Waterson started training karate at the age of 10 and today she is a black belt in American freestyle karate, a purple belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu and she has been training with the Jackson-Wink MMA team for the last decade. But Waterson’s karate background is still the base of her style, which can be a blessing and a curse.
A standard strike in nearly every form of karate is the lead leg sidekick. It can be used as a range finder for other strikes and as a counter-attack to keep aggressive opponents at bay. Waterson mainly uses it as a counter and will switch her targets from head to toe. Sometimes she will throw it to the body; other times she is throwing it to the knees like an oblique kick or to the head as a power strike. Since karate-based fighters are generally very cautious and rarely throw more than three strikes at a time, the sidekick is the perfect attack to close the distance and set up other leading attacks. A simple step-in sidekick followed up by a rear straight would work wonders for Waterson, who generally has a hard time closing the distance since she is one of the smallest fighters in the division.
A lot of traditional karate is about landing the one perfect punch rather than overwhelming the opponent with options and this theory is prevalent in Waterson’s style today. She almost never throws more than two strikes at a time unless she is flustered and trapped against the cage. Notice how most of her leading combos are a rear hand strike followed up by a lead leg kick. This is a classic karate strategy that takes advantage of her quick lead leg and uses the opponent's expectations against them. Most fighters need plenty of room to plant their feet and rotate their hips for kicks but fighters from kick-heavy martial arts like karate, tae kwon do, and muay Thai require much less space. This means she can fire off kicks from a distance most cannot, which can catch the opponent off guard.
Generally, karate fighters are most comfortable on the counter, but Waterson has always been a leading attacker until her most recent fight with Karolina Kowalkiewicz. In the past, Waterson would use her footwork to evade aggressive fighters, which allowed her to fight on the outside and use her speed and precision to outstrike opponents. But in this fight Waterson was planting her feet and countering in the pocket like a boxer. She put on the best performance of her career against Kowalkiewicz and did so with something we haven’t seen from her before, which is very promising for the development of her career. She’s not going to blow us away with perfect boxing technique, but it's nice to see a veteran fighter making the necessary changes to become a contender.
Waterson will also occasionally counter with kicks in the pocket, which goes back to her ability to throw kicks from an unexpected distance. These aren’t game changing, but it’s something you don’t often see done effectively in MMA.
Waterson also has her fair share of spinning kicks but she doesn't use them often. This is one of my favorite GIFs because it shows the difference between someone who has been throwing techniques like this their entire life and someone who just picked it up. Kowalkiewicz’s were slow and sloppy while Waterson’s rotation and placement in her stance after the kick is nearly perfect.
To me, karate is one of the most interesting martial arts backgrounds in MMA. When it’s done effectively, fighters like Machida can revolutionize the sport, but with this style comes plenty of defensive woes. The side-on stance and wide base leave you open for leg kicks and takedowns, while the low lead hand makes your head an easier target. Waterson has also historically struggled with pressure and we know Joanna will be plodding forward with her lightning-quick combos all night. But if she has worked on her counter boxing more she can stifle Joanna in the pocket before going back to striking from the outside which Joanna has historically struggled with.
Waterson’s karate style has plenty of intrigue, but her grappling is what makes her a serious contender. In today’s MMA you can’t be a linear fighter if you want to make it to the Top 5 of the division and Waterson is as well rounded as anyone at 115. Waterson is fairly small for the division, so she relies on leverage takedowns from the clinch rather than shooting for the hips. Her go-to is a simple head and arm throw, which generally has a low success rate, but her ability to lift her hips and almost flip her entire body over allows her to land them with ease.
Nine of Waterson’s 17 wins have come via submission, but she has only had two submission victories since joining the UFC in 2015. She is a purple belt in jiu-jtsu under Rafael Freitas and we know from her past that she can finish a fight on the ground if the opportunity arises. This fight is seen as a muay Thai vs. karate matchup, but it would be smart of Waterson to rely on her grappling early on to establish the threat which will open up her striking later in the fight.