Glossary: Pound-For-Pound

aka P4P.

Pound-for-pound is a term used to denote a fighter who is the most skilled, regardless of their weight class. That is, if you could somehow eliminate the advantage that greater size/weight grants, you'd be able to determine the best fighter in the world. Generally, the factors considered include: skill level, ability to finish (or dominate) opponents and the quality of opponents.

Ring Magazine's lists of the best p4p fighters (scroll all the way to the bottom) are generally considered to declare the best boxers in the world (currently, Floyd Mayweather ranks #1). In comic books, Thor or Superman generally come in #1 (with "Batman, if prepared" the perennial contender) In MMA...have fun trolling the various forums or getting into arguments with the nerds at the bar.

Given how subjective the determinants of a p4p fighter are, the term becomes essentially meaningless.

Glossary: The Pocket

In striking arts, the pocket refers to the are where a fighter can stand and throw punches at arm's length.

Properly used, it's when one fighter stands on a diagonal to the other defender, so they can land shots without worrying about the other fighter counterpunching or returning the strikes and cannot defend properly. Staying in the pocket then is used to describe being to the opponent's side, like you're, well, in his pocket.

Example: Panda and Dangerous both fight in a conventional stance and Panda wants to get into the pocket to drop some bombs on Dangerous while avoiding any counterstrikes. Panda will stand to Dangerous' 2 o'clock. Panda will be in a good position land his strikes while Dangerous has nothing to offer in return. Dangerous will want to pivot to face (and therefore be able to defend and attack) Panda, but Panda can keep circling to stay in the pocket.

Glossary: Banging

Banging is most often used in MMA rather than boxing and would be more familiar to fans of the sweet science as "slugging" or "brawling." Generally used to describe a style where the fighter prefers to stand in the pocket and overwhelm their opponent by sheer number of strikes, often "bombs" or haymakers.

Those who choose to "stand and bang" generally display sloppy or unsophisticated punching skills (and rarely kick), but those who are good at it can force their opponents to abandon their gameplans and bang in order to merely survive.

Also known as "standing and trading" or "testing the chin."

Glossary: Respect

Respect is used as a euphemism to describe hesitation and/or timidity in a fighter. Often phrased like, "X respects Y's striking too much to engage."

If said in the beginning of a match, it often just refers to the feeling-out process. If the match continues with no engagement, it often becomes a chide against the respectful fighter.

Glossary: Solving the Equation

"Solving the equation" was a phrase made famous by Stephen Quadros when he was announcing Pride FC events. On it's face, it was used to describe one fighter changing up their gameplan after finding that it wasn't working as expected. In actuality, solving the equation was used a a euphemism for a fighter having no idea about what to do and looking lost or trying to work around a stalling opponent. 

Glossary: Assaut a thème

Roughly, "sparring with a theme."

Savate loves to make simple things difficult. Assaut a thème is one of the more insidious ways of doing that.

During an assaut a thème one is given the direction to react to a technique with a specific response. This could be something simple like, "scoop the chasse frontal and return with a fouette median." The sparring partners would then spar normally, but whenever that front thrust kick is thrown, they defend as directed and throw a roundhouse kick.

Easy enough, but higher level savateurs will end up doing things like, "if they attack with A, respond with this 5-strike combo. If they attack with B, use this one" and so on and so on until you have essentially specific responses to a half-dozen different attacks.

While some consider this unrealistic busywork, in actuality, it is an extremely useful tool to apply your knowledge in a live environment as well as just get used to immediately responding during sparring.

Glossary: Assaut & Comabtif

Savate competition is generally divided into two categories: Assaut and Combatif.

Assaut is light-contact, where perfect technique must be observed and contact is limited - that is, hitting incorrectly or hitting too hard results in penalties. The idea is that you demonstrate technical proficiency, both in the elegance, as well as control of your offense and defense. Assaut is excellent for practicing timing, combinations and movement while still in a "live" situation.

Combat/Combatif is full-contact sparring/competition. Unfortunately, until you take a full-on fouette from someone wearing Rivats, it's hard to appreciate the old saw "Muay Thai is a baseball bat, while Savate is a hammer."

It could be argued that taking a half-speed fouette bas from someone wearing wrestling shoes and getting dropped is worse, but let's not split hairs.

Glossary: Open Weight vs. Absolute Weight Divisions/Classes

Open Weight refers to a weight division where there is no upper boundary. By definition, this is the heaviest weight class. In boxing, this is the heavyweight division, for fighters over 200#.

The Absolute Class or the Absolute Division refers to a competition having no weight restrictions. That is, a 150# fighter could find themselves up against a 350# fighter. The most famous Absolute Division is in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club's where the winner of the yearly Absolute Division tournament is considered to be the best submission grappler in the world. Old-times may also be nostalgic for the original UFCs.

Public Domain photo from Library of Congress

Glossary: One-Punch Knockout

A one-punch knockout is the when a fighter throws one punch during a fight and that punch results in a knockout.

Note that that it will be the first punch a fighter throws.*

The stats would looks something like:

Fighter A:
Punches thrown: 1
Punches landed: 1
Connect rate: 100%

It's irrelevant what the other fighter does. But, generally, the one-punch knockouts are the first (and only) punch thrown by either competitor in a match.

The term "one-punch knockout" is often used incorrectly by casual fans and UFC commentator Mike Goldberg to refer to a lone punch (not part of a combination) that results in a knockout. By definition a knockout punch is a single punch thrown that knocks someone out, so technically they are right, however if you're going to do that, you may as well note that even in a combination, a single strike will be the one that causes the knockout.**

* It's possible in MMA that a fighter follows their opponent to the ground and continues to pound on them - this will still be a one-punch knockout.

** I suppose it's possible to punch someone with both fists simultaneously. I've never seen it actually used in a competition before though.

Glossary: Rocked

When a fighter takes a very stiff shot to the head and is momentarily disoriented, they are said to have been rocked. A rocked fighter will tend to drop their hands, stumble and/or generally forget where they are. Depending on the severity of the blow, the recipient may be able to recover given a few seconds to clear their head.

CC-licensed photo from Arriba.

Glossary: Dirty Boxing

Dirty boxing (in boxing) consists of using techniques that are illegal in boxing against your opponent, including: elbow/forearm strikes, headbutts, holding the back of the head, stepping on feet and groin strikes. Generally, the offender will begin by holding their opponent's head so as to remove many of their defensive options and to "wrestle" them such that the referee will not see the illegal strikes.

Typically, dirty boxing for mixed martial arts generally sees one fighter establish a collar tie clinch and then throwing uppercuts with their other hand. Since "standard" dirty boxing techniques are generally not illegal in MMA, clinches can continue for some time (see Couture/Belfort or Frye/Takayama).

Randy Couture and Jens Pulver are considered to be the two foremost practitioners of dirty boxing in MMA.

Glossary: Gatekeeper

A gatekeeper is usually a once-promising up-and-comer who lost their way or a former champ who can't hack it against newer competition who still has enough drawing power to be worth keeping on the payroll, even if they'll never be a contender again.

Gatekeepers serve the purpose of determining if a relatively new fighter is ready to advance into title contention or if they need more experience.

If the up-and-comer wins, casual fans will be excited that he beat a known fighter, while if the gatekeeper wins, he those same fans see that the gatekeeper is still relevant. Win-win situation.

Glossary: Fish Dance

The fish dance is when a fighter is hit and nearly knocked unconscious, but manages to stay upright, though they struggle to find their balance. Can also be used for when a fighter who is clearly KOd stands up and tries to show that they are still cognizant, but continually lose and regain their balance.

A prime example of this was Fedor vs. Fujita from Pride 26.

Aka: "on queer street" or "chicken dance"

Glossary: Southpaw

Southpaws are left-handers. Boxers who fight with their right foot and hand in front.

Southpaws are rumored to have an advantage over conventional/right-handed boxers due to the unusual angle that their footwork puts them at and that their punches come from. Essentially, southpaws are used to fighting right-handed people while righties aren't necessarily as used to fighting southpaws.

The funny thing is that just as righties are often unaccustomed to fighting southpaws, southpaws are likewise unaccustomed to fighting southpaws.

Notable southpaws that would be familiar to casual boxing fans include: Manny Pacquiao, Antonio Tarver and Naseem Hamed.

Glossary: The Button

The button is essentially a person's "off switch" in boxing. It's located as close to the point of someone's chin as you can get and still land a solid punch (see diagram).

Why as far out as you can get it? Remember back to your simple machines. The further away the punch lands from the neck, the more torque there will be and it will be harder for the punchee to brace themselves against the punch. You'll whip their head around faster/further and their brain does the little "wup wup wup wup" inside their skill and they get a concussion, leading to the knockout. (See What's in a Knock Out? for more details on what actually causes the KO)

Most commonly, hooks and overhands (especially in MMA) are used to hit the button.

Glossary: Chin

A fighter's ability to take a punch and not go down. Most high-level fighters have good chins (as fighters with weak chins tend to get run out at the amateur or early pro phases of their careers), so a fighter with a "strong chin" is a master of absorbing punishment that would drop most other fighters. Having a good chin doesn't necessarily imply that a fighter is unskilled in general, but may be an indictment of his defensive skills.

aka beard

If a fighter with a strong chin is good, they are usually just described as having a good chin. A fighter with a strong chin but isn't very good is generally described as having a lot of heart.

Glossary: Bricker

A bricker is someone who purposefully hides or lies about their level of experience so as to face lesser competition.

Brickers are notorious for filling up beginner and novice divisions in grappling tournaments, "I've won regional Sambo tournaments, I have a second dan in judo and I'm a Div III wrestler, but I've only been taking Jiu-Jitsu for two months, so I think the beginner division is where I need to be."

It's not unheard of for someone to try to downplay their level of experience upon visiting a new gym ("This is my first class," "I did some training back in college....") and is often a defense mechanism to avoid feeling stupid if they get folded like a pile of laundry by their new classmates. These people aren't necessarily considered brickers.

Once discovered, brickers tend to find themselves on the receiving end of a tune up.

AKA: sandbagger

Note the semantic difference with "ringer." A ringer is typically someone brought in by outside elements to win a competition, while a bricker is someone who generally works alone.

Glossary: Asshole Sprain

An affliction that besets boxers and other people who do a lot of punching. If a punch lands on the knuckles of the little and ring fingers, there is a chance of spraining the ligaments or pulling the muscles that hold the metacarpal bones out of place. You'll know you have it because there's a pain shooting right down the back of your hand, right between the knuckles of where you hit improperly.

An asshole sprain is different than a boxer's fracture or boxer's knuckle, which are related, but different maladies.

Called an asshole sprain because you get it from punching like an asshole.

Be careful about using this term with non-martial artist types so you can avoid exchanges like the following:

Mom: How's boxing going? You hurt yourself again?

Me: No, I'm doing pretty good. My elbow feels better, but I did get an asshole sprain though.

Mom: Jiu-Jitsu really is gay, huh Mikey?

Me: ...

True story.

Glossary: Smoker

A smoker is a full-contact event generally held to prepare fighters before going into amateur competition. Smokers are generally inter-gym competitions rather than being between gymmates. Technically, smokers are illegal as they are unregulated and may or may not uphold athletic commission standards.

Also knows as: exhibitions, public sparring sessions

Edit: Sifu Z would like to point out that smokers generally include other activities such as strippers. They're also known to involve betting and excessive drinking and cigar smoking among the audience.

Glossary: Slothed Up

Used to describe a fighter's face after it has started puffing up after a fight - generally only used in the situations where the fighter barely looks human anymore. Named after Sloth from the Goonies.

"Man, Sakuraba really got slothed up by Arona."

"I felt bad for Gurgel - he got slothed up by Robinson so badly that it looked like his eyes puffed shut. No wonder he was eating hammerfists like he was at a buffet."