UFC Fighter Stephen Thompson Breaks Down Martial Arts Scenes from Movies | GQ Sports

what's up GQ this is Steven wonderboy Thompson UFC fighter and this is the breakdown first up we have the way of the dreck I've never seen this movie before karate guys to me when you see this guy run out and get in his fighting sense number one he's trying to intimidate his opponent cuz he's the one running out there first everybody has a different stance some guys you can tell her more of a Muay Thai stylist they like to put a lot of weight on their back leg and it kind of bounced the front foot they're kind of weighed forward hands up real high Christ I like myself I have my hands down low with a really wide stance which helps me work angles allows me to lift my front leg up to kick and with my hands down it's harder to see cuz most people when they look at you they look at you in the eyes but you've got to really know what you're doing if your hands are down because you're leaving all this open up here I feel like I have to do the sound effects I want to see this see what he does at this guy so you can we pause right there for a second so that takedown was like a legit takedown right here he actually blocked the technique and stepped in around the guy's front leg outside lectured taking the guy down and do a little bit of ground and pound and you actually see some of this in the Octagon in the UFC my man Bruce Lee they look at his wide stance his hands down low very similar to mine most guys have their feet a little bit closer together it's harder I think to be able to move and throw your kicks with some speed now if you saw the guy in the white key through one kick just to kind of see what Bruce Lee was gonna do when I step out in the Octagon I like to throw a technique or a feint to make my opponent think I'm gonna do something and how they react will tell me what I'm able to throw next so Bruce Lee calculated all right this guy's gonna come forward again and if you watch so instead of backing up again he actually met him in the middle with a psychic which is crazy I throw sidekicks probably a million times in a fight that is my jam sign cakes my favorite cake for sure if you watch he threw that front leg I kicked his hand so what he's doing he's setting this kick up this round did you see him when he kicked him in the face he's getting his opponent thinking I'm just gonna kick him in the hand I'm gonna kick you in the hand and then he changes directions and kicks him right upside the head it was great tradition he's going here do the straight punches the moving forward and if you watch Bruce Lee he's working side to side it's very difficult to hit somebody when you can't predict their movement so Bruce Lee is doing very good and I keeping this opponent guessing I've never seen anybody get knocked out with a group with it without with a PP strike but if you saw there that double leg takedown and my party stop which is the Kempo karate style 99.9% of time in a street situation you're gonna end up on the ground so we work double legs all the time and you see this in MMA as well I think the technique could be a little bit better but hey back in the day you never really saw these type of guys doing these kind of takedowns before so I was very surprising now if you watch this karate guy and he's going against two guys on one I don't think I would go about it that way in a real situation my goal is to get my opponents in a straight line I got to be able to keep my opponents in front of me so I can see them both I don't like this guy coming up behind me trying to attack them I don't care how good you are if you've got two guys on you at once it's gonna be very difficult to be able to fight both if you can't see them in a competitive situation you can't keep through the head once their knees or both hands are on the mat that's he but you were allowed to kick to the body that is definitely legal in a competitive situation you hear like these guys making noises where Bruce Lee is very iconic in karate you hear a lot of karate yells or kion's kind of sounds like yeah it gets emotional tint into your technique if I were to go ahead a bag and not make a noise and then I go hit the bag and I key out real loud there's a big difference between power and speed and that technique so what they're doing they're breathing they're tightening their abs they're engaging their core which makes their kicks and their strikes faster then you'll see it I mean next time you watch a boxing match or an MMA fight listen to the noises they make shoot shoot if I can meet one person or even fight one guy it would be Bruce Lee and I know a lot of guys who train with Bruce Lee that are still alive today and they said he was a true fighter and a true martial artist you see the UFC he predicted that back in the 70s and 60s he knew all martial arts too when I come into one and now we have mixed martial arts so I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Bruce Lee up next we have the Karate Kid no straw Daniel son he doesn't see what his master is doing for him he's washing cars he's painting the house doing all these chores over and over again to build the muscles up in his body to be able to make that technique strong and powerful and actually make it effective and work in a real situation right here he's doing the wax on wax off technique right very similar to blocking techniques that you see in fighting in karate time what did I tell you so moving punches coming at you evading the technique this is pretty much kata mr. Miyagi I had daniel-san doing here kata is a series of techniques that you do in a sequence without having an opponent or a bag to build the technique when you're doing kata you have to be fully aware of what your body is doing without looking at it so I like that this is fairly realistic right sensei translates to teacher or instructor anybody could be a sensible I'm in your mom and dad or senses they teach you different things every day just because it's not the martial arts doesn't mean you're not as sensitive you're actually sensei even though you don't know it you're teaching somebody something next up we have KO Buchanan's I think it's really cool to see the karate kid back in the day and these guys come back to do Cobra Kai I've done as soon as I wake up I'm training throughout the day and shrink training is very important especially if you're competing at a high level you have to have some sort of strength to be able to make these techniques work I don't do a whole lot of road work because I get a lot of cardio and doing backward and sparring and things like that and the fight game my coach which is my dad there's one thing he always says you got to have lungs for days and legs for days because the power doesn't come from your arms and come from your hips I've never had somebody shoot softballs at me but I have had people throw tennis balls in so working on a reaction time to be able to see the ball or a fist coming at you you have to have the right amount of reaction time to be able to evade or to counter-attack that punch or kick because when you're out there in a street-by-street situation or a competitive situation thinking is too slow a rear naked choke done properly it's very difficult to get out of and once it locks up you're done it takes about four seconds to make somebody go to sleep so I know in a sri situation anybody grabs me around my neck I think of that as a life-or-death situation the best way to get out of it is to not get there in the first place I would not want him as a sensei because he's beating the crap out of the student but I actually spar some of my students as well very lightly they think it's cool that their sparring with a professional UFC fighter so now you're seeing him start to block these techniques over time he's got this muscle memory down he knows what blocks to use and he's keeping his eye on his opponent which is the ball before he was looking at his instructor was getting hit you want a fair fight dream on you can't always think your enemies are gonna play by the rules that is so true what his master said in a street situation the enemy's not gonna play by the rules so you got to be ready for whatever in MMA mixed martial arts your opponent could be a striker it could be a grappler it could be a wrestler so it's my job to go out there and adapt to my opponent if you don't have that adaptability you're gonna be in some trouble next up we have a scene from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia all right start real quick I see this all the time you get this high level flat on the mat doing these cool crazy kicks and then you look over and you see this kid or whatever trying to mimic with this high level guys doing and they're just looking like idiots hi okay now bow not to me Karate Kid to him Oh in karate we always have a beginning and an end we come already retention and we bow now in Japan many years ago that's how you greeted people but when we now we never take our eyes off our opponent soon as you take your eyes off your opponent that's when they attack fight hey [ __ ] point Mac what good Paul's there are different places on the body that you get points for if I block a technique I should not be able to get a point for that but hit to the body that's a point hit to the head that's the point now if I kick you in the head that's two points certain organizations have different point systems but that's usually how it goes he turned his back to his appointment which I don't think is a good idea when you're competing with somebody ever when I fight you my goal is to try and keep my eyes open the entire time not to blink there are people out there that are that fast I always look right here at the chest and the reason I do that is because I use my peripheral to see the entire body if I look at you in your eyes I can't see your feet I'll look at your feet I can't see your hands so I look right here center mass and I stare I've literally seen crowds get into it because the wrong person got the point I've seen moms dads fighting because they're kidding at the point is nuts so I can relate to this as well up next the matrix I don't consume yes yes I'm talking about karate and he just said I know kung fu but that was just the last one he downloaded into his brain there is some karate in there as well and a lot of techniques from different styles are very similar if you're a true martial artist you're not just gonna stick with one style you want to try and integrate other styles into your arsenal to make you a better fighter this is a sparring program similar to the programmed reality of the matrix it has the same basic rules rules like gravity I can quote this entire movie all right let's keep going I'm sorry don't hit me this is a little dramatic I would say I would never do this out in a street situation with competitive situation now as you bring my hands up or get into my stance ready to do battle this is my favorite scene right here the very first few combos that they do is both of these guys they had it gone through some rigorous training to be able to pull a lot of these techniques off they were really trying to hit each other and they were actually blocking with full force to make it as real as possible I remember them talking on after the fight scene that their arms are so bruised and banged up so that's why you see a lot of us martial artists do a lot of conditioning conditioning the forearms conditioning the hands and the shins whenever I fight guys to try and kick me in the leg and I gotta be able to block that kick with my shin and if it's not conditioned it's gonna hurt pretty bad and I've actually seen shins break in a fight as y'all know it's more like a Mortal Kombat move I guess a lot of these moves here are really big and really circular I would never do that when it comes to the fight game the less movement that I make to get my punched point A to point B as fast as possible is what you want the more dramatic or Telegraph is what we call it be very easy to kind of see those techniques coming I've had my legs caught a few times I'm known for my kicks in the MMA world I've never flown like that but people will try and catch your feet I've actually flipped out of guys catching my foot to be able to get my leg free I've done that before catching the legs is a very common thing in MMA now if you watch one guy is very calm and collected and the other guy is very jittery kind of [ __ ] which is a honorée's character you want to stay calm when you're relaxed if your techniques kind of pull off with more snap you're more accurate you're conserving your energy when you're out there - and that's how I try to fight when I'm out in the audience with a spin back kick I love that it's one of my favorite techniques it's a side kick with a spin and when you spin you're generating more power and more torque which makes that technique really powerful but you got to be careful because for a split second you've got your back turn to your opponent so you got to really know how to set it up for it to be effective I wish I could jump that high and in slow motion there are different ways to get up when you're on the ground I wouldn't recommend that that is a cool way to do it I think if I did that in the Octagon everybody like what more like a breakdance moves so that's like breakdance fighting I guess you could say and stop right there I'm just gonna say that's not realistic what are you waiting for you're faster than this don't think you are no you are confidence is huge in competitive situation and what brings me in confidence when I step out in the Octagon is knowing that I put in the work not missing a day even though I'm injured or I'm not feeling good these best fighters in the world make their success happen by knowing they've got it now if you watched here we talked about this early in Karate Kid right right here the wax on and the wax off kind of same movement right I know what you're trying to do I'm trying to free your mind knew you know what we call that we call it ultra instinct it's a mindset that fighters get into every time I spar I try and get to this level when I'm doing less thinking and more reaction but it takes years to get to that level so you're freeing your mind next up the art of self-defense I've never seen this movie this is a fairly new one now if you look at these guys they're all wearing Whitey's if you wear your regular clothes they're gonna get pulled and yanked on so you get Aggie and Aggie represents maybe like a sweatshirt a shirt a jacket and if I can get ahold of your jacket I can choke you I can take you down some really cool stuff you see the belt rankings you see some black belt some green some blue some yellow in there many many many years ago you got one bill it was white and over time and the years of training that belt was starting to change colors would turn yellow for all the sweat and stuff that you put into the belt and eventually over years and years of training that belt will turn black so I showed the experience that you had in your training that's kind of gross so you get different rankings of your as you put in the martial arts for tempo carding in our style we should always start off with light then you have to go to yellow orange blue green we have an advanced green a purple advanced purple brown advanced brown red advanced red then black now that takes about five to six years to be able to get to that first level of black belt now people think if you're a black belt you're a master you're the best which is untrue now for me I'm a sixth degree black belt I'm still learning something you know every day so just because you see somebody walking around or bragging which they shouldn't be about wearing a black belt doesn't really mean he's a yellow belt so you can tell he's just but you know I can't tell you how many times I see guys that look like this in the school because they are so nervous and not know what to expect out there on the mat so I just find it funny because I see this look every day do I pause it for a second now if you see this guy coming in with a different color guy when you give you a certain level you're allowed to wear certain G's once you get to Bluebell you're allowed to wear blue key brown bell you allowed to wear a red key and black belts get to wear the black key so you can tell this guy when he walks in the room they're like all right this guy knows what he's doing he's probably a really good martial artist so let's see what happens watch closely what yeah this guy's school would not be open right now if that happened this is amazing for one that's Darth Maul number two this guy would be in jail right now let me tell you this I've been asserting gyms where I've walked in on the mat and watch guys spar they try and take each other's heads off and I literally pack my stuff up and walk out of a gym certain part of your body you can condition but you can't condition the brain right and when you go out there and you see someone - getting knocked out on the mat then it's like maybe this ain't worth it next up step brothers you want to go do karate in the garage yeah [Music] kicking pumpkins first off if you've never done karate in the garage you should poke yourself in the eye I think everybody has done that growing up kicking pumpkins I used to do watermelons all right we're to go out back and just get twigs and try and break him I've hurt myself a few times doing that going up just be careful when it comes to the garage don't think of your mom and dad's tools don't be trying to try to chop bricks you'll hurt yourself but I find this funny because I see do this he kind of went with like a little tiny windmill action that he did with his hands realistically if you do a punch and you didn't bring your hand straight back you're getting knocked down you never want your hands to dip cuz they leave your head open bad technique he's even punching with the wrong part of the hand what you want to hit with is the two big knuckles and they'll line up directly with the form which is good for pounding all right Will Ferrell john c reilly you need to come see me I need to work on your karate skills you tried but failed miserably by the way one of my all-time favorite movies is step runs I gotta give you that up next fire in the wind challenge right there I've seen guys get dropped with body kicks just like that so that was like realistic right there if you've never had the breath knocked out of you come see me I hope you experience that real quick I'm pretty sure he's really hitting his stuntman I would not want to be these guys getting kicked in the face like that as you can tell the guy on the right is more conditioned than the guy on the left he hit him with a leg kick he didn't faze him one bit the other guy hit him in the leg and you can tell it did some damage for sure this guy stated about how he can get out of this so right now they're having a battle of who's tougher even in sparring guys that I've been training with my whole life we kind of go out there and see who's tougher we'll hit each other in the body but we'll let each other hit each other and the first one to break or to kind of rub their body loses martial artists they kind of live by an honor code you want to fight somebody but you want to do it honorably man-to-man a woman a woman whatever and it's always one versus one if you send him more than one person out there that's kind of like it's pretty cheap next up Beverly Hills ninja [Music] who did ago that spin kick again it works and Chris Paul II did it like a champ go Chris Oh breathe this is the first I've seen in all the films that I've seen so far using something other than your fist in your feet to defend yourself with in karate we do things like that we'll have classes to where all right I want you to pick something up at home bring into class you can use that to help defend yourself to be a lunchbox for a shoe here uses his belt which I think that's pretty cool Carlo kick if you look up Karl will knock out there's a lot of clips out there that will come up now is this something that we do in a street situation probably not but I have seen it work so sorry oh my goodness I don't know what it is something about Chris Farley I just wanna give a big hug you know I mean rest in peace if anybody pulls out a knife injury situation I'm running no way will I stand there and try and karate my way out of a knife situation I'm taking off and you should too this scene is nothing my kids jump kicks flying kick sidekicks hope kids round kicks getting hit with those techniques you'll be done right after that spanking through the dome fees you're out see they're the flying kick these guys had time to turn around and look at each other and decide you know what we're just gonna die that's low you never do a flying kick now a flying kicks weren't invented to NOx and Ralph a-horseback little history lesson for you next up one of my all-time favorite martial artists Jackie Chan in gorgeous now to win a fight I gotta put my opponent in my punching range for my opponent to win he's got to put me in his punching range everybody's striking range is different I like to keep a longer striking range because I know I can close that gap faster than my opponent can so if you watch here the guy moves forward but Jackie Chan is not letting his opponent get in his striking range that's why he's backing up who knew that fighting can get so detailed now do you see how these guys are moving how they're bouncing around everybody has two types of movement when it comes to fighting you have your initial movement which is the very first movement you make before you do a technique some people call it Telegraph and you have constantly well if you're really good you can actually disguise your initial movement with constant movement it's hard to hit a target that's moving if you're standing still pretty easy to hit right I can parry he used his backhand to parry that hand which I was talking about earlier the wax on little head movement and a little parry to the side now I like this because these guys are really realistic when it comes to their blocking game and the other movies like the matrix of things like that to block their arms strayed really far away from the body which actually leaves you open I love it when guys block like this because now their body is open or I can take my foot over their hand and still kick him in the head The Closer your a hands are to your body the easier it is to block so if you watch Jackie Chan he's working some upper parry some middle pares keeping his hands closed to block and it's easier to block you can counter back with something of your own which is what you're saying here wait I have literally been in this guy situation I think the first person that ever made me see stars was my older sister she kicked me in the head and it's like these little lights popped out of my head and I had to tell her stop for a second you know that is a very scary feeling nothing you ever want to feel to be honest with you know start with the kicks Oh freeze right there now that is why your shins have got to be conditioned keep it going I like it [Music] seems shaking that Shin blowing it out he's like man that hurt those legs definitely hurt you see how close these guys are you have long-range strikes which is your jab your crosses your kicks and you have close-range strikes so have you ever hemmed up or up against the wall or a cage or kind of a clenched position like these guys are you have certain techniques you can throw from there like elbow strikes short hooks and uppercuts from there and you can even grab a hold of your opponent to throw knees freeze now this is where this honor system comes in if I want to beat you I want to beat you at your best if you fall down I want you to get back up I don't want anything to cheapen it especially when you're just sparring you help them up you want to be honorable in this situation see look he's like hi I couldn't hurt you here but I'm not going to I like that that's what being a martial artist is all about here they're making these techniques really dramatic because it's a pleasing to the eye you know if I'm watching this kind of stuff I want to see cuz it's cool-looking but I wouldn't do it in a real situation just smile it says just smiling so what are you thinking is you know what I'm gonna go out here now and just have fun cuz sometimes you can overthink things my dad always says before I step out in the Octagon no matter what your family's still gonna love you your students and your friends are still gonna love you so just go out there and have some fun and that always calms me down before I step out there so that's kind of what he's going through right now when he sees this mine they now look at him he's like relax now let's get up every time I step off to the Octagon I always come out with a smile on my face I actually walk out to tenacious d wonderful which is the quality song if you ever heard it so it's awesome but it always puts a smile on my face in the game there's a lot of guys to try and get in your head by me mugging you or talking a lot of trash and I eat them up with niceness I just smile at him no matter what you do if it's a stressful situation think of some that puts a smile on your face you'll find out that it helps you a lot thanks guys for coming to hang out with me for the breakdown GQ catch y'all later [Music]

Channel: GQ Sports

Views: 2,877,185

Rating: 4.9341974 out of 5

Keywords: the breakdown, breakdown, ufc, karate, karate movie, karate movies, fighting movie, fighting movies, stephen thompson, stephen thompson 2020, stephen thompson interview, stephen thompson ufc, stephen thompson karate, karate expert, karate kid, the matrix karate, cobra kai karate, it's always sunny karate, the way of the dragon breakdown, fight scene, karate fight scene, the karate kid breakdown, fight scene breakdown, karate breakdown, sports, gq sports, gq

Id: MQAVbwUTaYU

Length: 28min 2sec (1682 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/MisterTrill]

Stephen Thompson is perfect for MMA media- he's a championship caliber fighter, he's super nice and charismatic, everyone loves him, and he's great at breaking things down. Already has a semi-successful youtube channel as well

[u/Notshitpostinaccount]

Wonderboy should start doing action movies

[u/WellimDevin]

I actually learned quite a bit, it's nice to see they just let him talk instead of trying to condense it

[u/ShibaSwole]

Man I hope Thompson sticks around when he retires. He is just such a charismatic person. Wasn't he an analyst for FOX?

[u/016803035]

That Jackie Chan clip is so impressive.

[u/StonedApeGoku]

Awesome. Love Wonderboy, what a class act. Wish they would have shown some Michael Jai White clips.

[u/EdS909]

'I've seen shins break in a fight'

Anderson :(

[u/[deleted]]

As the rare gay MMA fan, I instantly click on and enthusiastically watch all Wonderboy content

[u/tomswiss]

If there was ever a time for Stephen to grow his hair and beard, it's quaratine 2020. Come on Wonderboy, go full Chuck Norris!