It’s absolutely devastating to be on the bottom of mount in a street fight.
First of all the guy on top has the power of gravity behind the strikes, making them much more powerful. This can turn just a regular punch to your face into an absolute BOMB!
Secondly, the guy on top can rotate his upper body to increase the power of the strikes. Just like hip rotation is the key to striking power when you’re on your feet, shoulder rotation adds a ton of power when you’re striking on the ground!
Finally, and most significantly, the guy on top has a huge reach advantage even if his arms are shorter. If you and I have equal length arms and you’re sitting on my chest then you’ll be able to punch me in the face and my hands won’t be able to come anywhere near your face. And if we change positions, if I now get mounted on you, then the situation is reversed; all of a sudden my punches will land and yours will fall short.
In this video from the Self Defense Youtube Channel you’ll see each of these 3 advantages graphically demonstrated…
OK, so hopefully you’re now convinced that if you’re on the bottom of mount then it’s an extremely foolish idea to trade punches, elbows, hammerfists or any kind of strike. You’re going to end up on the losing end of the striking equation every time.
Instead you need to focus on developing a structural escape to the position.
There are lots of mount escape techniques you can use. Let’s review three of them.
The bridge and roll (or ‘Upa’) technique is a great place to start. It’s a fairly simple technique that also offers you some level of protection against strikes, which is why it has been used hundreds of times in MMA…
If you can’t get your opponent to put one of his arms on the ground, and/or you can’t control one of those arms, then you have to use different escapes. Yes, these escapes may expose you to punches, but if you’re on the bottom of mount you probably won’t emerge unscathed anyhow.
Move as fast as possible and be psychologically prepared to eat a punch or two in the process. I promise that this will be better than absorbing 2o punches.
Here’s a very simple escape taught by my friend and high level MMA fighter Denis Kang that can serve as a backup technique if the bridge and roll doesn’t work…
And here’s a very effective technique that involves a little more leg dexterity and coordination, but is very effective especially against bigger opponents…
When it comes to the mount in a streetfight it’s 1000 times better to be on top than on bottom.
And if you ever find yourself on the bottom then use structural escapes to get the hell out of there. After all, you’ve practised these escape techniques hundreds of times until they’ve become complete instinctive, right?