Dominant Eye: JP Buys vs. Marcus McGhee (Patreon)

• LMA Curriculum

In my article "Picking a Fighting Stance: A Theory," I explored the influence of the dominant eye on your fighting approach. Often, fighters are taught to position their dominant eye in the rear, as I pointed out:

[E]ven with elite fighters when throwing their right hand, in trying to see their target, they expose their entire face. They're following the target with their dominant eye. Just as all rivers seek the ocean, all dominant eyes seek their target. Your dominant eye will keep wanting to come forward, and you'll consciously have to keep resisting that.

We saw this in action when Marcus McGhee fought JP Buys.

You can clearly see Buys turning his head to line up his target with his dominant eye, unwittingly exposing his entire face.

In "Picking a Fighting Stance: A Theory," I wrote:

If you're right-eye dominant and stand orthodox, protect your left and look for opportunities to land your right without overswinging and lunging with your face. Think of punching as turning in place rather than reaching forward with your rear hand.

For those who fight with the dominant eye in the rear, it takes a lot of practice and discipline to keep the dominant eye in check. Buys, however, found himself with all his weight leaning forward, placing his face ahead of his feet and torso, with his right foot off the ground. In contrast, McGhee turned in place, with his weight distributed between his left and right foot. As McGhee turned, he slipped Buys's punch.

Before this fight, Buys had three consecutive losses, with two of them ending in knockouts. His decision loss to Montel Jackson had Buys being dropped repeatedly. Going into this fight, Buys attributed his knockdowns and knockouts to fighting in the wrong weight class. Suffering another knockout in a different division, perhaps the root issue lies not in weight but perception. Inevitably, perception shapes behavior.

For further insights into dominant perception, refer to: "Dominant Perception: Looking at the Fighting Stance" and "Pro Wrestling Study: Perception and Proprioception."

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