Ilia's wrestling/grappling level

Rubios

Rubios

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Ilia has a greco Georgian background. Sounds like solid fundamentals, but only did it a local school.
Moved to Spain at 15, entering the Climent brother's gym renowned by his BJJ.

Before UFC, he has lmany submissions but only one @ UFC, Bryce Mitchell, a BJJ black belt but not a real test a the level Ilia is competing right now.

He has trained in Spain since then. Every training pal/coach talks about his wrestling/grappling being absolutely top of the crop, elite among the elite.

But... this is Spain (I'm a Spaniard, BTW). He is not training with Dagestanis, Brazilians or the people available in ATT i.e.

Compare Ilia to a fighter who you think is evenly matched in wrestling/grappling. Honestly, I don't know.
 
Gilberto Burns had said that he used to watch Ilia spars in ATT.

He had one of the best MMA sparring rounds ever with Paul Huges, and that he sparred Dagi/Chechen/Soviet wrestlers, took some of them down in wrestling, and that if they took him done, he always quickly got up.
 
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Azure said:
Who are also not known for the elite wrestlers.. I could see your argument if you were using a wrestling heavy gym like the old Hammer House
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True but GSP did also train with the Canadian Olympic wrestling team. He probably also had some good training partners at TriStar. He probably trained with guys like David The Crow who was a UFC middleweight and later he had Rory Macdonald
 
Rubios said:
Ilia has a greco Georgian background. Sounds like solid fundamentals, but only did it a local school.
Moved to Spain at 15, entering the Climent brother's gym renowned by his BJJ.

Before UFC, he has lmany submissions but only one @ UFC, Bryce Mitchell, a BJJ black belt but not a real test a the level Ilia is competing right now.

He has trained in Spain since then. Every training pal/coach talks about his wrestling/grappling being absolutely top of the crop, elite among the elite.

But... this is Spain (I'm a Spaniard, BTW). He is not training with Dagestanis, Brazilians or the people available in ATT i.e.

Compare Ilia to a fighter who you think is evenly matched in wrestling/grappling. Honestly, I don't know.
Click to expand...

You make some good (not really talked about) points.
I live in Spain as well, and they hype here is unreal. Granted, it's mostly warranted, but like you say, his bjj/grappling hasn't been that tested in the UFC (or, like vs Hall, he could just smash through it with hammerfists and strikes).

That being said, if you can sub Bryce Mitchell you're no slouch whatsoever. At all. Not even a little bit.
 
Watching his earlier fights I always found his BJJ more impressive than his wrestling. I think of him more as a BJJ guy than a wrestler to be honest, but he obviously has some wrestling.

I've been waiting for more guys to test it. Volk should have tried, but oh well.
 
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Qays Stetkevich said:
You make some good (not really talked about) points.
I live in Spain as well, and they hype here is unreal. Granted, it's mostly warranted, but like you say, his bjj/grappling hasn't been that tested in the UFC (or, like vs Hall, he could just smash through it with hammerfists and strikes).

That being said, if you can sub Bryce Mitchell you're no slouch whatsoever. At all. Not even a little bit.
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He rocked Bryce so bad that bryce thought the earth was round. Subbing a rocked fighter isn't a big statement.
 
fortheo said:
He rocked Bryce so bad that bryce thought the earth was round. Subbing a rocked fighter isn't a big statement.
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I mean, even without the strikes, Ryan Hall was useless in grappling versus Ilia. I'm not saying he's totally proven his grappling level, but if you sub Bryce and toy with Hall you're not a grappling slouch (regardless of how unconventional your methods would be, which Ilia's aren't).

And to an earlier comment of yours, I also really wished Volk would have grappled with Ilia. I knew/suspected that if they stood and banged that Ilia would win, but I really wanted to see him vs a world class grappler. . .in grappling.
 
Qays Stetkevich said:
I mean, even without the strikes, Ryan Hall was useless in grappling versus Ilia. I'm not saying he's totally proven his grappling level, but if you sub Bryce and toy with Hall you're not a grappling slouch (regardless of how unconventional your methods would be, which Ilia's aren't).

And to an earlier comment of yours, I also really wished Volk would have grappled with Ilia. I knew/suspected that if they stood and banged that Ilia would win, but I really wanted to see him vs a world class grappler. . .in grappling.
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Yeah, but there wasn't much grappling at all in the Hall fight though -- illia just backed away any time hall rolled for a leg until eventually he just punched him in the face. Hall was useless because he got knocked out lol and has zero wrestling.

Out of all the opponents he's faced, I really though volk was the best suited to try to implement a wrestling gameplan, at least to make illia's arms heavy and tired, but he went out there with a cardio kickboxing plan instead. Disappointed by Volk's gameplan in that one.

I suspect Ilia is a very good grappler, and I've liked what I've seen, but we really haven't seen much at all in the UFC.
 
Ara tech said:
Gilberto Burns had said that he used to watch Ilia spars in ATT.

He had one of the best MMA sparring rounds ever with Paul Huges, and that he sparred Dagi/Chechen/Soviet wrestlers, took some of them down in wrestling, and that if they took him done, he always quickly got up.
Click to expand...

That wasn’t ATT

Burnzinho trains at Kill Cliff under Hooft

And I believe Ilia went there and slapped some heads around, even grappled Daggies
 
He trains with Georgians, who are currently some of the strongest GR wrestlers in the world. His grappling is great. Nobody has been able to survive with Makhachev on top. Who knows?
 
Why tap out when you can ko. Bryce Mitchell while the dumbest man on earth is a very good and got tapped
 
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