SubGrappler

Its generally the other way around. BJJ fighters typically do rather well against wrestlers because of their better finishing skills on the ground. Even though wrestlers win the takedown game, BJJ fighters typically win the submission game. Wrestlers do well against sprawl and brawl standup fighters who are not very proficient at ground fighting. With takedowns that are second to none, its very difficult for many strikers to keep the fight on their feet. The Sprawl and Brawl fighters generally do rather well with BJJ fighters. Known for having the weakest takedowns among grapplers, BJJ fighters often have trouble bringing the fight to the ground, and against an experienced striker with decent takedown defense, this is often a problem.

That is a sterotype- I was a bouncer for years and heard that I have seen 2% go to the ground and that is usualy only after one is too tired and beaten to stand. Why would you learn to take a guy down on purpose if your in a club, in a line , at the subway, at the air port, at a bank.....Thank about it and you will realize it's useless unless the other guy has studied and grapples you. I agree. If someone is trying to use a takedown in a club or at the subway.... do you really think he knows a lot about fighting? no, hes desperate trying to hurt you....and you can avoid this easy. most people wont let another get too close and being grappling because friends of either one would try to get into the fight.....that, and well, it also draws too much attention I also work in a bar. It is not a stereotype that most fights end up on the ground, you're simply breaking the fight up before it progresses how it natrually would. Please explain how you can easily avoid being taken to the ground. Close enough to punch is close enough to grab as well. People may not be knowledgable about takedowns, but rather would try a crude tackle to take the fight down. Most brawlers I've seen either throw power punches really well, resembling sluggers, or prefer to tackle someone down and pound on them.

I dont agree with the UFC refs being better. I think they're easily manipulated by the audience. Lots of times they do ridiculous standups, like when someone has half guard, or mounted positions. A lot of standups occur simply because the audience doesnt understand the ground game, hence boo when the fight goes that way.

Its not easy for someone to pick someone else up and powerbomb them out of a triangle attempt, but it sure isnt uncommon. In reference to fighting a much larger opponent, yes it should be relatively easy to slam out of the triangle, but not everyone thinks like that. Getting posture/lifting your head is the first defense on a triangle thats in the midst of being setup (i.e. the triangle is not "locked"). Some Jiu Jitsu fighers hold on to the triangle in attempts to finish it (slamming from triangle is illegal in BJJ competition) and get seriously hurt because of it. Newton vs Hughes is a good example, and perhaps there is no better examples than Quinton Jackson vs Ricardo Arona. If you succeed in holding your opponents head down, it becomes extremely difficult for him to pick you up for a slam. A good example of this is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Mark Coleman. Should your opponent have good posture and you have a locked triangle, hooking his leg will prevent him from lifting you off the ground for the slam, allowing you to finish the triangle from there, or sweep and finish it from the mounted position. Another option is switching to the arm bar.

You misread my post. Quotations indicate that is what Jason should have said word for word. When I say "and me" it is meant to be coming from Jason's mouth rather than mine.

It really depends which Gracies it is you're talking about. Today's fighters have tremendous skills in all levels of fighting- I was just watching Joe Doerkonson vs Patrick Cote and I couldnt believe how great of a fight it was (and how excellent a defense Cote put up before getting tapped). Renzo fights in Pride, as do most of the other Gracies (UFC tends to favor strikers a bit more than Pride does). Bear in mind though that Renzo does alot of work on his standup, which means hes no longer a pure BJJ fighter- hes a mixed martial artist, as is Rodrigo, Daniel, and Ryan Gracie. Royce and Royler could be considered a better example of a pure BJJ stylist, since neither has particularly good standup ability. With so many wrestlers in the game now, alot of people have too good a takedown defense for someone like Royce or Royler to take them down. Its no longer like the old days of UFC. They can make for a good fight, but its very difficult to pose a threat to someone in MMA today if you cant throw hands nor can you take them down effectively. Its hard to pull guard to make for an offensive fight.

to be fair ,eugene jackson and keith hackney are excellent examples of kung fu fighters that can hang with the best of them . correct me if im wrong but hackney always claimed kenpo karate as his style. Credit him one name- he was too humble to, but should have said "Keith Hacknet]y, Eugene Jackson AND ME are excellent examples of kung fu fighters who can hang with the best of them."

There are no proven strategies for dealing with multiple attackers, and Ive yet to see any that have a hint of working. One on one fighting is difficult enough with all the possible variables, multiple attackers puts those variables as almost limitless. The same can be said for weapons situations. Gun defenses I think most of the time are ridiculous.

You almost answered your own question Mixed Martial Artist have no egos and no single allegiance to any particular style. Sure, there are guys whos style reference reads "wrestling" "BJJ" or "Muay Thai" In reality, these style references only point to where that particular fighters preference is, whether on the ground or on the feet. A mixed martial artist takes the best things from different styles and trains in them to make the best possible fighter. Someone possessing the hand speed you get from boxing, the takedowns from wrestling, and the submissions from jiu jitsu has practically covered all aspects of an unarmed fight.

I find it amusing the people who say "my style has no weaknesses." EVERY style has a weakness, no matter what. If you cross train in all phases of fighting, your weakness would be the area of least expertise.

The grappling blueprint... Ive heard of that. Put basically, the guy who started the whole thing is Lloyd Irvin- and YES Lloyd Irvin knows his Jiu Jitsu and has fought successfully in many competitions. Now, Lloyd did recieve his black belt with 3 1/2 years of training in BJJ, BUT he was an amazing Judoka prior to even starting BJJ, so it is a bit misleading. Its like Hidehiko Yoshida, Olympic Gold Medalist in Judo, starting BJJ and getting his black belt in a year- his previous training helped him out immensely. Do I believe in the grappling blue print? I cant say for certain because Ive never seen it, but I dont think hes doing anything different than any other instructors are who are serious about their students. If you are dedicated to training (training ALOT no less) and you have a competent instructor, youll have success much quicker than the typical BJJ student. Perhaps one of the reasons Lloyd Irvin is so popular is that besides being a quality instructor, hes got many schools and many affiliations throughout the East Coast, and they regularly rank in the top 3 competition teams in the US by NAGA ranking criteria.

https://www.bjj.org has various amounts of techniques. I would recommend the book thats written by BOTH Renzo and Royler Gracie Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I think its the best one for beginners out there.

They may have some grappling experience, but as was said lopside fights were common place in early MMA. Weight is a great neutralizer of skill. Its been suggested that every 20lbs of weight advantage = one belt level higher. For example, a 160lb white belt fighting a 180 lb white belt is like a 160lb white belt fighting a 160 lbs blue belt

You have to understand why fights get drawn out. It doesnt matter whether your style trains to end fights quickly or not- name me a style that says otherwise. Fights either go on very long because you have two very skilled fighters, or one who is holding. Endurance is your best weapon in a fight, especially should you find yourself outclassed against another fighter. You dont have a choice- its either get knocked out right away, or try your best to hold, defend, and prolong the fight and hope for a mistake by your opponent. If your opponent has friends around, you will get beat on the ground AND on the feet as you fight just one. Odds are against you in either scenario Higher skilled opponents dont drag the fight- if youre dragging the fight, either you are outclassed, outweighed, or simply dont want to fight. As the fight goes on, you may find a way to beat HIM. As far as him looking for a weapon, is he seriously going to scour the city in search of an automatic weapon while you beat his head in with your fist, or is reality like a double dragon game where knives, shards of glass, and bats randomly appear on the ground?

Hey no ones saying that it CANT be done, but lets look at this another way. BJJ/Submission fighters are the best grapplers in the world, bar none. Their supremacy on the ground is unquestionable. K-1/Boxing fighters are the best strikers in the world, bar none. Why would you deliberatly go out of your way to train for a particular venue when the most effective training methods and styles have been established. Its like cutting your entire lawn with the weedwacker- sure it can be done, but why the hell wouldnt you just use a lawnmower?

5 minutes? I dont mean to bust your bubble but it takes a hell of a lot longer than 5 minutes to even remotely know anything about a particular move. Ive practiced moves for hundreds of reps a day. Some of the best competitors will do nothing but drill a move, say 100 times a day, for a month straight before they even begin to understand a move. Its not the quantity of techniques you learn that makes your good, its the quality. Take an example of Saulo Ribeiro, a 6 x World Jiu Jitsu Champion, and he only utilized 4 kinds of Judo throws when he fights. This is a guy whos been training for over 10 years.

Lets see if I can address this without starting a war.... First off, the idea that cant work in the UFC because its techniques are illegal is a bogus statement used often by people who fear stepping into the octagon or are simply closed minded. Everyone fights under the same rules. There are ways to eye gouge, bite, and headbutt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, and Judo, but you dont hear those fighters complain about it. All the techniques that are now outlawed in the UFC were at one point of time very legal and contrary to popular belief, biting, eye gouging, and groin shots were not as effective at ending/ turning the tide of a fight as once thought. Things like headbutting were removed because they were so effective at opening up cuts, which stopped fights often (elbows do this as well). Now why didnt kung fu work.... Technically it did- Jason DeLucia is a shining example of a kung fu fighter who does well in MMA https://www.jasondelucia.com He holds a +.500 record in MMA competition, which is quite successful. Why didnt the other kung fu guys do well? 1. Lack of knowledge of ground fighting, which was a downfall for many standup fighters. Using a low crouched stance wasnt very effective against someone attempting to take you down- being heavy on your feet is indeed the opposite of what you want to do to avoid takedowns. 2. Lack of striking combinations. Popular striking styles, such as boxing and muay thai, make use of combinations, setups, fakes, and body shots. These may exist in kung fu, but are the speciality of boxers/muay thai fighters in the same way that grappling is to wrestlers/jiu jitsu fighters. 3. Lack of enough quality sparring time. The styles that are emphasized in MMA, such as wrestling, BJJ, boxing, and muay thai, have heavy emphasis on live training and full contact sparring/competition which best prepares a fighter for the real deal. 4. Bad Luck Not all these points apply to all kung fu. There were those who couldnt combine attacks, those that couldnt be light on their feet, and those that had never actually fought before. The bad luck part goes against someone like DeLucia who was a quality fighter and got paired up with a quality grappler. After Royce, Jason was a top notch contender to be a UFC champion, barring the weight advantage people like Severn, Kimo, and Shamrock would have had on him. There were also no weight restrictions in early MMA events, which led to a few very lopsided fights.

Its MMA and fights by their nature end up on the ground- its very seldom seen that a fight doesnt hit the ground. That being said if you like to watch standup fighters, Id suggest you watch the UFC when fighters like Chuck Liddel, Cabbage, Tim Sylvia, Robbie Lawler, Pete Spratt and Jens Pulver are on the card. These guys tend to have quality striking matches with whoever they fight.

Someone already mentioned that Chuck Liddel was a collegiate wrestler, so I wont go into detail about that. Winning a UFC on just kung fu alone? Practically non existent- winning on any single style alone- practically non existent. For one, its not like UFC is the only mixed martial arts tournament out there, it just happens to be at the pinnicle of them (UFC and Pride) and they get most of their talent from other pools of MMA (King of the Cage for example). Its almost impossible to fight someone and NOT have video footage of any of their previous fights. That being said, people are always looking for ways to exploit their opponents weaknesses and if youve got them on the ground or on the feet, your opponents will take full advantage of them. Dont get caught up with trying to prove how great kung fu (or any system for that matter) is. The BJJ guys initially thought that BJJ was the only thing you needed to fight (and was the only one that worked). Then wrestlers started to learn how to avoid submissions and G&P to decisions, and after that strikers learned how to sprawl and survive should they be taken to the ground (survive long enough to be able to escape back to their feet). MMA came full circle when BJJ fighters had to actually practice takedowns and learn how to throw their hands, or else theyd get knocked out.

Speak for yourself

Training with resistance

You never see anyone (intelligent enough) chamber a punch from their hips in a fight either. But the purpose of chambering a punch from the hips is to teach someone to put their body weight, hips, and shoulder behind a punch to give it power, rather than simply punching with the strength of your arms.

I agree- Silva fought a K-1 Grand Prix Champion who outweighed him by about 80 lbs in Mark Hunt. If Hunt couldnt knock him out during their fight, I seriously doubt that Chuck Liddel could, and that is in no way meant as a criticism of Liddels striking skills.

Elbow escape (otherwise known as shrimping). You can never practice that enough. Thats the single most important thing in BJJ.

I think its hard to say which is "better" since both approaches to combat have been rather successful. In my eyes: Pros of G&P: 1. Easily applicable- you dont need great ground skills in order to ground and pound and there is no need to pass the guard to attain a better position. 2. Its harder for your opponent to escape from the bottom position of guard than say cross side or full mount. 3. Time limits mean that finishing the fight is not neccessary with G&P- constantly pounding your opponent until the match ends isnt a bad way to win a fight. Pros of the Submission Game 1. Fighters are always a threat, regardless of how late into the match they are. It could be argued that as fighters tire, they'll lose power on their punches. 2. Its hard to knock someone out from inside the guard, even if they're inexperienced, because of the amount of control they can have if they decide to simply hold you. 3. Some guys have chins made of granite making them exceptionally difficult to knock out- no one is "submission proof" though. 4. Passing through the heirarchy of positions gives the attacker more options as he gets better positions. 5. Submissions can be used against any opponent from virtually any position- G&P can only be used from the top position.