Tiger Shulmann’s Prodigy
Rivera began training in muay Thai as a child under one of the best coaches of this generation, Tiger Shulmann. He started his amateur mixed martial arts career at 17 and just a year later began fighting professionally. From 2008-2015, Rivera fought in a variety of promotions including Bellator MMA and Ring of Combat before signing with the UFC in 2015. During this time, he achieved a 16-1 record. His sole loss was in his second professional fight in 2008, and has since gone on one of the most impressive streaks in bantamweight history.
Although a lifelong Nak Muay, Rivera relied on his grappling early in his career and still leans on it occasionally when he’s not getting it done on the feet. Rivera generally doesent rush in for takedowns and instead elects to duck under his opponents strikes to use their own momentum to secure a takedown. Once the fight hits the ground, Rivera is not very aggressive with punches and elbows, but is adept at improving position and striking just enough to not get the fight stood up. This also scores points in the judges’ eyes. It might not be the most exciting grappling style but it’s smart and effective.
Just as most of his wrestling comes from countering his opponent’s aggression, Rivera does his best work on the feet when countering. His go-to is the pull counter but not in the way you are used to seeing it. A classic pull counter is when you lean forward at the waist, creating a false sense of distance to your opponent. As you lean forward you’re hoping the opponent thinks he is close enough to strike. As they throw a strike, you lean back at the waist, forcing the opponent to overextend and come back with a counter of your own. This tactic is what Floyd Mayweather built his legendary career on. Rivera creates this same false sense of distance, but uses his feet instead of his head. In any martial art you are taught when to strike based on foot positioning. If your opponent’s lead foot is touching yours, you should already be throwing something. Instead of keeping his feet out of range and leaning forward to create the false distance, Rivera leans back at the waist and uses his feet to bait his opponents to come in. This is a tricky way to use the pull counter that is rarely seen in MMA.
Another interesting aspect of Rivera’s striking is his combo counters. Usually counter strikers make their opponent miss and comeback with a single precision strike. Make them miss, make them pay. Instead, Rivera makes his opponents miss and comes back with a 4 or 5 strike combo, which is why he is heralded as an aggressive striker even though most of his combos are counters.
The big knock on Rivera is his lack of finishing ability. Of his 21 wins, only six are finishes, with four coming by knockout and two by submission. Although he doesent finish fights, the power in Rivera’s strikes are apparent. In his most recent fight with Thomas Almedia last summer, Rivera scored 2 knockdowns and was seconds away from finishing the fight.
Although the hate on Rivera’s finishing ability is not warranted, the criticism on his ability to take a punch is. Rivera has been knocked down or visibly hurt in nearly every one of his UFC bouts. He’s never been finished and seems to recover quickly, but it’s only a matter of time before the damage stacks up and one of these clean strikes finishes the fight. Unfortunately there is little you can do to improve your ability to absorb strikes, so tightening up his defense is what Rivera should focus on in the future.