One of the greatest compliments that I ever received as a professional MMA & Muay Thai fighter came from a ballerina teacher. And what she told me after seeing several of my fights was, "Jermaine. Watching you fight is like watching a ballerina dance. You move with such grace and beauty."
My precision in the cage and ring allowed me to execute tactics that still today has never been duplicated by another fighter. In this clip I timed a Muay Thai Round Kick to strike my opponent in the head at the exact moment that he was executing a wrestling shot to grab me. This happened in my re-match against one who was an MMA LEGEND when I was just starting out, Adrian Serrano. He had beat me in a prior fight teaching me one of the most important lessons of my life. "YOU BETTER TRAIN! TALENT MEANS NOTHING!" And I got the message. And I graduated as Valedictorian from that school!
A "fight" (sport or real life defense) is a dancing game of chess during extensive pain & fatigue. A main objective is to discover and master your opponent's rhythm while not allowing him or her to discover and master yours. If you pay attention to our rhythm, you can see how I am flowing (dancing) with my opponent and then I change the beat when I launch my kick to catch him right during his shot. If you pay close attention you can see how I whip my foot over quickly (the camera couldn't really catch it) to hit him as I noticed him shooting in.
I can remember at the end of the fight, UFC/MMA legend Matt Hughes came over to me and jokingly said as he shook my hand, "What took you so long in there?" I responded, "I was letting him lead the dance so he could get comfortable and I could change the rhythm to take him out."
When we fight we are painting a living picture of two warriors. We must do our best to assure it looks good even if we lose.