Media Poatan Shows Off Judo and Grappling

[AstralPanda]

He's been training jiu jitsu for 7+ years. No idea why people are so convinced that he can't grapple.

He did everything right defensively against Jan. But people are just convinced he's a white belt.

 

[GreatSaintGuillotine]

Nice friendly roll. Professor on bottom is giving him the right looks. Rolls like this are important for skill retention. Alex is doing well to seize the initiative in these positions

 

[xhaydenx]

No idea why people are so convinced that he can't grapple.

Bro, the dude could go win gold at the olympics and tap out Gordon Ryan in BJJ, it wouldn't matter to the haters. They'll just ignore it and keep clinging desperately to whatever they can find.

 

[AstralPanda]

Nice friendly roll. Professor on bottom is giving him the right looks. Rolls like this are important for skill retention. Alex is doing well to seize the initiative in these positions

Glover bless

 

[Get To Da Choppa]

He's been training jiu jitsu for 7+ years. No idea why people are so convinced that he can't grapple.

He did everything right defensively against Jan. But people are just convinced he's a white belt.

He's been training with some of the best in grappling. Also got a yellow belt and a nice reacharound from Olympic Judo champion Kayla Harrison

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

His grappling is good enough for today's LHW division. He's a survivalist who looks to tie up and stall until the ref stands it up. Wouldn't cut it in the previous eras though.

 

[Doctor Grudge]

His grappling is good enough for today's LHW division. Wouldn't cut it in the previous eras though.

Yeah it would. In the 2000s, other than Tito/Randy/Arona most of the best 205ers were strikers. If he was in PRIDE he would have been a champion at one point.

Alex would do well against Silva, Shogun, Nogueira, Liddell, Overeem, Sakuraba (a grappler, but likely too small to get him down), Rampage, Griffin.

He wouldn't do well against Davis/Bader/Jones/Cormier era probably.

 

[Xoleth]

Got grappled by Jan, who got grappled by Patrick Cummins, if I remember right.

 

[AstralPanda]

His grappling is good enough for today's LHW division. He's a survivalist who looks to tie up and stall until the ref stands it up. Wouldn't cut it in the previous eras though.

Based on what, out of curiosity?

 

[orca]

hes a bjj blackbelt he should fight jones next

 

[Highway99]

He's got giant hands with a vice grip too...Makes it hella hard to do anything if you can't get your wrists free from those hand clamps

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Yeah it would. In the 2000s, other than Tito/Randy/Arona most of the best 205ers were strikers. If he was in PRIDE he would have been a champion at one point.

Alex would do well against Silva, Shogun, Nogueira, Liddell, Overeem, Sakuraba (a grappler, but likely too small to get him down), Rampage, Griffin.

He wouldn't do well against Davis/Bader/Jones/Cormier era probably.

Randy, Tito, Arona are guys he'd have to get through to become a champion. It's not like he could just avoid them if wanted to make it to the top. These guys would take him down and not let him up IMO.

Silva is a guy Poatan would have a decent chance of knocking out because of Wands aggressive style but Wand has been in there with guys like Mirko(1x) and Hunt and Rampage 2x (in Pride) and didn't get knocked out. I wouldn't say Poatan is a lock to knockout prime Wand but I'd favor him. Wands intensity and his clinch game were underrated and would make Poatan tired fast IMO.

Shogun would take Alex down and Gnp him IMO. Shogun would do him like he did Overeem.

Nogueira would be interesting to see but honestly Lil Nog has submitted much better grapplers than Alex. It wouldn't shock me if Lil Nog tapped him. Old ass Jan nearly choked him out but it could go either way.

Liddell is another guy I'd favor Alex over but acting like Chuck doesn't have a chance is silly. Chuck had HW KO power, an iron chin and sneaky level change takedowns. There's no reason for why he couldn't survive 3 rounds with Poatan like 41 year old Jan did.

Overeems chin was always an issue but he was still a very good striker. His size and clinch game could be a problem for Poatan. I think Overeem would take him down pretty easily and Overeem was a much better grappler. He submitted guys like Vitor and had many wins by submission. I'd favor Alex but young Overeem could surprise him.

Rampage power bombed Arona who was a much better and stronger grappler than Alex. He was harder to get a hold of and harder to control. Rampage also slammed Ryan Bader on his head. Another guy who's much better and stronger grappler than Alex. To claim Rampage was too small to take down Alex is idiotic. Rampage would easily take him down.

All in all Alex would have some very difficult fights in this era. I see him winning some and losing some but def don't see him dominating these guys.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Based on what, out of curiosity?

Been training BJJ since 2007. I know what I'm seeing when I see someone grapple. Alex doesn't submit people. He doesn't sweep people. He doesnt set traps. He doesn't chain submissions. He's a survivalist who plays defense and looks to stall or get back up. He looked lost on the ground with Izzy in the first fight and was nearly submitted by Jan. His grappling wouldn't cut it in the previous eras of LHW where almost every elite fighter had good wrestling , crushing top games and strong GnP. He'd get violated by them.

 

[Ibm]

It was wrestling people were accusing him of lacking. He is very capable of JJ, but stopping a take down is somethin to see.

 

[kingghidrah]

He's been training jiu jitsu for 7+ years. No idea why people are so convinced that he can't grapple.

He did everything right defensively against Jan. But people are just convinced he's a white belt.

When Izzy wants to wrestle you, and out grapples you, that says something.

 

[TITS]

Potatoman can't grapple for shit vs grappling specialists. Stop spamming this board with every stupid little video clip of him "doing something". If he had a pure grappling match with someone like Anthony Smith or Paul Craig he'd get twisted into a pretzel. Even Ryan Spann would submit him.

 

[AstralPanda]

When Izzy wants to wrestle you, and out grapples you, that says something.

Izzy is a purple belt under Andre Galvao

One of the best competitive bjj practitioners of all time at his peak.

There's another myth, that Izzy can't grapple either.

 

[Reb]

Alex is as much of a grappler as Ronda was a striker.

 

[AstralPanda]

Been training BJJ since 2007. I know what I'm seeing when I see someone grapple. Alex doesn't submit people. He doesn't sweep people. He doesnt set traps. He doesn't chain submissions. He's a survivalist who plays defense and looks to stall or get back up. He looked lost on the ground with Izzy in the first fight and was nearly submitted by Jan. His grappling wouldn't cut it in the previous eras of LHW where almost every elite fighter had good wrestling , crushing top games and strong GnP. He'd get violated by them.

To me, I think you're just being a bit biased towards guys who have an offensive BJJ game.

Very reminiscent of what people did towards Conor early on, who similarly focused primarily on position, defense and getting back to his feet.

I think if you've been training that long, the take is a bit questionable, or perhaps you need to go watch those fights again.

Not much really happened against Izzy, he just focused on defense, turtling and holding on until the end of the round. Izzy himself is a purple belt under Andre Galvao, people act like he's a bum on the ground and for Izzy to have any success shows that Poatan is as well. Which is just a weak take.

Against Jan, he visibly improved exponentially, defended everything very well. About as well as you can do in that situation, mitigated damage, controlled wrists, protected his neck well, reversed position several times. Basically nothing Jan did was effective and ended up with Pereira on his feet again. Jan himself is a black belt who's been training Jiu Jitsu for 15+ years. He did better than Izzy on the ground.

When you say he almost got submitted by Jan, that takes away a lot of credibility from your opinion, because at no point was he even close to getting submitted.

Overall, It seems like you're biased towards guys who are more offensively based. A lot of MMA fighters train this sort of style which focuses on position, defense and getting back to the feet.

Chuck Liddell has been in his camps, so it's not surprising that's what he's focused on, it makes the most sense for his style.

You can't really project what takes place in a Jiu Jitsu gym into a fight. It's a different game.

 

[kingghidrah]

Izzy is a purple belt under Andre Galvao

One of the best competitive bjj practitioners of all time at his peak.

There's another myth, that Izzy can't grapple either.

Ah I didn't know, that what we saw when Izzy took Poatan down, we were actually being treated to two of the top grapplers in MMA going at it. I should have paid more attention to the intricate techniques being used by both of them, the subtle give and take, the dance of control and position, the amazing chess match that I didn't know was occurring, instead of just hoping they would go back to standup where I guess it turns out, maybe they are both just average? Missed opportunity for appreciating two great grappling artists at the peak of their powers.