Justin Gaethje and the Dempsey Roll

One thing that fills me with great joy is finding how Boxing’s older techniques find a home in MMA modern metagame.

One such instance of technical reincarnation is that of Jack Dempsey’s “Dempsey Roll” (he did not call it that, but it was made popular by the cartoon Hajime no Ippo).

Those that saw Gaethje’s bout against Tony Ferguson might have caught a technique reminiscent of one of the all-time greats, Jack Dempsey. As Ferguson would take ground, Gaethje attacked with a right overhand, and would often step with the same side to take an outside foot position. Ferguson has a hard-coded instinct to turn away from arcing shots like this, which then set him up beautifully for Gaethje’s follow-up left hook.

He faced a hard, decisive loss against Khabib Nurmagomedov this last weekend, but he was still able to land this technique a couple times.

Some have mentioned that this should be called a “Killing Shift”. While the first half of the technique is the same, the second attack is an upper cut or hook the body. Maybe calling this the “Duran Shift” would have been more accurate.

Until Next time!