Ahem, where to start.

Puulaahi was right, the front kick is one of the most basic moves in martial arts. The reason everyone is freaking out is a front kick knockout in MMA is relatively unheard of, for several reasons.

The first is that MMA fighters tend to be a very conservative bunch, and they gravitate towards high percentage moves. High percentage moves are moves that are successful a high percentage of the time, as the name implies. MMA fighters are hesitant to throw something that is not guaranteed to work. That’s why you see mostly very basic punches and kicks, and not crazy flying tornado kicks.

Another thing to consider is MMA fighters are fighting other martial artists. They’re fighting trained guys who know what to look for and how to defend themselves. Consequently, the list of techniques that work is smaller, and those techniques that do work do so less frequently.

I’m digressing here, but this also leads to one of the other complaints about MMA. Some martial artists claim MMA fighters have sloppy technique. What they don’t understand is when two people of a similar skill level fight they’re basically going to neutralize each other. The only time you’re going to see some display of fancy moves work is when there is a discrepancy in skill and physical ability of the people fighting, such as a trained versus an untrained person.

Kicks above the waste are uncommon in MMA also because of the grappling element. Higher kicks tend to telegraph more and open more opportunities for takedowns. Half (or more) of the strategy of an MMA fighter is controlling where the fight takes place, because the fighter who can control that usually wins the fight. Therefore fighters are less likely to leave openings for takedowns.

Basically speaking, simple beats flashy.

Now on to the kicks themselves.

Silva and Machida both threw a front kick, but they were both mechanically different. Silva’s was actually similar to the front kick in Capoeira, and Machida’s was similar to what is used in Karate. This makes sense, since they both have backgrounds in those respective arts.

Silva and Machida say they learned the kick from Seagal. If they say that, who am I to judge? They both knew the technique beforehand, for sure. There’s always room for improvement though, even on basic technique.

There’s also a language barrier, since both of them speak little English, so most of the information we get comes through an interpreter. So it’s hard to really get the full picture.

As for Seagal…well…he’s Seagal. As far as skill goes, we don’t really have any idea how good he is. All accounts of his ability are just rumor and hearsay. I’ve heard rumors that say he’s incompetent, and some that say that he is a bad ass. The only consistent thing I’ve heard is he’s a monstrous douche, and I tend to believe that.

Keep in mind that Machida and Silva are extremely eccentric people who are prone to erratic behavior. It’s really hard to tell what’s going through their heads. They could be training with Seagal legitimately, or they could be trolling all of us.

It’s just speculation, but I tend to think they’re trolling the martial arts world. Both of them have a very weird sense of humor. I’ve met Anderson Silva, and I can say the dude is fuckin’ bizarre. He’ll be really quiet one second, and then he’ll start laughing and jumping around, and then go silent again. I swear to god I thought I saw him muttering at a plant for a second.

But who knows for sure? Time will tell.