The Rise of the Leg Kick

Let me break down where fighters are aiming their significant strikes.

Head strikes dominate at 64% of all significant strikes landed. Body shots make up 20%, and leg kicks come in last at just 16%. So roughly 1 in 6 significant strikes targets the legs.

Great question. Let me look at the trend over the past decade.

Leg kicks have nearly doubled. In 2010, UFC fights averaged about 7 leg strikes total. By 2021, that jumped to almost 14 per fight. There's a clear upward trend, especially from 2015 onward. Fighters and coaches are clearly recognizing the value of attacking the legs.

Definitely. Here's the breakdown by division.

Women's flyweight and strawweight lead the pack with nearly 15 leg strikes per fight. The pattern is striking - all three women's divisions occupy the top three spots. At the other end, heavyweight has the fewest at just 6.6 per fight. Lighter fighters seem to rely more on leg kicks, which makes sense - those divisions tend to have longer fights with more volume.

Let me find the fighters with the highest average leg strikes landed per fight. I'll filter to those with at least 8 UFC bouts to ensure a meaningful sample.

Joanna Jedrzejczyk is the undisputed leg kick queen at 27.5 per fight - nearly double anyone else. Joanne Calderwood follows at 24.5. Justin Gaethje rounds out the top three at 22.5, known for his brutal calf kicks. You'll also see Jon Jones, Israel Adesanya, and Alexander Volkanovski - elite champions who all weaponize leg kicks. The top of this list is dominated by fighters known for their technical striking.

Let me check if there's a correlation between leg kick volume and winning.

Fighters who barely throw leg kicks (under 2 per fight) have a 46.7% win rate - below average. Once you get to the 2-4 range, win rate jumps to 52.9%. The higher volume groups all hover around 50-51%. The takeaway: completely neglecting leg kicks hurts your chances, but there's diminishing returns. Having leg kicks as part of your arsenal matters, but more isn't necessarily better. It's about having a complete game.