A Guide To Being A Champion In EA Sports UFC

The UFC game series started under THQ years ago, but after the gaming publisher was closed in 2012, the series laid dead until it was announced that EA Sports had picked up the rights and were going to be making EA Sports UFC. Known for a number of sports franchises, their most similar outing in the past would easily be the Fight Night series.

With as complicated as UFC can be, there was little doubt that the EA Sports UFC would be hard. However, by becoming even more technical and realistic than the THQ line of games, the series is difficult to jump right into. Luckily, there is a tutorial you can play through in the game to learn the ropes right out of the gate.

With a game being this complicated, you may want a refresher course or be pulling it out for the first time in awhile with friends and don’t have the time to play through the entire tutorial. That is why we have put together a text based version of the tutorial that you can easily reference instead of having to go through it again. For the purposes of this guide, we were playing the PlayStation 4 version of EA Sports UFC, but the controls will transition over to the other version as well.

Basic Movement

• Control the L stick to move around the octagon
• Press ☐ or ▲ to punch
• Press ✕ or O to kick
• Pushing the L stick towards or away when hitting any of these four buttons will charge that type of strike.

Advanced Striking

• Hold L2 when hitting opponent with one of the four face buttons for even more attacks that strike the body.
• These can also be enhanced with the L stick as seen above.
• Hold L1 or R1 to allow for even more advanced striking techniques. However, while these cause more damage, they use up more stamina and are easier to counter.

Playing Defense

• Hold down R2 to block enemy attacks to prevent some damage taken, but the longer you hold it down the less effective it will become.
• To use more advanced blocking, mix in ☐ or ▲while holding R2 to block high, or ✕ or O while holding R2 to block low. By timing a block properly this way, you can parry an attack.

Clinching The Opponent

• Push the right stick towards the opponent to initiate a clinch.
• Hold L1 and/or R1 when pushing the right stick towards the opponent to change the type of clinch attempt.
• Press L3 to attempt to break the clinch.
• Once clinching the opponent, push the right stick to the left or right to make a quarter circle which will let you perform a clinch transition.
• At this point, you can strike your opponent with any of the four face buttons.
• Continue to make quarter circle turns with the right stick to transition again and continue to strike the opponent.

Performing A Takedown

• Hold L2 and then use the right analog stick to perform a takedown. This can include basic pushes of the right stick or more complicated ones that involve quarter circles.
• You can also hold down L1 while doing so to perform a power takedown.
• When done, press L3 to get up from the ground position.
• Push the right stick to make either a left or right quarter circle to transition to other another position on the floor.
• Each position will allow you to perform strikes on your opponent.

Defending A Takedown

• Hold R2 and push down on the right stick as soon as the opponent tries to grab you to take you down.
• If the opponent does manage to take you down, just press L3 to try and escape as per usual.
• Hold R2 and push the right stick to the left or right to defend from transitions while already on the ground.

Submission Battles

• To escape certain submissions, you will have to participate in a submission battle.
• To start, press the right stick in any direction to try and escape.
• The corresponding side of your submission HUD will begin to fill up with the color of your fighter’s corner when you get closer to escaping.
• However, opponents can block your escape, so you will have to switch up your directions to keep them guessing.
• If they win, they will tighten their submission and you’ll have to start all over again.
• Hold R1 and use the right stick to try and initiate your own submission attempt when on the ground. Once initiated, push the right stick in the same direction as your opponent to block their escape as basically a reverse of before.
• When in a submission, you can also tighten up by pushing the left stick in any direction to block the opponent as well.

You should now be well on your way to becoming a champion in EA Sports UFC. This should be especially helpful if you are looking to unlock Bruce Lee without having pre-ordered the game.