UFC 4: 5 Best Tips for Beginners

To celebrate the arrival of EA Sports’ UFC 5, we thought we’d venture back to the previous chapter—a standalone venture that, even in 2023, still holds out as one of the best MMA-centric games on the market. However, if you haven’t had the chance to play UFC 4 yet, then perhaps now’s the time to brush up on your cartwheel kicks. Not sure where to begin? Here are five useful tips to help you along your way.

5. Analyze, Learn, and Adapt

It’s all well and good wanting to strive for that ten-second knockout, but the reality is, applying yourself too much will only lead to an early defeat. And unless you’re playing on the easiest mode, you’ll find that, after pushing your opponent too hard in the opening round, you won’t have the stamina needed to press any harder in the latter rounds. To this end, you’ll want to play the fight by ear, and more importantly, look, learn, and adapt to the situation at hand — otherwise you’ll only wind up losing all your stamina and leaving yourself open to counter.

It is worth pointing out that, as far as fight lengths go, you’ll want to draw them out for as long as possible — if only to give your fighter the chance to boost certain key muscle groups and obtain additional experience. In other words, don’t cartwheel kick your opponent into submission in the first eight seconds; it may look great as a post-match cinematic, but it won’t give you much experience in the long run.

4. Find the Right Fighting Style

When it comes to choosing a fighting style, you’re going to want to pick one that suits your play style best. More often than not, you’ll find that one of the best all-rounder styles is kickboxing, as it more or less has the highest knockout percentage, and has an entire catalog of first-class moves to learn alongside it. If, however, you’ve managed to find a way to crack the submissive code, and are a bit of a dab hand at choking out opponents in the Octagon, then you may want to consider traveling down the Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

If you’re planning on hitting up the Career Mode, then you may want to try out a few fighting styles in the Training Area before embarking on a quest to become the GOAT. To play it safe, you could also aim for a fighter that’s simply Balanced, which will give you a minor advantage in each of the available categories. Personally, I’d go with the kickboxing option — if only to take advantage of those all-powerful cartwheel takedowns and flying kicks.

3. Exploit Your Opponent’s Weaknesses

To initiate a solid takedown, you’re going to need to keep your eyes peeled for your opponent’s weak spot, or the part of their body that isn’t being defended. If, for example, your sparring partner is holding their gloves up against their face, then you’re either going to want to take a wider hit, like a Haymaker, or aim for a body or lower kick. Furthermore, if they’re defending the lower region, then you’ll ideally want to come in strong with a wider swing at their top half.

To echo, you don’t want to waste your stamina by swinging left, right, and center at an opponent who’s taken a defensive stance. Rather, wait for the opportune moment to strike, or better yet, wait for them to whittle down their own stamina gauge before coming in for the counterattack. Remember, it isn’t a ten-second sprint — so be sure to roll with the tide and play each round as they come.

2. Don’t Inflate Your Ego

When it comes to tackling the career, you’re going to want to focus on molding your body over using it to squeeze likes and followers over on your social media. Of course, there’ll be plenty of time for that in later matches, but for the time being, aim to use your pre-fight Training Camp weeks to, you know, train. In other words, don’t spend each week’s available points on calling out fighters and burning bridges with those who you’ll want to learn from in later stages.

Before you take on an opponent, you’ll have to decide how many weeks in the Training Camp you’ll want to carry out. Ideally, you’ll want to squeeze these sessions dry for the sake of building your stats and learnings the ins and outs of the opponent in question. Unfortunately, this does mean taking a major loss when it comes to post-match payouts, but to begin with, you’ll find that having a more intense workout is a lot better than having extra cash in the bank. To this end, you’ll want to use your time to spar with your partners, learn new moves from other fighters, and build bridges with future prospects.

1. Take the Friendly Approach

While it is possible to knock out your chosen opponent in UFC 4, it isn’t always the best route to take — especially if said opponent is built to fend off certain heavy attacks and what have you. Sometimes, you’ll find that certain fighters are more likely to tap out when in a submissive hold, or wear themselves out after extensive physical activity. In these cases, you’ll want to consider clinching your opponent, and using one of the available holds to force them to tap out.

On the subject of handling your opponent with a less aggressive approach, you may also want to consider using your social media to build useful relationships before taking to the Octagon, as this will increase the odds of the opponent wanting to spar with you in future training sessions. In other words, don’t be arrogant — fans won’t like you, nor will the force of the UFC and its roster of up-and-coming fighters. It’s an aggressive sport, but that doesn’t mean you should be a one-person juggernaut with an attitude problem.

So, what’s your take? Do you have any useful tips for UFC 5 newcomers? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.