The Spider’s Web: Dissecting Anderson Silva’s Clinch Mastery
Exploring the techniques and tactics that made Anderson Silva’s clinch one of the most feared weapons in MMA.
Anderson Silva was born to be a swarming pressure fighter, but cruel circumstance forced him to dance. When watching his earliest fights, it becomes clear that what “The Spider” wanted to do most of all was trap his opponents in a corner and go absolutely feral on them. Early Silva was a blindingly fast striker with whips for limbs, throwing out all sorts of different weapons his opponents had never seen before. He would stalk them to the ropes aggressively, square up to trap his confused foe, then unleash his entire arsenal while yanking their head around or stiff-arming them in place.
So why isn’t that always the Anderson Silva we remember? As good as he was on the inside, wrestling was an uphill battle for him. If his opponents flinched away as he closed in, they were in for a world of pain. But if they timed his forward step with a takedown, Silva would collapse as soon as someone touched both of his legs. An aggressive, pursuing Silva was a reactive takedown artist’s dream, as he’d square his stance, extend his arms out, and walk right into them, or throw his weight past his feet punching. There was little keeping wrestlers off his hips, and once they were there, Silva’s response left much to be desired.
But even when Silva became the slick hit and move stylist that dominated the UFC’s Middleweight division for years, elements of that square, swarming Muay Khao remained. He spent most of his time bouncing around in a bladed stance, poking with his jab and his long range kicks, but his hurting weapons still came mostly out of the square stance, either through backstepping counters or putting his former A-game into use during brief flurries against the cage.
The benefits of a square stance for aggressive clinch fighters are fairly straightforward - its power for corralling an opponent and tracking their lateral movement is the reason Thailand’s Muay Khaos tend to have some of the squarest stances you’ll see in striking. But Silva’s willingness to square his stance moving backwards had some interesting and rarely-seen utility in getting to his clinch as well.
Silva liked to give ground not by stepping his rear foot back first and following with his lead, as is traditional in boxing. He would step back first with his lead foot, taking it all the way back into the opposite stance. It allowed him to take large swaths of ground, but it also squared his shoulders, making it easier to grab on with both hands.
As his opponents closed in behind their lead hand, he’d extend his own and take it on the shoulder, looking to control the head while switching stances backwards. His stance switch lines his rear shoulder up with the opponent’s rear hand, letting him once again catch the punch on his extended arm and secure both hands around the head. When Silva found opportunities to pressure opponents against the cage, he’d flow into the clinch more naturally, squaring his stance to present both arms for grabbing.
Once Silva had both hands around the head, fans knew they were about to see something special. Silva had a varied and multifaceted clinch game that made use of many positions, but he’s almost single-handedly responsible for popularizing the double collar tie in MMA due to his devastating offense from the position.
The Double Collar Tie
Silva may not have been the first MMA fighter to employ the double collar tie, but the position quickly became synonymous with him. His first UFC title fight came only a few months after his debut, when he was still relatively unknown to American fans. But that didn’t last long, as Silva turned in the most violent yet beautiful clinch destruction the MMA world had ever seen, mashing Rich Franklin’s midsection into paste with his knees before going upstairs to finish him off.
From that moment on, crowds and commentators alike would go wild whenever Silva locked his hands around a head, assuming a finish was imminent. It quickly became known as a near instant loss condition - if you found yourself in Silva’s clinch, and you couldn’t escape right away, it was all over.
But before Silva’s double collar tie became one of MMA’s most famous weapons, it had its origins in his early swarming style. It was largely a reactive tool used to control his opponent’s response to his aggression. Silva would pressure toward the ropes, square up, and shock them with a barrage of straight punches. When they panicked and tried to duck in on him, his forearms were outstretched, ready to lock the head and batter them with knees.
It also doubled as his primary method of defending takedowns, sticking the forearms between himself and his foe as they dove on his hips from ten feet away, and daring them to rise back up with his knee cocked to drive through their jaw. But as Silva grew more experienced and the takedowns he face grew less telegraphed, he relied on it less as a defensive wrestling tool and developed more nuanced routes to the hold.
In today’s game, the double collar tie sees much more widespread use, but it’s rarely the killshot that it appeared in Silva’s heyday.
So what changed? Have modern fighters learned how to deal with the position, or was Silva doing something back then that they still haven’t caught up to?
It’s a bit of both. It is true that Rich Franklin’s poor clinch awareness made him the perfect canvas for Silva to paint a masterpiece. But Silva faced other fighters who knew what they were doing in the clinch and his responses were nothing short of masterful. The level of clinch skill in MMA has improved tremendously, spurred on by Silva himself as much as anyone, but even in the modern game there are very few who use the double collar tie with the nuance and skill of Anderson Silva.
Positional Basics
While MMA fans typically know it as the “Muay Thai Clinch,” the double collar tie sees more sporadic and situational use in Muay Thai. It’s primarily a transitional position used by very tall fighters, as the double forearm grip necessarily leaves space for a savvy opponent to start breaking the grip, meaning that a well prepared clincher needs to anticipate and punish counters instead of hunkering down and clinging to the position.
The double collar tie offers strong control of an opponent’s posture, allowing an attacker to weigh down on their head and crunch them into knees or throws. Because it’s a double inside grip, it also offers superior leverage for turning and steering as opponents struggle to escape it. With the forearms creating a frame and holding the opponent in place, the attacker can bring his hips back to throw powerful knees without losing position.
The hands should meet at the crown of the head, rather than the lower on the neck, offering superior leverage to crunch the defender’s posture down. The elbows and forearms wedge into the collarbone, locking the defender in place and steering them as they push or pull. As the defender struggles and rotates their hips and shoulders to wiggle inside the tie, the forearms follow to redirect them and maintain the hold, pushing across the attacker’s center line if necessary to close the gap between the elbows. Head position within the double collar tie can vary - when throwing knees the head will often need to come up, but tucking the head in tight in between attacks can help shield it from wild punches and tighten up the position.
Footwork is also of critical importance for maximizing the position’s potential. Prolific Muay Thai fighter and historian, Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu, asked the great Muay Khao Langsuan Panyutapum why knee fighters are worse in today’s Muay Thai, and he responded that everyone is flat-footed nowadays, where Muay Khao used to move around on their toes.
Staying on the toes facilitates greater mobility, allowing rapid turns and micro adjustments in positioning, keeping the attacker ready to change the angle at all times and respond to the defender’s attempts to wiggle their shoulder inside or break the grip.
This was something that Silva understood in a way that few other MMA fighters have:
As Rich Franklin Pushes forward, hoping to collapse the distance and force himself between Silva’s elbows, Silva stays on his toes and bounces as he turns. He’s on his toes to begin with, allowing him to react immediately to the shift in weight and pressure, and he cranks down further on Franklin’s head with each bounce as he turns out along the cage. Staying on his toes allows Silva to find the holes in Franklin’s positioning - initially he has his left leg back and Franklin turns to hide behind his hip on that side, but Silva quickly switches his feet to knee the open side. Note also how Silva’s left forearm tightens and passes across his body to stay inside of Franklin’s shoulder as Franklin turns side on.
Another element of Silva’s double collar tie that still sets him apart from modern fighters is the technique and efficiency of his knees. It’s still rare to see MMA fighters throw sharp knees in the clinch, and you’ll see a ton of hipless “stay busy” knees, or soft knees to the ribs that land with the inside of the leg. Silva was far more precise and vicious, choosing his targets carefully and throwing knees meant to damage.
The technique on Silva’s knees was as vicious as it was beautiful. He didn’t lift his knees straight up, but rather drove his hip into them for devastating power. They tended to land with the hard part of the knee just below the kneecap, and he’d adjust his hip based on distance. If his hips were far back, he’d drive the knee straight up the middle, often targeting the vulnerable solar plexus, and at closer ranges his hip rotates out and back in to add power, tilting to get the hard part of the knee on the floating ribs. Salvos of body knees directed the attention downstairs and hid sudden large steps back that opened room to knee the head. As opponents panicked and exposed different openings, he’d take what was given, switching his feet to knee the open side as they squirmed in desperation.
Anyone content to sit in Silva’s double collar tie without a plan to escape was dead in the water, a sitting duck about to be brutalized with a never-ending series of knees to their liver, sternum, ribs, and nose. But opponents with calculated responses didn’t have an easy go of it either, as Silva had preternatural awareness in the clinch and remained prepared to counter their attempts at foiling him.
Dynamic Control & Punishment
It’s a consistent principle across all combat sports that balance follows the head. If you can stuff your man’s head down so he’s looking at the ground, or push it out out of alignment with his hips, his ability to do just about anything is severely compromised. A head in alignment with the posterior chain is key to finishing a double leg takedown, throwing a proper punch, or applying any leverage in the clinch.
One of the main benefits of the double collar tie for control is that it applies leverage directly to the point on the opponent most critical for balance. Since it’s a grip that necessitates some space and gives the defender room to pummel inside, that balance-breaking ability needs to be used to its fullest extent to maintain control.
It’s true that Rich Franklin wasn’t well prepared to counter Silva’s clinch, but every time he tried to get something started, he’d find himself yanked off balance, forced to catch his feet as Silva peppered him with knees.