Body Strikes

Who's got the best strikes to the body in mma?  I like Maldonado and Nick Diaz's punches to the body, and Alistair Overeem has some awesome knees.  Siver has landed some sick kicks to the body.

Who else has some great body shots?

Bas Rutten.

Can't have Dennis Siver without Cung Le. Aldo comes to mind too, i love the way he throws that right straight, hook to the body, leg kick combo he always does.

Bas Rutten certainly understands the impact of body shots and calls for them more than anyone. As an experienced striker and full-contact competitor, I can tell you that a liver shot or solar plexus shot is much worse than taking a boot to the nose or head in terms of panic mode.

Gotta put Bas at the top.

2 words to rule them all

Bas
Rutten

Bas had awesome body shots, but he isn't a current fighter

@ProdigyKid14 That combo Aldo throws is a standard 'chopping down' Muay Thai technique; it attacks all parts. You'll see Melvin Manhoef throw that right straight, left body hook/uppercut (either) and right leg kick combo too, it's my favorite combo in fighting.

As for body punchers, Frankie Edgar is an underrated body puncher. The reason why is that he mostly uses his body strikes to transition to head shots, but the way he does it is excellent.

Nick Diaz is probably the undisputed MMA king of body punches tho, not gonna lie.

I'd say Anthony Pettis is the best in terms of body strikes in general tho, dude is a beast at not only finishing a fighter via a body kick (see Donald Cerrone) but he uses them perfectly to catch fighters in the head (see Joe Lauzon). In the case with Cerrone, Cerrone's fear of getting caught with a headkick led to that body kick finish.

Alistair Overeem is the best in terms of the clinch, even without his overroids he is a threat to kill the body in the strike. Fabio Maldonado does a cool one arm tie-up thing on the clinch to expose the body, I like that as well.

Reem, Pettis and Nick Diaz are tremendous body strikers.

Reem's knees in the clinch to the body are sick. His fight vs. Lesnar displayed some of the most vicious body shot beating TKO's ever.

Pettis body kicks are a thing of beauty. His body kick TKO over Cerrone was amazing and the way he used body kicks to hurt Bendo in their second fight was good too.

Diaz doesn't do much damage when attacking the body as he hardly puts any power behind his strikes, but he's constantly using body shots in his arsenal of striking attacks.

In my opinion, the body shot isn't about damage so much as it is about convincing the opponent to drop their guard. The best body strikers are the ones who do both consistently and successfully.

Rich Franklin has some great body shots as well. He used them plenty of times to help finish fighters like when he used the body kick to finish Hammil,.

* Edited at 10.17.2013, 10:58 PM ET *