One of the best fights I've ever seen...
Occasionally, you will see a fight that sticks in your memory forever. This fight is that good.
This is a striking match between Mike Zambidis and Chahid Oulad El Hadj... which is a name that would take me 15 seconds to sound out correctly.
I would certainly not insult this guy's name to his face... I sit safely behind my keyboard as I jest.
This is a battle between two warriors, with two different styles.
El Hadj is the type of dude who throws a lot of straight punches, followed by big kicks. He will randomly rip his shin bones any and every part of his opponent's body... leg, ribs, head... you can never tell where the kick is going, but you can tell that it hurts.
Zambidis throws nice kicks, but he does a lot of work with his hands; specifically closing distance and ripping big hooks to the body and head. He does much of his damage inside the attacks of El Hadj.
I'd like to point out that El Hadj is exactly the type of guy that you do NOT want to fight with a lot of head movement or punch slipping. His ability to rip head-kicks effortlessly and randomly leaves you with the constant threat of slipping into a nasty head kick.
If your hands are up where they belong, it won't be the end of the world, but it would still be jarring to take that type of impact on your forearms.
To counter...
In MMA or on the street, it's never hurts to catch a body or leg kick, as the resulting single-leg takedown will drastically improve your positioning and let you pound on the guy. I would NOT try to stand up with a guy like El Hadj if I could avoid it.
You could also block the kick and fire a vicious straight punch immediately in return. You can throw this counter much like the ones in the Rampage Blocks video.
If you do nothing to counter the kicks... then you're going to keep getting kicked. Why would anyone stop kicking the crap out of you unless you present a threat. You must counter kicks with some form of your own issuance of damage.