Inside the Octagon: Cormier vs Miocic 2

BJJ Scout Breaks Down Askren vs Lawler Takedown Truth (All Hail King Troll Askren!)

Some cool sections on inside wrist control, the Iowa ride, attacking the turtle, and Askren's double leg + body lock takedowns. The biggest takeway when I shifted from competing in Judo and training Muay Thai to fighting MMA was my reliance on the body lock or some form of upper body grip to finish takedowns in my fights. In Judo you can rely on the jacket whereas in MMA you've got underhooks/collarties, gable grips, et cetera. In terms of upper body takedowns in MMA, in my 5 fights I hit uchimata, haraigoshi,bodylock + outside trip, and a takedown in my 5th fight that I don't recall and don't have footage of. I'm interested when I return from ACL rehab to look at and think about this bending at the waist double leg business pointed out from Askren's game.

Berimbolos Don't Work! - Keenan Cornelius Elaborates

I like that he counters an early and easily predictable counter to the crab ride/body lock argument by clarifying that crab ride is not the same as berimbolo but a possible end result of a completed berimbolo, and this sort of cognizance on his part is the sort of thing I look for in competitors and instructors when listening to their mindset behind statements of belief regarding how or why they have a preference or belief on a particular technique or subset of techniques

UFC 228 This Weekend: Are You Able to Care?

Watching a guy who completely failed to make weight for his title contender fight.....get to fight a guy who set records for lowest punch output (not once....but twice in a row) for the belt....well, it's hard to feel the "needle move" in UFC brass jargon/speak.

There's some legit female fights on the card, so there's that I suppose. At this point, we're all actually waiting for UFC 229 with Khabib/Conor and Pettis/Ferguson. Let's just call it what it is. The title fight kinda makes sense for UFC brass in a way: Till pulls off an upset and becomes a UK champ which is great for the brand over there. Woodley puts on another snoozer and the UFC continues to be able to hardball with him and put it on him for sleep-aid effective performances until Covington is healthy and can fight him and drum up support for a fight.

A stellar UFC card it is not...but like I said, at this point we all know what we're really waiting for at this point in time: Khabib vs Conor, even if it has about zero promotion being done for it.

If anything, this card feels more like a coming out party for the women on the roster than anything: we've got Schevchenko, Kowalkiewicz, and Esparza amongst others. We've also got a big jump up in exposure for Zabit Magomedsharipov last in action on that ill-fated Brooklyn card where McGregor utilized the dolly tossing precision to take out 3 UFC fighters in one toss. Elsewhere on the card Rivera looks to rebound from that title shot defusion headkick loss after talking a mountain of *&^% about Marlon Moraes and faces the still no idea what to do Dodson who just can't beat # 2 and # 1 in the flyweight division. To give you an idea, Jim Miller and Diego Sanchez are on the fight pass prelims. I don't mind because I end up tuning in to the fight pass prelims because I'm still awake, and it's not super late, and I stream them from home on Fight Pass, but damn if this won't be one of those nights where I'm knocked out asleep 1 fight into the main card. I will prob set an alarm to wake up to see Schevchenko win a belt and see Kowalkiewicz then maybe possibly hopefully make it through to see Till vs Marathon runner non-punching Woodley. 

Inside the Octagon - UFC 227 Dillashaw vs Garbrandt 2 - Analysis & Breakdown

UFC 219 Hangover/Morning After Pill

Calling Cyborg featherweight champ having fought two non-featherweights feels.......eh. I dunno. It's hard to really support her reign as the greatest female fighter when basically she's fed on smaller fighters her entire career.
That's my thoughts on that and it's not going to change. Holm's gameplan involved circling directly into the power hand of her orthodox opponent. It also did no leg work or lead leg punishment in early rounds and so Cyborg dialed in her right hand by the later rounds and wasn't diminished from body punches or lead leg kicks. I'm not a high level coach, but after 4 years of muay thai, 2 years of amateur boxing, 5 mma bouts, and as a longtime student of the classic fighters in both boxing and muay thai, the gameplan I saw on display, frankly, left me a bit mystified. What was the actual gameplan to take away Cyborg's weapons? Obviously clinch to double underhooks and tie against the cage was one part. The forward strafe 4-5 punch combo with a kick ala Carlos Condit and other Jackson-Wink fighters was there, but from a strategic standpoint, I'm honestly curious what ring generalship they drilled and implemented in training camp. I was at a loss in the early rounds. You could say Cyborg cut her off and outfoxed her, but Holly's footwork from such a long boxing and kickboxing career makes this explanation feel implausible at best.
Anyhow, my main takeaway from the fight was simply the question as to what was the route to victory Holm and camp actually planned to implement? That being said, I think 2 judges scored it 48-47 showing it was indeed a close fight.

I can't say I'm honestly excited to see Cyborg continue to fight puffed up non-featherweights. It just feels disingenuous at best.

Khabib: I actually have to start by giving credit to Barboza because after that first round Khabib-centric shellacking, he prevented the death knell pieces of Khabib's ground and pound: he prevented the far side wrist control from locking in and he also denied Khabib from triangling his legs from top near the cage. This probably let Edson off the hook in terms of a finish. That being said, Edson was still dangerous at the close of the third round on his feet. I wouldn've liked to see a 4th and 5th round, if anything, to answer questions about Khabib's nutrition/weight cut and championship bout duration level preparedness, but I say this, a fight with him and Ferguson will be fireworks everywhere it takes place. Khabib does so much work so quickly when he puts a man down, and with the more likely 10-8 rounds being given out these days, he's banking serious numerical advantage even if it goes to a decision. He crushed Barboza on the scorecards. It was truly a great display of his combat-grappling acumen, and how quickly against the cage he can score with takedowns and simply dragging Barboza off the cage later after the first round beatdown. Earlier on the prelims, Tim Elliott beat a woefully unprepared opponent in their UFC Debut, but I like Elliott (have since he truly impressed me against Mighty Mouse) and these 3 fights alone made the event worth watching for me as we close out 2017. I've given the UFC a lot of heat for poor/uninspired event cards over the year at times, but this year was a blockbuster year of match-ups, titles changing hands, and truly was makes mixed martial arts great. That also being said, some critical match-ups fell apart due to injury but the UFC made lemonade out of lemons and the Fall was equally impressive for me as a fan as was the first half of the year. 

Miyao Brothers Double Under Pass Defense/Analysis

Analyzing Excellence: Being Bruno Malfacine

I sat down for a few hours and watched the bulk of Malfacine's matches I could find on the internet (youtube).  Interestingly enough, for being in the lightest weight class he was just as willing to come on top after pulling guard or to pull guard, though he does seem to pull guard/sit to guard more consistently when fighting up out of his weight class.

He's also one of the guys I've watched (Lucas Lepri, the Mendes brothers, Kron Gracie among others I follow regularly) who has a number of high profile matches outside his weight class.


His history with Caio Terra alone merits its own divisional breakdown as they've been facing one another for nearly 7 years at this point.

What also struck me is that he doesn't seem to consistently impose one style of play. His overall style is unpredictable (and largely seems reactive to his opponents rather than other competitors who seem to impose very narrow windows of skill sets) save for his transitions from just a few positions. He has wins from inverting or deep half to kneebar, and he does like to backstep pass ala Lucas Lepri. He seems comfortable off his back and in coming up to top position to pass.

Analysis

Matches watched: 17

Range of years analyzed: 2008-2015

General Observations:
- definitely willing to stall you out in your closed guard, very patient when pulled into closed guard by heavier competitors
- often sits to guard or if he pulls guard willing to come on top from double guard pull start
- has competed up in weight relatively often, up against the likes of Gui, Rafa, Frazatto, Farias et al.
- competed against the above along with guys like Felipe Costa and Caio Terra within his own weight class which he has dominated for years
- gives up underhook and looks to backstep which has gotten him into trouble against Caio Terra among others
- against heavier opponenets, prone to getting omoplata'd as he keeps his right arm in deep especially inside the closed guard where he plays very low, very patient (to the point of stalling).


Submissions Observed: bow n' arrow (2), kneebar (2), mounted collar choke (2)

Higher % sweeps:  tomoenage from sitting, butterfly, 50/50, sit-up guard to ankle pick

Positions Swept from/by: giving up underhook as he backsteps, 50/50, inverted/reverse De La Riva/waiter position

The sole submission loss I observed was to Caio Terra by RNC back in 2008. 

For more data visit BJJ Heroes page for Malfacine HERE.

"Main Achievements:

• World Champion (2004 purple, 2005 brown, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2014 in black belt)
• Pan American Champion (2005 purple, 2007 and 2008 in the black belt)
• European Champion (2010)
• Rio Open Champion (2008 and 2009)
• Brazilian National Champion (1999 Yellow Belt – under 13 years old, 2002 Junior Blue, 2003 Blue – Under 17, 2005 Purple Belt, 2008, 2009, 2010 black belt)
• NOGI Brazilian National Champion (2009)
• Pan American Silver Medallist (2011)
• European Silver Medallist (2011)

Favourite Position/Submission: Butterfly Guard & Taking the back

Weight Division: Peso Galo (54.4Kg – 126lbs)"

Conor McGregor Skills Breakdown/Evolution

Interesting analysis of McGregor's evolution.
Granted, it lacks UFC footage, but it is interesting to see old footage of a guy who is on his 5th UFC fight and is now a shot away from the title.

 

BishopBJJ: Tanquinho Open Guard Passing

In the spirit of BJJ Scout, here is a great breakdown of Tanquinho Mendes and his open guard passing which is kinda on point lately, as he beat Cobrinha and Rafael Mendes between the Abu Dhabi Pro and Mundials, respectively.

Rather than embed it here, just go to his site and check it out. There is a dearth of other great stuff and analysis on there.