Justin Scoggins on MMA’s Striking Evolution

The ever-evolving sport of mixed martial arts is currently going through one of its most creative developmental periods. Over the past few years, we've seen the inclusion of spectacular striking techniques into a lot MMA fighters' arsenals, which predominantly originate from the once highly criticized traditional martial arts.

While another native of Carolina might have grabbed the international headlines for his emphatic knockout of Johny Hendricks in the main event on February 6, 23-year-old flyweight Justin Scoggins is another Carolinian that turned a lot of heads with his showcase win over surging prospect Ray Borg on the night.

The unorthodox attacks with his dexterous front leg, the effortless switching of stances in between leaping attacks and his mastery at controlling the distance were a joy to behold. Borg, a man who has looked fantastic in his last three tests, appeared to be baffled at times throughout the three-round dance.

For Scoggins, the key components of his game lie in his exposure to karate since the age of three years old.

"It's really the striking aspect of traditional martial arts that we're seeing come back at the moment," said Scoggins. "That's the evolution that I feel is taking place in mixed martial arts. Just throwing everything accurately with perfect technique, and you have to be meticulous with your techniques and how you execute them.

"Training the traditional martial arts helps with that precision and accuracy. People want to see that, so the guys who are on top of the sport are really embracing traditional martial arts. They want to be able to defend takedowns and put on exciting striking displays."

Brian Stann heaped praise on Scoggins throughout the bout, noting that the young flyweight throws completely different techniques as he changes his stance. And that particular tactic is no accident either. Scoggins changes from orthodox to southpaw to constantly keep his counterparts guessing.

"Whenever I drill anything or I'm practicing a particular technique, I always try to drill it on both sides because I never want to be one of those guys with a bad side where I'm not as good at landing certain strikes. I make sure I have a good side and a better side.

"Any technique I throw, I can throw that from either stance. Of course, you always have a stance that you prefer to throw a certain technique in. Usually, I can throw random stuff from each stance. I just wait for the gaps to appear and react to them. I switch stances constantly to keep my opponent on their toes. I don't want them to see what I'm doing."

As you can imagine, Scoggins revealed that his opponent's generally don't appreciate his ever-transitioning attacks.

"The word that I feel describes how most people react to it is desperation," he laughed. "Desperation can be a dangerous thing because I find when my opponents get desperate, they start forgetting about technique and they just try to land big shots or try to take me down. When they feel how I can control the distance and strike from range and how I can defend takedowns, they get really desperate, really quickly."

The flyweight karateka also believes that movement is another essential study in the development of a modern day MMA fighter, citing Dominick Cruz, TJ Dillashaw, and his own divisional champ Demetrious Johnson as some examples of successful proponents.

"What we're seeing guys doing now is upping the game with movement. Dominic Cruz and TJ Dillashaw have really good movement. 'Mighty Mouse' is another guy with really good movement. Everybody at the top of this sport technically, they all have good movement and I can see that translating into their striking a lot more. If you can control that range, if you can control when you're going to hit somebody and not get hit, that makes you very difficult to fight."

As Scoggins improved to 4-2 in his UFC career earlier this month, he will look to further align himself with a future title date when he faces Ben Nguyen on March 20.

As he continues to climb the ladder, there is no doubt that he takes a lot of confidence from his friend and former karate instructor Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson as he climbs the welterweight ranks.

"Stephen is one of my good, childhood friends. I've always lived in South Carolina and when I was younger I was living in a part of the upper state. I started karate when I was three years old and he was one of my karate instructors. As I got older we became friends, but I ended moving away so I had to go to train in a different gym.

"We ended up going our separate ways, but we trained a lot together when we were growing up. We were really close and, without a doubt, I learned a lot of what I do when I'm striking from him."

Although it seems the sport is taking it's biggest evolutionary strides in the striking realm at this moment in time, Scoggins is adamant that being well rounded and being able to "control any situation" is still the most fundamentally important thing for fighters.

"I feel like the martial artists, the real athletes in this sport, are learning how to put it all together. The best martial artists can control any situation at any point during the fight. You should always be able to find a way to gain the upper hand in every situation. So even though I'm a striker, I don't want to just stuff takedowns. If I feel the timing is right, I want to hit my own takedowns.

"You never know what's going to happen in MMA so you have to be versed in every single aspect of the game. There are not a lot of guys out there right now that can do that–strike, grapple and do everything at an expert level–but that is definitely the next step for the sport."