Comparing Neuromuscular Tests to Discriminate Striking Performance in Elite Mixed Martial Arts Athletes

Yan, J, García-Ramos, A, Courel-Ibáñez, J, Chen, W, Rui, J, Wang, L, Chen, Z, Sun, Y, and Zhu, W. Comparing neuromuscular tests to discriminate striking performance in elite mixed martial arts athletes. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2026-General upper-body strength and power tests may have limited value for profiling striking-specific performance because they do not replicate the standing, rotation-assisted kinetic chain of punching. We examined whether a standing landmine punch throw (LPT) could better discriminate striking performance in elite mixed martial arts athletes than conventional ballistic and strength tests. Thirty-six elite male athletes (age: 20.0 ± 1.9 years, height: 1.72 ± 0.07 m, body mass: 68.3 ± 8.5 kg) participated in this cross-sectional study and were stratified into higher-impact, middle-impact, and lower-impact groups according to tertiles of relative striking force. Four assessments were evaluated: clap push-up, isometric bench press, bench press throw (BPT), and LPT. Load-velocity profiles were modeled for the ballistic exercises to derive theoretical maximal force (L0), theoretical maximal velocity (v0), and the area under the load-velocity relationship line (Aline). Relative impact force was significantly correlated with LPT Aline (r = 0.64), BPT Aline (r = 0.44), BPT L0 (r = 0.42), LPT L0 (r = 0.40), isometric peak force (r = 0.39), and isometric 0-250-millisecond impulse (r = 0.35) and LPT v0 (r = 0.33) (p ≤ 0.05). However, only LPT Aline showed a significant main effect across the 3 performance tertiles. Exploratory receiver operating characteristic analysis identified a preliminary cutoff of ≤2.12 W·kg-1 for LPT Aline to classify lower-impact strikers (AUC = 0.851). These findings indicate that although some general neuromuscular variables were associated with relative striking force, the LPT load-velocity profile showed the greatest discriminative validity, likely because of its greater task specificity. Practitioners may therefore consider LPT profiling to complement traditional upper-body testing when evaluating striking-specific capability in elite fighters.