How do hit stuns work?

[Granbyroll]

Maybe its just lack of athletic ability but I cant seem to capitalize. I dont understand how they work.

[Good Grappler]

Better question is why do they exist. I truly don’t understand. There are several problems with them - most of which related to a sense of control over your fighter. I don’t understand why getting hit with a punch should freeze your fighter in place for 2 seconds when you’re trying to stay in constant motion. It looks so unrealistic.

If anything getting popped by a punch makes staying in motion MORE important, to avoid the followup.

It’s especially bothersome when you’re using a fighter like Dominick Cruz, who stays in continuous motion IRL. When he got hit in his Casey fight, it literally had no impact on his movement. He never froze in place and stood still with his guard down. When he got popped, he just kept moving to avoid a followup.

Yet when I use him in the game, I’ll be in constant movement, when literally a JAB makes Cruz chaotically freeze in place wiggling his head for 2 full seconds. It’s like the game tries hard to FORCE exchanges, and strongly incentivizes throwing in combinations. In real fights, combinations of more than 3 strikes occur maybe once a minute AT most, simply because of how risky it is to engage like that - both due to energy output, and the risk of counters. Pop-shots and 2 strike combos are like 90% of what real MMA striking consists of.

So, whatever the purpose of “hit stuns” is in the game, they certainly shouldn’t affect footwork, unless the fighter is moving forward throwing punches.