Well That Opened My Eyes
In the recent UFC (216), the flyweight Champion Demetrious Johnson (DJ) pulled off one of the most impressive moves I have ever seen in MMA.
I have been training MMA for over a decade and have gone to countless seminars and have seen numerous fights live as well as televised TV. In all these fights there have only been a few moves that stick in my mind, Anthony Pettis – Showtime Kick, Anderson Silva’s – Shin Break and Khabib Nurgamedov – Massive Suplexs. All these are one of moves in a fight not a result that just sit in my mind. None of these moves are even close to what DJ pulled off recently.
What opened my eyes about the move was how it was done from standing, doing an armbar from someone’s back is a relatively basic move in BJJ and it happens a lot. However I have never considered setting this move up from a standing position, which may be honesty to the point of stupidity. This is has opened my eyes to other moves that are considered ground moves that you can set up from standing. If you can set things up from different places then there is more of chance you can make them work. When you practice BJJ a lot you get used to where moves are coming from and you start you defence early on in the piece. This means that all things being equal it is very hard to get a submission, unless you are Damian Maia. But if you get a head start with the move then you are more likely to get the submission. If someone takes your back from standing you are thinking about pushing their hands low so you can avoid being lifted then working an escape. If you can’t control the hands then you are trying to make the most out the takedown / scramble but for me I would not be thinking I had better keep my arms close so he doesn’t get the under hook then slap on an armbar. When DJ put this on you can see that Ray Borg is in shock ‘what is going on’ then when he clicked to what is happening it was too late. DJ’s arm bar is not that great, he has his feet crossed and knees apart and took a while to get the tap. If it wasn’t on before Ray Borg had clicked to what was happening I don’t think he would’ve got the tap as he still survived for a while.
In MMA where you train the sports (kickboxing, wresting and BJJ) individually it is your job to put them together and make it flow. We are always connecting striking to wrestling and wrestling to BJJ and BJJ with striking. However it is hard not to get stuck with the rules in each individual sport and miss options. One of the most obvious rules to break is in BJJ when you have top position and you do not like what your opponent is up to then you can just stand up to avoid a possible sweep where you end up in a bad position. If you did this while rolling, even though it is not against the rules, it would not be a good look on the mat. Then in MMA if you are against someone more skilled on the ground and you have them on their back, you make some space with your hips and start punching which is a very good idea then to be really safe stand up while punching and move away.
What this really means is that there is still lots to learn in MMA as there are all sorts of moves in the transitions that will come about as MMA keeps evolving. For me I am going to invert BJJ and wrestling positions to get a different perspective. Looking at BJJ and wrestling positions from standing up rather than being on the ground and see what other moves are hiding – from me anyway.
Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor