Awesome use of effective MMA guards last night.

Forkfoot · 02-17-2013, 11:04 AM

McDonald using the feet-on-hips guard to get back to his feet, Swanson using sub attempts to get back to his feet, Santiago using an x-guard sweep attempt to get back to his feet, even Diabate used a half-guard sweep attempt to get back to his feet like Shogun does. There is no longer any excuse for a fighter to lose a decision lying on his back playing the classical BJJ guard game and praying for a lucky sub or a referee stand-up; the fighters who want to succeed at elite levels are watching what bottom games work in MMA and they're training it. If you get "lay-and-prayed" on it's because of one of two possibilities: you're playing an obsolete guard game, or you're just an inferior grappler.

No more excuses, strikers; stop hugging your opponent in closed guard while looking at the ref and learn how to fucking fight.

EDIT: To clarify, I'm not saying there's no reason a fighter should ever lose a decision by being out-grappled, I'm saying there's no excuse for them to lose by holding a guy in their closed guard playing a classic BJJ bottom game instead of utilizing the more effective techniques we've been seeing used on the bottom at elite levels in this sport.

Taric · 02-17-2013, 11:07 AM

Swanson and Santiago have both been LnPed on before.

istay · 02-17-2013, 11:07 AM

disagree

PabloZed · 02-17-2013, 11:12 AM

But then sometimes the master asserts control.

Forkfoot · 02-17-2013, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taric

Swanson and Santiago have both been LnPed on before.

That's missing the point. My point is that there are techniques that work and techniques that don't work, and it's absurd to still see a guy holding someone in his closed guard praying for a referee stand-up or a hail Mary sub.

MiroHa · 02-17-2013, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PabloZed

But then sometimes the master asserts control.

Pretty much the first mistake McDonald made in the entire fight and Barao immediately capitalized it.

GloutonSang · 02-17-2013, 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PabloZed

But then sometimes the master asserts control.

Slick slick submission from Barao.

BrazilianDude · 02-17-2013, 11:38 AM

I agree with you, TS. Many fighters use only closed guard and only try to submit instead of going for sweeps. There are better ways to use their bjj skills.
I also think butterfly guards are very underused. Bisping used it against Sonnen with lots of success to get back up. Well trained fighters can sweep very well using it.

Marx Marvelous · 02-17-2013, 11:44 AM

Mcdonald had that nice sweep in round 2 or 3 too where Barao went to slide his knee over to go into full mount and Mcdonald just pushed him right off his right side and he popped back to his feet.

Ya it's definitely nice to see the mma bjj game evolve. If you spend the fight on your back (whether you attempt subs or not) the judges will give you a loss on your record. So now as soon as it hits the floor you see guys fighting to get back to their feet asap. Not as many are content to keep a closed guard and wait for a standup anymore.

Thrawn33 · 02-17-2013, 11:45 AM

I agree that a fight should never be stood up because the bottom guy is just clinching and stalling waiting for the ref. in fact bottom guy should be penalized for stalling.

If the top guy is stalling, I'm fine with a ref standup (and stalling penalty) but if you get taken down its on you to escape, reverse or submit.