UFC 98 Break Down

It has been awhile but I finally got up the energy to post something. Here is a break down of select UFC 98 fights.

Evans Vs. Machida
This is an interesting fight because the challenger is the favorite against an undefeated champion who holds wins over 3 top ten fighters and is 2-0-1 against people who have held the 205 belt. For some reason people have been counting Evans out since he appeared on the 2 season of TUF. I have been a huge rashad booster since day one, the only fight I have picked him to lose was the draw against Ortiz.

When it comes to striking, they have similar but very different styles. Both are counter punchers who use a lot of movement. However, Machida uses a karate, tag and get out, style where as Evans uses more of a traditional boxing style with a lot of head and upper body movement. Evans is also fast, really fast. The question will be is he fast enough to catch up to Machida who as of yet has been caught out of position once in his UFC career.

Takedowns are a big edge to Rashad. When I rate the takedowns of UFC fighters it goes like this: Most Explosive, GSP. Most tenacious, Koscheck. Smoothest, Evans. When he shoots for a double leg it is like watching a wrestling instructional tape. It is perfect and fluid. He is also one of only 3 people to ever defeat Greg Jones (one of the NCAAs best ever) on the mat, when he was in college. While much has been made of Machida's takedown defense, Evans trains with GSP who has the best takedown defense in the business. Machida should be easy compared to that.

Grappling is more of a question of opinion. Dominant wrestlers tend to negate good bjj players if they get top position. But Rashad has never really fought a guy with solid skills from the bottom (unless you count Brad Imes, he of the back to back gogoplata wins). And the only dominant wrestler Machida has fought was a fading, injured Ortiz ( who came really close to finishing the fight with a triangle surprisingly). In my opinion, if Evans gets top position he will be able to hold Machida there and pepper him with short elbows and hammerfists.

The bottom line here is a question of imposing ones will. If Machida can impose his pitter, pat technical style he will win a decision. If Rashad can use his athleticism and wrestling to dictate the fight, he will win with a strong chance of a finish.
I have been betting on Evans from jump so I am not going to stop now plus I really hate Machida. Evans in a late stoppage.

Hughes vs. Serra
more later if I have time. Should have started earlier.

I'm back

I don't really know if anyone reads this besides me (Which was the main purpose of this blog anyway, to provide a log of my training) but if you do you would have noticed I haven't written anything in about 4 months. Well, I was off on military coursing and couldn't updated it. Well I am back and hope to start updating on a regular basis again. I should have some stuff up real soon.

Best grappling in a HW MMA match, ever

This is Big Nog and Josh Barnett at the Pride Absolute Grand Prix. This probably the best grappling ever displayed in a HW MMA match. Barnett and Nog are two of the best and their grappling styles (BJJ for NOG and CSW for Barnett) are just different enough to make it exciting.

Daily Submission

Yesterday we worked on a few different things. We learned an Octopus guard like move from half guard. I really like Octopus guard and I have a feeling it will start to show up more and more in my game. I also learned a sweep from half butterfly guard which is kind of cool. Essentially it is exactly the same as a typical butterfly sweep but you do it from half butterfly. Half Butterfly is simple when you take the outside leg from half guard and hook it inside his leg like a butterfly hook. I found that I could do it easy with my right leg then my left. I think this has to do with my left knee still being weak from the injury. Finally, Adam showed the Electric Chair sweep, or as he calls it the hog tie. Why the Hog tie? Apparently, he was witness to an argument between Marc Laimon and Eddie Bravo as to who invented it. He chose a side and it wasn't Eddie's. In my opinion none of them invented it. The lockdown is old school judo, Eddie himself says he learned it from Judo Gene Lebell. Other than the lockdown it is simply a half guard rollover sweep into a groin stretch or banana split. To prevent confusion I am going to simply call it varredura da separação de banana which is Portuguese for Banana Split Sweep (at least according to Babelfish). Or whatever I feel like calling it an that particular moment.

During free roll, I worked my sitting guard and my turtle guard a lot. My background is wrestling and judo. When I scramble I tend to turn to my stomach and get to my knees. Unlike most pure BJJ guys, I haven't developed that natural roll to guard. I am not sure I want to. In the gym or a tournament pulling guard is fine but my main focus is outside the gym. Ideally, I want to be able to secure that leg and transition to a takedown. I working at hit those faster. Since, I turtle anyway and feel comfortable there, I figured why fight it. I have been watch some video of Eduardo Telles who is a turtle guard master (he is also the Octopus Guard guy) as well as a lot of wrestling videos from that position. I am going to really work it for awhile.

The first time I transitioned to turtle, I did it when he started to pass my guard. I let him and just turned into him and came to my knees. I had a deep cross grip on his lapel and as I rolled I ended up throwing him over my shoulder like a seoi nage. I use a lot of judo like throws from turtle. I also hit my armspin about 4 times in a row. It was nice to work it against a guy who knew it was coming. I gained some confidence to continue with the sit out even if it feels like it isn't there. I have also been finishing better lately. A lot of it has come down to just smoother transistions and little things like a tighter squeeze with my knees.

Afflication- Holy Crap

Fedor is the baddest man on the planet, plain and simple. He destroyed Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds. I did not see that coming at all. Tim Sylvia is a top 5 HW and Fedor made him look like a punk. Also Arlovski and Barnett looked awesome. The Pitbull's striking was great, working Freddy Roach seems to have payed off. The rumor is that he will make his pro boxing debut soon. I predict he will be successful. Barnett scored a awesome Knockout over Pedro Rizzo. Barnett was having trouble early on but as he usually does he managed to pull out the decisive win.

Now on to the things that sucked. Megadeath. I was not a fan in the 80's and they haven't been relevant in almost 20 years. Why bring them out now? I guess they were really aiming at the 34 in the 18-34 demographic. And what was with Micheal Buffer stopping to annouce all the "celebrities"? Who cares if the deal or no deal girls are at the event?


But with Fedor, Barnett, Arlovski, even Rizzo, Rothwell and Sylvia Affliction has all but a couple of the top HW in the game. If Randy Couture can sort out his legal problems with Zuffa it just adds to the great HW division in MMA.

Daily submission

Yesterday, we went back to the basics a bit. We worked on re guarding from side control, the mount and turtled. With the exception of the re guard from the mount, they all involved some sort of roll. I am not so good with the rolls. I can roll forward back or even on an angle but alot of these involved a roll with a spin, while spreading the legs to catch the guy in your guard. I still need a lot of work on this type of thing. If I roll or otherwise scramble, I tend to square up to the guy and go for the single or double. I turtle a lot as well. That is the wrestling and judo background, I feel comfortable there. Unfortunately, against really good jiu jitsu players, it is a bad place to spend much time. However, I do have a couple of go to moves from here. I use an armspin, peterson roll, granby rolls and a few others. I will try to find some video to post or maybe make it up myself if I have to.

Daily Submission

I played with octopus guard for the first time yesterday. I liked it. We just touched on it but I saw some real potential to compliment my present game. We used it to take the back and as a set up to a hip bump. It is still new to me but I will definitely have to explore it more. Here is a video of Eduardo Telles (who coined the term Octupus Guard) explaining the concept.