A Bangkok ready guide to Jordan Vucenic and evolving as a fighter
The ufc is incredibly inconsistent on its criteria for getting a contract. Some fighters will have to battle through a gauntlet of regional opponents just for a chance to fight for a contract on the contender series, while others will just get a call because they happen to be in the area when they need to fill in for a fight. When it comes to hard done prospects there are few examples more prolific than Jordan Vucenic. Jordan “the epidemic” Vucenic has been at the top of the stacked cage warriors featherweight division since 2019. He has beaten a multitude of ufc calibre fighters just for a chance to secure the ufc contract, but due to a loss to an equally hot prospect in Paul Hughes he was abandoned by the ufc. Now, after picking up another impressive win streak of all finishes, the ufc have decided to finally give Vucenic his shot, under the caveat that he makes the near suicidal decision to fight up a weight class one week after his previous fight against the ever dangerous Guram Kutateladze. While the ufc have thrown Vucenic to the lions, Vucenic is nonetheless a technical and tactical fighter, who is proficient in both striking and grappling, a prime example of what the next generation of mma prospects should look like. Vucenic had started off as a young prospect with a couple of effective tools but ended up really sharpening said tools and building his game up around them, eventually becoming the high level technician we see today.
Mma analysts constantly harp on about the underuse of the jab in mma. Vucenic understood early on that it was a valuable tool, constantly throwing out jabs to the body, double jabs and triple jabs against Steve Amiable. He would also find success mixing the body jab and jabbing to the head. This allowed him to back his opponent up towards the cage and constantly throw out offence. When his opponent raised their hands to defend, Jordan would throw round kicks and switch kicks to the exposed body. However, Vucenic wasn’t using the jab as a punch, but more as a tool to flash into his opponent’s face in order to give the illusion of offence. Amiable eventually realised this and began to disregard it, turning the double jab from a tool to hide offence into a telegraph. After scraping a split decision Hughes managed to build off this in his next fight. Instead of throwing these jabs for the sake of “being technical” or throwing out meaningless offence, Vucenic started using these jabs as a marker for future offence. Against Paul Hughes Vucenic utilised the double jab as a way to know that he was in range for the right hand, landing some very clean shots once he knew that he was in firing range. He would go on to build upon this in his fight with Morgan Charriere. Much like former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, Vucenic would use his jab to step into the inside low kick, catching the opponent’s leg as they try to plant their feet ready to counter. Charriere also fell victim to Vucenic’s lead hook to the body off the jab, not only bringing Charriere’s hands up and opening up the body, but also putting him in perfect range for the body shot.
Over the course of a few fights Vucenic had turned a tool that started off as a way to mindlessly create offensive action, to a method that allowed him to have control of range when he entered punching distance looking to effectively place shots. While Vucenic was able to build his game better off his jab, he became more willing to sit down on the punch itself. Against James Hendin you could still observe the same double and triple jabs that he has always used, but as his career continued he began putting more power into the jab. Once Vucenic started to put more power into his jab he could use it as a tool to bait a reaction as opposed to just an effective mark. Many remember the second Hughes fight as a one sided beating but in the first two rounds Vucenic was arguably getting the better of him. With his new and improved jab he could bait a response and then use an outside slip, dipping out of the way as Hughes tried to return with a counter punch. BJ Penn used the dipping jab very effectively against Georges St Pierre, frustrating the welterweight king by constantly stifling his attempts to jab back when Penn stepped in. Julianna Pena managed to dodge the hardest hitting fighter in women’s mma history by singly dipping with the jab over and over again until Nunes gassed out and gave up the rear naked choke. While Penn and Pena simply dipped with the jab in order to harass the opponent, Vucenic used it in a far more varied way. By mixing the slip with the double jab the timing on the slip can be varied, meaning that countering it is all the more difficult. This slip is also a platform for offence, where Hughes used it to land the left hook to the body and to the head.
Vucenic started off a well rounded mma fighter who would mix kicks into his game, but as his striking started to develop, he became more of a Thai striker, evolving and becoming truly Bangkok ready. Vucenic started flirting with clinch striking in the first Paul Hughes fight, working into the over under position and throwing knees to the body. Once Vucenic meets Charriere he starts using the clinch for offence, working into a Thai plum and throwing right hands and elbows on the break. As Charriere tries to wrestle him he works into a 3 ⁄ 4 nelson position, using head position to turn Charriere’s underhook into his overhook and using it as a platform to knee to the body and head to his heart’s content. By the time he meets Hughes again Vucenic is attempting trips from the Thai plum, along with breaking off into a collar tie and landing uppercuts. The collar tie might lack the control of the Thai plum, but it is easy to catch off a thrown left hook and allows for better punching ability with the non clinching hand. Vucenic will also try and duck under punches into a standing arm triangle. He will usually use this as a clinch positon to throw knees off of but will transition to take the back if the opportunity arises. Vucenic is able to mix clinch positions to his advantage, evidence of how well rounded of a martial artist he is. His love of Muay Thai’s elbows have progressed out of the clinch and into open space, frequently throwing the downwards elbow that English striking sensation Jonathan Haggerty regularly throws. While the downwards elbow is a Muay Thai staple, looking suspiciously like a 12/6 elbow but being allowed since it is thrown at a forward angle, it works especially well in 4oz gloves. Haggerty’s success with the downwards elbow in one championship comes from the fact that a high guard in 4oz gloves leaves an especially large opening between the gloves, something that can be threaded by the precision strike of the elbow. Jordan Vucenic’s jab heavy style frequently leads his opponents to put on the high guard, which he then splits with a step in downwards elbow.
Another example of Vucenic’s Muay Thai phase affecting his striking is how he has started to teep. While he has yet to really mix it into his game it gives him another option on the feet that prevents his jabbing offence from getting predictable and giving less of an ability for his opponents to counter, leaving him to favour it more in his more recent matches against small, nimble featherweights looking to counter his attacks with superior punching speed. Much like his jab he can use the teep to cover distance, gliding in with a teep against Simone D’ana and hopping into an elbow. Hughes has always loved the switch kick and the lead leg kick, enjoying kicking to the open side where the back and shoulder isn’t there to protect his opponent and using his jab to raise the guard and open up the body. While the stance switch can have an obvious telegraph as you step into an opposite stance, Vucenic uses stance switches to move into southpaw combinations and cover distance. Against Charriere Vucenic switches into southpaw but instead of throwing a body kick he throws a left straight and then a left hook. He will also use the southpaw switch defensively, creating space from Tiziano Ferranti’s advances and landing a clean body kick.
Much like his striking, Vucenic’s grappling started as a barebones game, just enough to create offence that had to be considered a threat by his opponent and just good enough on the ground that he can stand up if he gets taken down. But he has undoubtedly evolved as a grappler the more his career has progressed. Vucenic started off with a pretty basic grappling game. He would go for the high crotch and attempt to run the pipe, often successfully doing so. If he couldn’t he would transition to the back where we would insert a hook and try to mat return. While he was able to have success and his takedown game definitely had to be respected, he did not have enough options to really be feared from an offensive wrestling perspective. By the Hughes fight Vucenic has started to mix up the high crotch lift with running the pipe, taking the back as Hughes leans forward to maintain balance, and would have potentially got another takedown off of it had the Irish prospect not cheekily grabbed the fence. He eventually started going to the double underhooks position off the high crotch, maintaining solid head positon and mixing in trips and off balances with inside knee position as he brings his opponent to the canvas. Evolving his previous back taking style of hanging on with the standing hook, Vucenic started to use a crab ride hook to climb higher onto the back, allowing him to take full back control, a position he has a high finishing rate from.
Vucenic’s takedown defence also evolved over time. To begin with he preferred the classic feet on the hips and push off, usually doing so from butterfly guard. When he started to face stiffer competition his guard evolved, elevating his opponent from butterfly guard into x guard and then wrestling up if he couldn't create enough space to stand up outright. He will even flirt with the rubber guard, throwing elbows from there if the opportunity presents itself. Vucenic has become increasingly more comfortable with showing his back and standing up as well, building up from a wrestler’s referee's position and tripoding. When pushed up to the fence he would normally rely on a two on one baseball bat grip to escape, but now he uses the ¾ nelson and the whizzer kick to be offensive from against the cage, turning a position that opponents could previously stall him from into one where he can be offensive.
Vucenic’s ground game has come along leaps and bounds, especially in his more recent fights. While his takedowns had originally just been a way to mix up his offence, he has now become a dangerous grappler on the ground, catching submissions on his opponents to the point where he forces a lot more urgency in defending his takedown attempts. Vucenic will try and get his way to a half guard once you are on the floor, a great way to keep you pinned. He will then try and progress to mount, chasing the back if you give him the opportunity, from which he has a very good ability to go for the RNC. Normally his opponents will attempt the underhook getup, to which he usually responds with an arm in guillotine or a kimura if it is available. Vucenic’s ground game has progressed to the point where he could now be considered more of a grappler, much like how Leon Edwards started to favour a much more grappling heavy game as he worked his way up the rankings and faced better (but less rounded) strikers.
While a loss to Paul Hughes seemed like it spelled the end of his career, Jordan Vucenic has managed to drag his career back from the brink of failure and has finally managed to secure his dream, a spot on the ufc roster, even if under unfavourable terms. Jordan Vucenic shows that while many fighters are able to become effective one trick ponies, to which a singular skill can bring someone into title contention, the well rounded technician can adapt and improve to overcome the greatest challenges. From jab merchant, to Thai fighter, to submission savant, Jordan Vucenic never ceases to amaze the niche fanbase who follow him on cage warriors, and hopefully wows ufc fans with his time in the promotion.
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