A guide to Regian Eersel's killer knees

The knee is a barbaric strike, banned from most striking disciplines and one of the many reasons why politicians such as John McCain tried as hard as they could to keep the sport of mixed martial arts illegal. The unified rules of MMA have forbidden its use against grounded opponents, not due to any excessive danger (you can still elbow somebody’s face into the canvas) but due to the sheer shock of the spectacle. The knee is a high-risk, high-reward weapon, offering the potential for a lot of applied force while putting the user on one leg deep into punching range. Regian Eersel has utilised this to devastating effect, terrorising the ONE lightweight division in both kickboxing and Muay Thai. While Eersel is an excellent kickboxer in his own right, it is his kneeing game that forms the backbone of his game.

The high guard is the classic catch-all defence in kickboxing. When applied with the proper mechanics, it is extremely difficult to penetrate, the large gloves providing a barrier that prevents nearly all angles of attack. Eersel understands that trying to finesse his way around the high guard is somewhat of a waste of time, instead opting to battering ram his way through the guard. Eersel will bombard his opponent’s guard with flying knees, attempting to use the mechanic as a battering ram. While a good high guard will be able to block upwards shots such as an uppercut, the glove sliding up the elbow and forearms, the small surface area and power behind a knee will be able to crack the high guard, landing some serious damage. Eersel is a master at using the flying knee against the ropes, backing his opponent up to then launch himself towards them as they are shelled up, preventing them from backing up and stretching out the knee, forcing them to take the full brunt of the knee. Eercel will also mix up flying knees to the body, punishing an opponent for posturing up to make the knee harder to land. 

When dealing with forward pressure, even a day-one kickboxer will try to backpedal. By creating distance between you and your opponent, you can stretch out strikes, making them easier to predict and giving up the counter. As you back up, Eersel will chase you down, still hunting for the knee. One of his best ways of covering distance and extending the combinations is to fall into a one-two, throwing his bodyweight into the cross and then leaping off his rear leg as it lands on the straight, propelling himself into a flying knee. This one-two can be thrown straight after the knee as well, leading to combination chains that carry Eersel across the entire width of the ring, until they cannot back up any further and are lined up perfectly for the knee. To escape this combination, an opponent can circle off, at which point the knee will change rolls, turning from a strike into a taekwondo-style chamber, allowing Eersel to whip up beautiful high kicks to clip them on the way out. Because of this, Regian’s opponents will often try to stand their ground and throw back, hoping to catch Eersel off balance. To deal with this, Eersel will always throw a “cover punch”, flicking out a punch as he reaches the peak height for the flying knee. This punch acts as a deterrent, keeping his opponents hands up, but also serves to reset his stance, providing a counterforce to propel his leg back into place, returning him to his base. He can put some serious pop behind it, as Anthony Njoukwani found out as he was clattered with a right hook after taking a violent knee to the midsection.

What really ties Eersel’s striking together is his clinching game. Eersel’s clinch functions similarly to that of a punch and clutch boxer. Fighters like Devin Haney and Floyd Mayweather are experts at darting in, landing clean, and then smothering their opposition in the clinch, the lack of space killing all prospects of a counterpunch. This style makes the average boxing fan’s eyes roll, but that is because in boxing there are rules against holding and hitting. When clinch striking is on the table, it adds a completely new dimension to the strategy. Eersel can use punch and clutch in the traditional sense, covering his jabs and left hooks to the body by tying up an opponent in the clinch, preventing the counter. This is even more impactful when he throws a lot of force behind a knee or right hand, knowing that no matter the result of the strike (missed, connected, blocked, etc), he can simply throw himself into his opponent, preventing them from firing back as he ties them up into a clinch. Once he gets into the clinch, Eersel is adept at striking from there, able to throw straight or looping knees from a Thai clinch or bicep tie. One of the most interesting aspects of his clinching game is his willingness to grapple from there. If you give up and underhook, he will look to start leveraging it into a wrestling-style throw-by. While boxers like Lomachenko will spend years trying to learn how to pivot around the lead foot to get a dominant angle, Eersel will simply force his way into it, jacking the elbow forward and looking to punch on the break. The clinch game of Regian Eersel is interesting not because he can land strikes from there, but because of how creatively he takes techniques from other sports, almost as if he is mixing the martial arts.

Regian Eersel’s style is as interesting to watch as it is exciting, his violent knees providing a backbone to a well rounded striking game that has brought him world championships across sports. From high to low, from outside range to the clinch, it is difficult to know when the man is going to launch a chunk of bone towards you. Eersel’s knees aren’t just a short range strike, but a method to really pull his game together, adding a fluidity to his striking that is really worth watching. ONE Championship’s future may be uncertain, but as long as it stands I would highly recommend giving “The Immortal" a watch.