple and brown belt. But his second UFC outing exposed a painful weakness in his striking and he was violently knocked out by Ramsey Nijem.
Despite winning his next five fights in a row, Dariush’s striking still didn’t seem fully developed – his decision over Michael Johnson in 2015 was via terrible judging, for instance, and he was largely outstruck. But by that point, he’d begun to train with Cordeiro and Kings MMA and an improvement was always likely.
Sure enough, in 2016 he became the first man to beat the dangerous James Vick, knocking the taller fighter silly in the first round, and he followed that up by beating skilled striker Rashid Magomedov and then going toe-to-toe with Edson Barboza – a truly deadly kickboxer. Dariush lost that fight but more than held his own, and if his striking continues to improve the way it has, then the sky is the limit for him.
