Here's a breakdown of the Stats used in UFC Undisputed 2009, and how they affect your fighter in the Octagon


Stats are broken into two major categories, Attributes and Skills. Attributes represent the fighter's physical attributes and Skills represent their trained attributes. You also have an "Overall" rating that reflects your fighter's overall quality. All stats are marked on a 1-100 scale, with the highest in the demo being Chuck Liddell's 92 Clinch Grapple Defense. I'm making an educated guess on these numbers because my screen is really blurry on yellows and whites. If someone has it and a clearer screen, a better read of the numbers would be appreciated.

Defense Window: This is a concept that is beginning to be discussed here and around the net. It seems that there is a breif window of time that you can enter a command during an animation, much like a normal fighting game, that allows you to "queue" attacks or transitions. It seems that during a takedown animation, you can queue up a transition or transition defense if you're fast enough, and it's easier with Rua. Naturally, the downside to this is that UFC09 doesn't have many of these moments.

And before we get going, my stat breakdown on what they mean is purely conjecture based on playing the demo a lot so far.

Attributes

Strength: Liddell 69, Rua 57

Measure of a fighter's physical strength. This seems to represent the "Raw Damage" for those of you who are into theorycraft.

Speed: Liddell 60, Rua 57

Measure of a fighter's physical speed. How fast the fighter is on their feet, striking and grappling. I believe this is the base number for determining the command window for grappling and counters.

Cardio: Liddell 58, Rua 48

The fighter's cardiovascular endurance. This is how the game figures your fighter's stamina and how much you can do before becoming Gassed. I believe this also may have an effect on the frequency of flash KO's, combined with strength, based on how much Rua seems to get laid out in the game.

Skills

Standing Strike Offense/Defense: Liddell 82/80, Rua 57/50
Standing Kicks Offense/Defense: Liddell 72/85, Rua 82/70

How good the fighter is at punches/elbows (Strikes) and kicks/knees. Boxers benefit from high Strike, Kickboxers from high Kicks and Muay Thai from a balance, probably with more kick though. This seems to have offense represent outgoing and defense representing the blocking mitigation that the Q&A's talk about.

Clinch Striking Offense/Defense: Liddell 61/80, Rua 81/70

The strength of the fighter in the standing clinch. The game doesn't seem to really differentiate between single collar, thai clinch and body clinch. Straight up though, this is their striking strength with the clinch-specific action list. It's worth noting that Rua has a distinct advantage in this one.

Clinch Grapple Offense/Defense: Liddell 58/92, Rua 78/59

Using and defending against grapples in the clinch. This probably determines the timing window for entering grapple counters and defends in the clinch.

Takedown Offense/Defense: Liddell 53/88, Rua 63/50

Using the takedown attacks to drop opponents. Probably affects the entry period for knee counters (LB/L1+Kick, must match leg on single leg takedowns).

Ground Grapple Offense/Defense: Liddell 51/59, Rua 80/81

This is an important stat in the game, probably influencing the use of the Transition System and how easy it is to get the command to enter in time, as well as your defense window.

Submission Offense/Defense: Liddell 44/72, Rua 85/69

How good your fighter is at defending and attacking. In theory, this could effect how many rotations/bashes there are between each of the three steps of a submission animation (Position->Lock->Tap), and how many it takes to stop the submission for the defender.


So there you have it, a summary of the various stats and their possible effects on the game. Enjoy, discuss and think.

Chuck Liddell offers a great introduction to UFC 2009: Undisputed with his 'Reverse Wrestling' skillset and lots of interesting ways in and out of situations.

The first thing I’ll note is that there is a gigantic list of “Common Moves” in the Action List and Combo List that I won’t go into here. What I’m highlighting in this preview is the (UFC)/Red skills that are either specific to a fighter or their style. Without more of each style, I can’t tell you what’s unique to a specific style. A signature move for a fighter is prefixed with “SIGNATURE” in the game and represents a special move for that fighter only.

One of the first things to realize is that at this point, there are at least 3 unwittingly confirmed variations of each individual striking style, as evidenced by the Combo List, which lists Liddell as “Kickboxing 3” and Rua as “Muay Thai 3”. What’s cool is that assuming that Boxing also has at least three variations, so there is a total of at least 9 striking disciplines represented in the game, with bunches of variations as revealed in the latest Gamespy preview, you can assumedly grab different techniques through training in Career mode. (Here)

So, below, I’m highlighting Chuck Liddell’s Red skills, along with what Style think governs that particular move.

KEY (360/PS3)
High: LB/L1
Low: LT/L2
Click L/R: LSC/L3 RSC/R3 (Press in the Left or Right Stick)
(Action): Only works when a specific action type happens, I.E. (Takedown), (Counter Hit), ect.
{R/L}: Option of using a right or a left strike
->, <-, ^, v : Direction to move the stick.
{^/v} : Option of using different stick motion
Minor: Minor Transition Motion (90’). Written as UR (Up to right), DL (Down to Left), ect.
Major: Major Transition Motion (135’). Written as DRL (Down & Right to Left), ULR (Up & Right to Left).

Liddell (Kickboxing 3):
Both Standing: Probing Range
Strikes
Spinning Back Fist: High + {L/R} Punch (Kickboxing)
Takedown Intercept Knee: (Takedown) High + {L/R} Kick (Wrestling)

Transition
Left Single Collar Tie Grab: High + RS-> (Kickboxing)

Both Standing: Striking
Strikes
Superman Punch: High + {L/R} Punch (Kickboxing)
Left Head Kick: High + {L/R} Kick (Kickboxing)
Takedown Intercept Knee: (Takedown) High + {L/R} Kick (Wrestling)

Transition
Left Single Collar Tie Grab: High + RS-> (Kickboxing)

Both Standing: ClinchStrikes
Takedown Intercept Knee: (Takedown) High + {L/R} Kick (Wrestling)

Transition
Left Single Collar Tie Grab: High + RS-> (Kickboxing)

Single Collar Tie, Left (Offense)
Right Uppercut: High + Right Punch (Kickboxing)

Single Collar Tie, Right (Offense)
Left Uppercut: High + Left Punch (Kickboxing)

Double Underhook Offense
Takedown
Trip to Half Guard Left: High + RS-> (Wrestling)
Pick Up Slam to Open Guard: High + RS<- (Wrestling)
Drop to Side Control Left (^) or Right (v): High + RS{^/v} (Wrestling)

Over/Under Hook Left/Right
Takedown
Takedown to Open Guard Down: High + RS {^/v/->/<-} (Wrestling)

Open Guard Offense
Strikes
Hammerfist: High + {L/R} Punch (Kickboxing)

Transition (Open Guard Down)
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Open Guard Full Posture Offense: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Open Guard Defense Down
Submission
Guillotine Choke: Click R (Wrestling)

Half Guard Left/Right Offense
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Mount (Offense): High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Side Control Left Offense
Strikes
Left Hammerfist: High + Left Punch (Kickboxing)
Strong Knee to Body: High + {L/R} Kick (Kickboxing)

Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Mount (Offense): High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Side Control Right Offense
Strikes
Right Hammerfist: High + Right Punch (Kickboxing)
Strong Knee to Body: High +{L/R} Kick (Kickboxing)

Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Mount (Offense): High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Mount Defense:
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Open Guard Offense: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

North South Offense
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Mount Offensive: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

North South Defense:
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Sprawl Defensive: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Back Mount: Both Hooks Offense/Defense
No Special Moves

Sprawl Position: Offense
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Side Control Left Offense: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Sprawl Position: Defense
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Open Guard Offense: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Back Side Control Left/Right Offense
Striking
Strong Knee to Body: High + {L/R} Kick (Kickboxing)

Back Side Control Defense
Transition
SIGNATURE Major Transition to Open Guard Offense: High + RS {UL/UR/DL/DR} (Wrestling)

Up Down Far Defense
Takedown
Stand up to Shoot to Double Leg Takedown: RS->, Then LOW+RS->



COMBO SPECIALS
These are all specific strike combos in each range, determined by the Fighter’s Styles. Enter them just like a normal fighting game. There is another common list, probably tied to style, in the Combo List as well. These also tend to activate Commentary from the announcers.

Probing Range
Step, then L {Punch/Kick}, R {Punch/Kick}
Step, then L {Punch/Kick}, LT + R {Punch/Kick}

Striking Range
L Punch, High + R Kick
R Punch, High + L Kick
R Kick, LS->+L Kick
Low+R Kick, Low+R Kick, Low+R Kick
Low+R Kick, LS->Low+R Kick
Low+R Kick, High+ R Kick
High+L Kick, (Must Hit) R Kick
High+ R Kick, (Must Hit) L Punch
High+R Kick, (Must Hit) L Kick

The remaining combos are based on a sort of formula, representing mirroring a 1,2 Punch combo at different heights. You can enter LOW at any point in these to move the punch down to the body. No matter what you do, you have to alternate the buttons, meaning if you go Right in the first part, you have to go Left in the second one. (I.E. R Punch, L Punch, not R Punch, R Punch)

Step then {R/L} Punch, {R/L} Punch