In my opinion this is the most consistently effective strategy outside of picking Maia and doing maia.
Always pick a character with a high power, speed, length and head movement stats. If you have to sacrifice stamina it is not as big of a concern, explained later. IF you can get a fighter with good top or bottom game that is also a plus against grapplers.
My general picks, from most effective (left) to slightly effective (right)
HW: JDS, Stipe
LHW: Rumble
MW: Robert Whitaker, Yoel Romero, Souza
WW: Woodley, Thompson, GSP
LW: Ferguson, McGregor, Khabib
FW: McGregor, Edgar
BW: Cody Garbrant, TJ Dillashaw
FLY: Demetrious
The strategy is to combine stationary head movement to bait attacks while chipping away at your opponent when they become hesitant. If you stay stationary and use head movement you can finds shifts between sways and ducks. For example, you can sway right and immediately duck when your opponent throws a high kick (will post video later of an instant ko).
Some good counter sways I would suggest.
Sway right -> Uppercut
Duck - Uppercut
Duck -> Lead hook
Sway right/left -> Double hooks
Your opponent may eventually figure you out and try a few things. One strategy will be to attack your body with kicks, so be prepared to catch them, or sway right to avoid the strike (generally) and land two hooks. They may try to attack your legs, this is a little more difficult but you can check these or shoot in and strike hard with a combination (they will generally be open).
What you want to do is to force them to engage with you in boxing. So your footwork generally involves going forward only enough to prepare to be stationary again. The key is not to do moving sways, as these are less effective. One great strategy for pressure is to attack the body, just be cautious for uppercuts. You can strike and then go back to stationary head movement and counter the uppercut.
The benefits of this strategy:
Your opponent will generally lose more stamina than you because they are often missing strikes.
You have a high chance of baiting a high kick and switching to duck for an instant KO with an uppercut (especially if you are using a powerful fighter ).
It is pretty easy to avoid grapplers as they can't setup their takedowns without pressure, and clinch attempts will usually leave them exposed for instant KD.
On top of missing strikes, a KD will drain your opponent's stamina, by round 2 they are usually completely out of gas.
This is a very effective strategy that can be continually improved by working on your defenses (get better on ground/clinch or td denials) and offenses (learn how to switch between sway and ducks better).
Remember that with the combination of sways + ducks you essentially limit their striking techniques to leg kicks. There are fewer vulnerability frames because you are always moving your head and it does not have to return to center. Eventually they will start to let go of their head block and it becomes easy to land quick strikes.
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