I am guessing he trains it the same way pro basketball players train doing 360 tomahawk dunks. It's not part of regular practice but just trained for kicks(bad pun I know) afterwards.
great kick! I think using the cage differs depending on organisation, but most say you cannot grab hold of the cage.
Looked him up. He's 12-1 and his loss was a split decision. Plenty of knockouts through head kicks and punches but also an impressive amount of submissions. RNC, just like the video MATT posted. After this fight he gets to fight the UFC title holder who will be decided at the next UFC. He says they practise that type of kick off the cage every training session!!! and apparently has 8 more similar style kicks to show off as well! (sources: Wikipedia and Google-Fu)
Your right for the most part but just to kill the subject so that we can go back to how awesome that kick was. http://www.ufc.com/about/Rules It is rule #23 No holding or grabbing the ropes or fence. If fighters couldn't use the fence no one would do wall walks or bounce of fence, another example would be Oliveria vs. Escuadaro. He bounced of the fence to launch a takedown. The fence is treated in a similar manner to the mat. So here's hoping to more off the wall creative attacks!
went to the MMA gym where I do weights and stuff this afternoon (before all the snow) and saw some of the earlier part of this fight as the manager was watching it. I remember doing this kick years ago in Taekwondo when we were running around the dojang during the warmup.
This is what would of happened if he missed. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEBkaIS2DHY"]YouTube - BJ penn vs. caol uno[/ame]
Nice kick! I saw someone do a similar kick but they used a persons chest to 'push' off and wheel kick a couple of boards. I did not think much of it as far as practicailty until I looked at this .gif file. thanx for posting.