After watching Jon Jones utilize his reach on Saturday night against Glover Teixeira, I started to wonder how viable that fight strategy will be in the upcoming EA Sports UFC. Questionable eye pokes and extended fingers notwithstanding, Jones once again used his insane reach to simply keep Teixeira at bay, sometimes resorting to completely palming his head in his hand, much like something you'd see in grade four (the class bully holding back a smaller kid). Teixeira certainly came to bang, and he tried his best to get inside, but Jones deployed that impressive reach and some even more impressive elbows (once he'd comfortably gotten inside) to do heinous damage.

This is a very unique fight style, and it'll be interesting to see how the developers at EA Sports have decided to represent it. The most obvious examples of rangy fighters include the likes of Jones and Anderson Silva, but even athletes like GSP utilize a long jab and complicated footwork in order to keep the fight away from them ... until they want it to be close. The usual move is to use their superior cardio and range to control the fight and dictate where it takes place. Once someone is tired or vulnerable for a takedown, then the distance gets closed.
 

The problem with doing this in video games, most of the time, is that the action is generally geared towards standing and trading in the pocket and landing big shots. Previous games have tended to degenerate into slugfests, whether the rangy fighter wants it or not. It's a delicate balance, as it wouldn't be fair to give the ranged strikes a way higher damage rating, either. In that case, a fighter could just bomb away with impunity. Still, there is an advantage in having huge reach, and it should be up to the smaller fighter to find ways to get inside. I feel that up till now the long strikes just haven't been enough of a deterrent to keep certain fighters at bay.

The new footwork and actual foot-planting should help a lot in this regard, as each fighter will now, apparently, have to cover distance and move in a correct way in order to get in position. With less sliding and floating, it'll be interesting to see how the fight flow is affected, especially at range. This new footwork is paired with the knowledge that there will be no run button in EA Sports UFC, which means you won't see some of the goofy moments that were present in UFC Undisputed 3 where players would run right at each other to start a fight. I really hope that the new footwork ties in well with stance switching, lead legs and hand positioning, as it would be great to have a fighter actually hold his body correct depending on how he's standing, allowing for better defense and strategy changes during a fight.
 

Of course, the feet aren't just used for moving; they need to be able to kick, too. For too long MMA games have given short shrift to leg kicks, and I hope EA Sports UFC changes that trend. The main problem has been that leg kicks just don't do enough to either deter or damage an opponent. It's frustrating to land countless unchecked leg kicks, some of which are counter shots to someone who is stepping in, and not have your opponent slow down much. UFC Undisputed 3 took an inordinate amount of kicks to make any cosmetic changes to an opponent's leg, and it took even more to actually slow them down or damage them. The strikes land, which does help score points, but skilled leg-kick practitioners should be rewarded for these strikes. Moreover, these leg shots should keep would-be pursuers at bay when they are trying to close the distance.

Just the same, a fighter like Jon Jones or Anderson Silva should be rewarded when they use their absurd arm length to hold back a smaller fighter. I fully concede that these two are more of the exception and not the rule, but they should be represented that way in the game. Ideally, there should be collision detection on the arms as an opponent moves in, and maybe someone like Jones would automatically grab their head or paw them away if they move into his reach range. Previous games have allowed fighters like this to utilize some long jabs, but the lack of proper footwork and power on the jabs has meant that brawlers can just move in and bypass what should be a huge advantage in reach. Again, it's a difficult balance, since you want to give someone a chance even if they're going up against a Jon Jones, but if EA really wants styles to make fights, a competitor should have to think long and hard about how they attack someone with such a distinct reach advantage. Instead, previous games have demythologized these long and lean fighters by allowing one power strike from a scrapper to put them on their heels. That's not how it should be.

As said previously, a smaller fighter who fights long, such as GSP, should be a viable strategy as well. It should be harder to pull off successfully, but it should be viable. Scoring points with jabs and kicks is something that many fighters do, and the new footwork should allow them to slip in and out of danger while doing so. I'm not going to say it's the most exciting style in the world, but some fighters (like Phil Davis last night) don't have the power to take someone out, so they're going to look to land shots to set up takedowns in order to score points. That's how they fight, and that's got to work in the game ... unless they get punched by someone who isn't afraid of the takedown.
 

I'm fully aware that it's a tall task for developers to represent every idiosyncrasy of a fighter's style, and sometimes certain skills in the virtual realm are going to seem a bit over- or under-powered. My hope is that the new footwork, animations, collision detection and damage modelling will help replicate more diverse fight scenarios, and that would include a shutdown performance like we saw last night with Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira.