The coach of recent Bellator MMA victor Alexandr
Shabliy broke down the controversial kick that earned his
fighter the win.
At
Bellator 292, Shabliy scored a front kick to the lower
midsection, and his foot slid down to strike the cup of Tofiq
Musayev in one fluid motion. Referee Jason Herzog intervened
and determined that the incidental contact with the groin was not
significant enough to merit a foul call, and Shabliy earned the win
by technical knockout. As it turned out, the specific kick the
Russian threw was a technique heavily practiced at
American Top Team, as ATT striking coach Katel Kubis informed
Sherdog of this in an interview on Thursday.
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“It’s a very technical kick that requires timing and precision, and
is normally applied between two punches,” Kubis explained. “You can
see Tofiq was throwing an overhand, and when Tofiq turned his body,
he opened the space Shabliy needed to apply that frontal kick to
the abdomen, on [the] navel area, using his left hand as shield.
When hitting in the right place, this frontal kick immediately
paralyzes the opponent, as we could see. We practice that a lot in
ATT, and we are very happy and proud that Shabliy could use
that.”
According to the coach, that technique gained prominence when his
master Fabio Noguchi introduced it many years ago.
“Master Noguchi always taught us to attack weak points of our
body,” the coach stated. “Like calf kick and two types of frontal
kick that immediately paralyzes the opponent. Besides that one [to
the] abdomen, we also use a frontal tip [to the] solar plexus that
causes a similar effect. Our athletes are practicing that a lot,
just like [the] calf kick that [has] started to be applied by ATT
fighters and later became more common, soon [it] will be seen more
frequently.”
Coach Kubis has recently been promoted to a new position within the
American Top Team family. After many years training striking in the
main camp of ATT, he is now taking the reins of the very first ATT
striking-specialized branch.
“It’s dream coming true,” Kubis celebrated. “After 12 years working
in ATT’s main headquarters, we are having the opportunity to
[build] of the first ATT branch 100% dedicated to striking.
Together with me, taking care of that amazing academy located in
Coral Springs, 20 minutes away from main headquarters, are Thiago
[Alves], Luciano Macarrao, Fabricio Alemao and, of course, master
Conan [Silveira]. We already have athletes coming from Poland and
Germany. And we are sure that it will be a great place for
strikers.”