Poverty card incoming. Pls send questions!

Are you ever going to re-release that karate book you wrote in digital/pdf form?

Have you watched The Furious yet?

Why is there no arm triangle like choke from the back? I feel like as good as the RNC is, there should be chances to do other subs from the back that don't give up position and could be set up from someone defending the RNC?

Hi Jack, We saw Lon get overwhelmed by a longer, taller Royval who used his length and height in a very aggressive way, and though he had some initial answers and almost clattered Royval, he still got broken down by the end. What would you say are good tools and tactics if you are facing a long/tall man who wants to impose that on you instead of keeping range and making you come to him? We of course have Volk as an example but any other good ones/people to watch from mma or other sports? Also, a related question to the one I asked a few weeks ago that didn’t get answered (which is cool), but what are your thoughts on the most common mma smut/fanfiction pairing being Khabib and Islam by a large margin and what is wrong with people?

You recently mentioned a high level wrestler who finished doubles from the knees. Could you list a few more? Have any idea why they can manage it?

It’s pretty common strategy for the much shorter fighter to get on the inside of their much longer opponent. But what are some ways you can outside fight as a smaller opponent?

Are there any elite fighters with notably weak chins/durability? And if so how did they cover up that weakness?

Any advice for a grappler (mostly jiu-jitsu with dodgy wrestling but focused more on upper body control and trips than shooting from range) who is transitioning back into MMA and striking arts who is shorter for Welterweight (174cm or 5'8") but has a very long reach? Fighters to study or coachs content to learn from. Thanks, bless.

Oi oi Slacky, long time listener first time caller. My question is about rear naked chokes - you’ve spoken at length about how in MMA most RNCS come along the fence, where the guy on bottom is forced to keep one hand posted to support his weight. Do you see any way in which you could capitalize on, or ideally force this scenario in a pure jiu-jitsu setting? The lack of a wall makes this seem implausible, but I’d love to hear your thoughts. Cheers!

Every time I see Zach Reese fight, I’m so frustrated: he has a great power left kick to the body, a floppy and noncommittal left straight, and he rarely raises his left kick to the head. By contrast, Islam seems to have a great understanding of each of his weapons from southpaw and how they set each other up. Who else in current high level MMA demonstrates a good clean southpaw double attack?

If you could host a striking match where both parties agreed on using only four different strikes (jab, teep, hop side kick, spinning hook kick etc) and using these exclusively in whatever form that particular movement can be varied in (jab, corkscrew etc), What 4 moves would you pick and what fighters would you like to see under this imaginary bullshido wushu ruleset. Conor McGregor - the man of titanium shins and knee ligaments made of glass blessed!

Reposting this: - [ ] How much of being the best fighter actually is being the best fighter? What would the best fighter look like without film study and game planning? How much of being the best fighter is having a better analyst, a better coach, better team? So many things are important that are not the fighter being a good fighter. I think fight IQ becomes less critical if the 'puzzle' has already been solved for the fighter before the actual fight starts. After the Usyk/Verhoeven fight (and Fury/Ngannou) I think what makes these fights more difficult for the boxing champions is the fact that there is little tape to study their opponents or at least little tape of them only boxing.

Do you think there’s a chance UFC as a product will improve and become less enshittified in the coming years? UFC 300 felt like a temporary high point but it’s been back downhill ever since. Any hope for other promotions, or will enshittification doom them as well?

What part of Masaaki Noiri's low cortisol style do you think would work well for mma?

Why has the superman punch largely disappeared from mma? Is it a D tier strike or just some underused with some meta shifts in fight style?

Hi Jack, Repeat from last time. Do you have a theory as to why a lot of fighters seem to disregard where they and their opponent are and where they are moving to (ie. putting their backs to the cage or letting their opponents off the cage when trying to pressure) Do you know of any drills that fighters can do to mitigate this? Thanks, Tom

Fallen back to casually watching the ufc. Any young interesting fighters on the come up you’d identify in and outside the ufc?

Steam Deck rec: Check out Bruisers 2D Boxing, looks like a promising mid 20th century boxing sim.

Can we get a full list of the Jack Slack history curriculum? Already read the Pax Brittanica Trilogy, The Black Prince, and For All the Tea in China. Also was so happy to hear you bring up 30 yrs war by Peter H Wilson a few episodes ago as that has been one of my absolute favorite autistic history reads.

Are you currently working on any history episodes, and so, do you have a rough idea when they'll be ready?

Could you discuss in detail all the heavyweight and Womens bantamweight fights on the early prelims for this week’s card. I know those are the ones that you really care about.

Hey Jack I'm slow cooking a porketta roast this weekend, do you want some?

Hi Jack, what are your further thoughts the work of 'Champ' Jay Thomas particularly his stonewall/ philly shell compilation book effectively the only book the the philly shell. He had unique and rather detailed instructions on footwork and solo training with emphasis on isometrics for power punching. What are your thoughts into on comparing historical and current philly shell fighters with Thomas' methods? A set of techniques I find is his book especially intriguing is the low lead hand 'curved jab' and 'curved hook' . They are in essence fleshed examples of punching from underneath outside the field view of the opponent. It could be useful for philly shell, cross arm, and lowhands/no guard positions. I imagine it be nightmare if a ko artist like prates implemented it into already lethal game. P.S. The backfist curved hook seems to cross over into Thomas's killer outlaw boxing aka dirty boxing material. I managed to snag a copy but haven't had time to make bootleg digital copy. I'll let you when I finish it.

Hi jack, ive been having a lot of success with straight punches to the body recently to set up takedowns but am obviously threatened with knees and uppercuts, what are some good ways to anticipate and punish these?

How can a coach focus on teaching his fighters best practices while also encouraging them to have their own unique styles?

Have you ever thought about doing live Slacky companion commentary for UK events, or others that aren't at stupid o'clock in the morning? Would be far more insightful than a lot of the current commentators. Of those behind the desk, whose takes do you find most insightful or agree with most? (And least)

Tips for a shorter southpaw struggling to get in range?

Has there been an article or video on nadaka yoshinari in atom weight? Just joined and starting to catchup with the backlog

After you studied Conor McGregor as a subject last week, has this made you want to revisit other fighters in depth? I know when I first started reading your work on Fightland, 90s K1 was a common feature in your articles, as well as Golden Age boxers. Do you feel nostalgic now if you see a Jersey Joe Walcott fight?

Howdy, Jack! If you were to assign your listeners 3 pieces of required reading according to ol' Jackie Slacky, what would those pieces be? The Yuki Yoza of smashing fried gyoza. Bless.

In light of the recent Connor McGregor loss, what are the worst comebacks in combat sports?

What do you think makes a good fighter nickname? Rhyming, relevance to your skill set, pure rule of cool or all of the above? Similarly, who has the best fighter nickname ever and why is it Nate “The Train” Landwehr?

What's the next meta in MMA ?

Which fighters outside the ufc do you believe can give a tough fight or win against a current champion

The Demian Maia of lightning the next UFC card on a funeral pyre. Hiya Jack, you have spoken previously about how the shoulder roll sets up the rear hand and the cross guard setting up the left hook. I was wondering if you have come across other forms of counter coming of these catch and pitch situations, like kicks, knees and elbows. Why are such strikes from a these situation less common? I would assume that a shoulder roll to a rear leg front kick or knee would be more damaging than a returning punch. Even if this was not the case wouldn’t variations be useful to play with opponents anticipate, making these set ups more difficult to counter?

Hey, when looking for skills or answers to skills from fighters how does one research? For example, how does one search for a fighter good at getting to the back at locking up the RNC?

Please consider and share your thoughts on the invention of a combat sport with a rule stucture and culture that encourages eye pokes and groin strikes to replace Sanda, or possibly to exist alongside sanda as a separate league, similar to the combat sambo/sport sambo dynamic. What would that sport look like? Would we see animal styles and moves from old martial arts manuals? Imagine a competent MMA competitor who is also a champion of this hypothetical sport goes to vale tudo. How dangerous would that guy be?

What are the pros and cons of throwing triangle kicks compared to roundhouse kicks to the body?

How much can or should a fighter incorporate high kicks as a core part of their style? Coming from a background in wushu, I find my hip dexterity and high kicks often catch teammates at my muay thai gym, but I'm not sure how much to rely on them as a core part of my game. I've usually found success bringing them out towards the end of a sparring round after establishing the front kick and body kick. You often speak of using the left high kick to keep the opponent's rear hand at home. How would you think about the tradeoffs of using this weapon as a consistent threat or a rarer surprise technique? Thank you! Long time fan since '17.

Are submissions from the top minus arm triangles even worth it in mma anymore? Maybe mounted triangles? Glad to hear you enjoyed the sidecast as much as I did.

In media, I have seen a lot of martial artists try to cover the eyes of their opponents with their hands to land the "Killing Blow". Does this actually work and or are there any examples of people doing this in the wild?

I know Dricus has a lot of very sloppy tendencies you only see in beginners but his success is undeniable. How would you explain his insane success in mma in spite of his technical shortcomings.

It it were your job to build a promotion to rival the ufc, what key steps would you take to be competitive? Not talking about ideal scenarios where every fighter is well paid and has healthcare more like how come nobody is able to offer a comparable product in mma. Its always baffling to see how terrible things like pfl etc look when you watch a card. Tuned in once for ngannou ferreira and was attacked with a live jake paul reaction cam that was present for far too long. Everything looks amateurish and unserious and nobody can get a good talent pipeline going. There are many (many) things to criticize about the ufc and their way of doing business but right now it kind of seems all the other approaches fail completely

Jack, was Miguel Torres' career something special and worth disecting the career of, or was he just an okay fighter in a division without a ton of talent for his time period? 44-9 is one of those win/loss ratios that seems suspiciously good for nobody seemingly ever talking about him.

Jack I am trying to get into MMA and would love some tips on what to learn and how to train properly for it? If you need to know anything more hit me up and I will tell you more!

Just saw simple man martial arts Damien Anderson has been added to the card, do you think he can add some of the modern cutting edge jiu-jitsu techniques to his fight and are there any other top level grappling competitors for us to keep an eye on in the mma scene?

Jack, love the work! Can you give the best example of a headbut in pro fighting that changed the course of the fight but that was not punished by the ref and/or judges. Bonus follow on question - how can we all better use the cheeky nodder?

If you pit one current BJJ athlete versus one boxer in a MMA fight, who would it be? The only caveat being that they have never competed in MMA. Also, what would be your fantasy match-ups of fighters from different eras of the same weight class fighting eachother prime versus prime?

Hey Jack, I was watching Bang & Pivot’s video on Carlos prates and in one of the clips, the fighting nerds’ coach said that he studied how a mongoose attacks a snake (managing distance, baiting reactions, and striking at the right moment). I was wondering if there are any other examples in combat sports of techniques being inspired from how animals attack

What is the best way to conceptualise the ideal hip height in your stance? Boxing will teach to have a deeper squat for power generation and defensive tightness whereas kicking arts will have tall, open hips for turning kicks over easier which inturn makes it easier for a grappler to get under and shoot. Would you teach it as something to be adjusted by style and opponent based on heurisitics or do you have a definitive answer?

Hey Jack! I'm a grappler in the Gi and have been training for about a year. I'm a small guy and when I compete I do it in the smallest weight class available (which is often bigger than my natural weight). I am lanky enough but struggle with being out strengthed by my opponents, although I find I have a cardio edge over everyone I grapple against. How can I leverage a cardio advantage without just getting held and tapped early which has happened in all my matches so far? How would Merab go about fighting Terrence McKinney? Thanks!

Dear Jackael Slackson, who wins at 135lb Shakur Stevenson or prime Alexis Arguello? Also do you have any strong thoughts about the new guys coming out of Tim Welch's camp? The UFC seems to be high on his supply at the moment

Hi Jack, who are some of the best body punchers in a kickboxing/muay thai context? Also, how does a pressure fighter like Duan99 deal with incoming elbows as well as being clinched and stalled when trying to enter range and box. Cheers!

I know you like to rag on them and women's mma in general. But what are your honest thoughts on Amanda Nunes and Valentina as competitors. And WMMA as a whole. Love from the netherlands

Favorite or trickiest entries from striking to takedowns?

7th times the charm: You've been covering mma for a long time. How has your content and skills evolved from when you first started to where you are now? I’m not familiar with anything you wrote before 2019 so I can’t make a comparison. Two examples of growth I have seen- are my friend from uncrowned drake riggs who started out as a sherdog writer of basic news, has since written big deep dives on obcsure mma stories like Megumi Fuiji and Rousimar Palhares for uncrowned, and my other friend Ghost (9h6st21) who actually started out using microsoft paint and the photos app to do his analytical videos to now where he is combining animation and analysis. Do you feel like your skills and talents for watching fights and writing about them have seen remarkable growth over the years when looking back at your old pieces? Why do you think most content creators and writers choose not to grow and stay stagnant? I'm not talking about people like Garrett Kerman that are lazy and use AI, im talking about content creators that just do the same interviews or write pieces with no visible growth in their style.

What’s next for Paddy Pimblett? I would love to see him against Gamrot or Oliveira. I don’t think he should be fighting down so him vs Olives would be a sick matchup. Would also give Gaethje time to lose to Arman and then set up a rematch for Oliveira or is Paddy wins I think that would be a great fight also.

I just joined Sylvie’s Muay Thai library on Patreon (great shout) are there any videos/training sessions you’ve particularly enjoyed and found valuable to your training?

Slacky J, Loved the piece on Josh Barnett's clinch striking. A. How much do you think clinch striking viability changes across weight classes? Heavyweight lack of urgency/mobility creates more wall-clinch opportunities, While on the other extreme flyweights may have much smaller openings for strikes. Are there core concepts or techniques that work well regardless of weight class?

What's a good no gi instructional for a noob that get tapped out twice per minute? Also why do you think so few people use snap kicks to the chin?

I don't want to downplay any of the bad things Conor McGregor, Gable Steveson, Alex Pereira, TKO management, the "celebrities" who are the only ones who can afford UFC tickets now, and the President of the United States have done, but I suppose I'm just too autistic to understand why so many people seem to just now be noticing that many people involved in combat sports are, to put it lightly, quite bad. I'm struggling to remember any era of combat sports that wasn't shot through with the worst pieces of human dogshit you can possibly imagine. My theory is that the shit stinks more now that the powers that be have figured out how to divorce the "making money" part of combat sports from the "putting on good cards" part of combat sports. What do you think?

Dear Mr Slack - please wax lyrical on the awesomeness of the original K1 MAX tournaments, the amazing fighters involved, their fights and why everyone should go back and appreciate them!

I saw someone name the submission that paddy had on the last card “the padlock” and it made me wonder, is there a move or grip that you use frequently in the gym that it has become synonymous to you? Does it have a specific name in your gym? If you could have a move popularized by you, what would you want it to be?

What is the worst part of the MMA fan base in your opinion.

Any word on more history of boxing podcasts? Absolutely loved that series, as well as the boxing rebellion one, great workout listens

What do you think the reasons are we don't see many of the elite grapplers with alot of physicality in their games I.E. Andrew Tackett or Nicky Rod, cross over into MMA? I'd imagine they'd be earning more than they currently do from instructionals and prize money if PowerSlap is anything to go by, as well as probably have a lot of success in the Light-Heavy/Heavweight divisions.

Big Jack. How much of a "gamble" is to throw simultaneous counters? for example Danny Garcia who used to throw counters at the same time opponents threw, making it much more devastating. It was definitely not speed or power in his case. How to study fighters with that kind of good timing?

For anyone that’s too high on the back and falling off, would advice them to just go for a suloev stretch? Seems to be working a lot lately

Hey Jack, wondering if you've ever read many fiction books about boxing/fighting? I just finished The Professional by W.C Heinz and it was phenomenal. Highly recommend it if you haven't read it, and if you have what are your thoughts?

Hello Slacktimus Prime! Repeat question here. Do you have any favourite small characteristics or quirks that are idiosyncratic to specific fighters? I find what keeps me coming back to combat sports is the gallery of strange characters and how their fighting expresses small things about their backgound or mentality. My personal favourites are Poirier's short pull, Pantoja's opening charge and flurry (he's so cool), and last and not least, Anton 'The Pleasure Man' Turkalj's weird off-putting sexual trash talk. Thank you! Big ups from the home of UFC 221 Rockhold v Romero

Will you please do a series on the 4 Kings of Boxing at 115? I’ve asked you this before, and you seemed intrigued with starting off with Chocolatito vs Estrada 1, but I hope me asking again will remind you that there’s goofballs like me who would love you to talk about this underrated series of fights in modern boxing ! Much love to you and the fam 💙

What ideas do you have about setting traps with footwork?

Have you caught Allycia Rodriguez vs. Phetjeeja? Also, Yuki Yoza fights Friday.

How much value do you think "war books" have for professional fighters? McGregor was famously (i think) fond of Sun Tzu's art of war, but how much do you think this sort of thing really matters in modern fighting? Additionally, do you think other, less philosophical and more practical books (Maurice's Strategikon, as an example) add any value to a professional fighter? Cardinal Richeliu Aura Farming in that one painting, bless. Edit note: the original question sucked, this one is way better

Hey there Mr Jack, I was wondering if you had any examples of fighters who fought elite competition before and maybe after their title rain, but their titled defenses were kinda meh competition Cheers 🍻

Why did emelianenko have such a affinity for head down arm bars?

What made Ali so special (in the ring)? And what’s his best performance in your opinion?