Aesopian

This is the last video I have of my matches. I fought two more after this, including another division final against AJ, but unfortunately, the camera was out of batteries by then.

The first 35 second of this match you’ll see AJ fighting with a purple belt. I didn’t include this for their sake but so you could see me (who you’ll only be able to see the back of, on the right side of the screen) when I go to my knees and Eduardo, the ref (and my coach) says I’m going to start from knees so the match is fair to my opponent, Anoã, who’s also from my school.

This isn’t that funny unless you know that “anoã” means “dwarf”.

It’s probably not funny unless you were there.

Anyway.

The Match

This doesn’t start well. I get a sleeve grip and pull a sloppy butterfly guard. He steps right over it before I can get one-leg guard or x-guard.

As I scramble to my knees to defend the pass, he jumps right on to my back, getting a good grip on my collar right away.

Not only that, but he ends up trapping my right arm with his leg, almost getting me in the crucifix.

Awesome, huh?

Despite all this, he still hasn’t received points for anything, and I know if I keep his hooks out of the right places, he never will. I tuck my chin to defend the choke and start figuring out what to do.

I have my left arm out to block his hook from coming in on that side. I scoot my hips down and try to get my back down to the mat. I purposely get my second arm trapped under his leg too, knowing there’s no way he can stay on my back if I have both arms “out” like this.

Once I feel my neck is safe and he’s not really on my back any more, I bring my knees up and try to bring them between us. I’m just jamming away with my knees and feet, trying to get enough space to go to inverted guard a la Ryan Hall.

Before I can make anything of it, he throws my leg to the side and I bring it back in to return to guard.

He freaks out and goes for a crazy cartwheel pass. I just stick my foot out and step on his hip and roll back with him, landing on top. He really swept himself.

I asked him about this later and he said he was so afraid of being caught standing in my open guard that he was desperate to just get out of it anyway he could. What happened wasn’t exactly what he’d hoped for.

He immediately grabs my untucked lapel and wraps it over my shoulder.

I’m hugging his hips and locking down the position so he can’t take his one hook out or put his other hook in. He goes for a good choke attempt, using my lapel. I have to push his arm down to defend it.

I know he’s in a bad position, since he’s not really in half guard, butterfly or closed guard. It’s one of the stupid positions between all of them. Some call this “half butterfly guard” but I don’t since it’s not a good guard to play.

He releases the choke and starts doing other stuff on my right side. Now I can see the he changed his grips and grabbed his feet.

Once I feel less in danger of the choke, I look up to see what I can do. I grab his untucked lapel with my left hand and pass it behind his head to my right.

I reach back with my left arm and get under his leg, thinking of doing the shin-pin pass the Leo Kirby had taught me. I do a quick shuffle to the right, which moves his hook across my stomach, so it’s no longer hooking my thigh. Then I grab the foot with my left arm, completely killing the hook, then walk over it and finish by sprawling into side control.

I move to north-south, pulling one of his lapels up into his armpit and holding his belt on the other side. After securing the position for a minute and getting what felt like a good grip, I do one of my favorite techniques, where I sit into them from north-south and pull myself on to their back.

Unfortunately for me, Anoã spins out and defends the hooks while getting to his knees and turning into me. He takes me down from knees like I’m a banana since I still have the (now completely messed up) grips on the belt and lapel.

I turn belly down to keep from being put under side control. I grab both of his knees by the pants so he can’t run around to my back as he gets side ride.

This next bit is pretty awesome.

While in this awful position, with my face in the mat and worried I’m about to get my back taken, I receive divine inspiration. I throw my leg all the way over and put my hook in to take his back.

From under sideride.

Even I find that impossible.

He turns into me to keep me off his back but I still take mount and get 4 points.

I see his arm exposed and pin it with the top of my head while I grab his wrist, then reach in with the other arm to secure a kimura. As I do this, he heel drags my foot between his legs, beginning his escape.

I start trying to twist his arm while pulling his elbow up towards his head to tighten the kimura. I’m still using the top of my head to shove his arm around.

When I go to crank the kimura again, he finishes the heel drag escape and returns to half guard. I sprawl on him and try to finish the kimura several times (every time you see our heads rock up and down is my trying to twist his arm back).

He gets back to the one hook in, one leg out position again, and I release the kimura since I know feel I’d be exposing myself by keeping my arms stretched out.

The footage cuts out early but all you missed was him returning to closed guard and almost collar choking and armbarring me for a minute straight. The match ends with me getting collar choked across the face with my arm about an inch away from a fully finished armbar.

Saved by the bell, I win with 9 points for the sweep, guard pass and mount.

This is the first of the last two videos I have of my matches at the Tampa Invitational. This was a fun match since were from the same school. My instructor, Eduardo, referees too.

The Yeti Match

My first match in the absolute was against Yeti, another blue belt. He had fought in the heavyweight division (195 lbs. and up), and I think he’s around 240 lbs. I weighed in at 157 lbs. that morning.

Right before the match starts, you can see me say “I’m gonna get yetied.” And I do. He rushes in for a takedown immediately since he knows I’m going to pull guard anyway. I give him it, so he starts the match up by 2 points.

I land in half guard without the underhook. I get the overhook and whizzer my grip deep, then get my butterfly hook in for half butterfly guard then full butterfly.

Before I can make anything of it, he postures and yeties his arm out. I sit up and bury my head under his chin, getting an underhook one one side and a grip on the elbow on the other. I drive into him but he drives me back and tries to jump around my legs. I follow him with my underhook and butterfly hooks.

He pummels for the underhook and I go to the whizzering game again. I’m trying for some sweeps or something but he just puts me flat on my back again.

My training partner Jon sees that I’m not sticking to the plan and yells “Matt, play YOUR GAME!” That’s when I switch to closed guard.

We’re interrupted for a moment while the scorekeeper and the cameraman have a secret discussion.

I then teleport into the center of the mat (or they moved us away from the wall while the camera was off).

I get my Power Grip, the hand in the collar like I’m going for chokes. I use my free hand to feed it deeper and reach behind his neck. You’ll see me do the same thing before getting the armbar in my second match.

Without even breaking his posture, I just throw my legs up and shoot my hips up to climb his back.

As he tries to stack to block the armbar, I go belly down. You can’t see from this angle, but I actually finished the armbar with my leg on the back of his head, like this:

I started doing some armbars from guard like this after watching Elliott Bayev teach them like that. If I pass the leg in front of the face (like a normal armbar) when I’m belly down like this actually makes it easier for them to posture and pull their arm out. With the leg on the back of the head like this, I can push their face into the mat and keep them down.

One more match to come.

This is my third match of the tournament, the final for the blue belt lightweight division.

So there’s full disclosure, AJ is a teammate of mine, so I had an idea of what to expect, as did he. He is the only competitor I was nervous about fighting, and I’m told he felt the same way about me.

To give you some background, AJ has been wrestling for the past 4-5 years, and is currently in college on a wrestling scholarship. He’s been training BJJ with us for most of a year now, in which time he’s won several tournaments. He fought and won in MMA with little more than his wrestling and a ton of aggression.

You’ll hear Eduardo, our coach (and the referee) call this match “the technique versus the determination”, which sums it up perfectly. I’ve never trained with anyone who is able to maintain constant aggression, never getting tired, not caring about pain, never giving an inch, always engaging, driving forward. I’ve had AJ in the meanest triangles I can do, and he’ll just suffer through it for 6 minutes then rip out in the end. I’ll get the tightest armbars I’ve ever gotten and he’ll just shake me off and rip out, 20 seconds past the point I thought his arm would have broken. I’ve seen him pass out to more chokes than anyone else.

We’ve all told him to chill out for his own health and safety but he swears he’s not getting hurt. We’ll just have to take his word for it. At least it wins him a lot of tournament matches.

I hope I built enough dramatic tension. Now for the fight.

The Final Match

I pull guard, knowing there is no way in hell I’ll ever take AJ down. He is prepared and immediately underhooks both my legs to start a double under pass before I can close guard.

I reach across and underhook the opposite side then gable grip, blocking the guard pass. I try to pull his arm into my guard for the triangle, but I don’t go crazy for it since I feel that he’s already to locked into the pass, and I’ll just tire myself out trying to muscle it.

I do some goofy stuff like grabbing my feet and locking my legs around his head just to see what I can do before he starts driving to pass again.

As he comes around to my side, I feel that my guard is almost gone as my legs slide off to the side. I grab his far triceps and drop my leg on it to rock him back a little, then circle my left foot in and step on his chest and face to create space. As he comes around a little more, I push on his hips to keep some space then grab his elbow and open it so I can bring my knee under his armpit, returning me to guard.

I do some kind of open guard for a moment, but just when I circle my right hook in, he drives a knee through. I turn on my side and start digging to underhook his leg as he comes into my half guard. My other hand comes under his armpit to push on his chest and defend the crossface. I rock him up once but never get anywhere with it since he drops his weight and reaches between my legs to kill my hips. He sprawls his free leg and gets rid of my underhook.

AJ gets an advantage for putting me flat on my back from my half guard without me having any good grips. I switch to a lockdown on his leg since I feel I don’t have much else. When he starts untucking my lapel, I shoot for double underhooks and gable grip my arms around him and try to rock up into him. As I do this, he passes my lapel up behind my shoulder to his other hand, which is behind my head.

With my lapel wrapped back like that, my upper body is locked down and I can’t turn into him any more. He’s got a very secure position and turns towards my legs to keep reaching in and opening me up.

Knowing I won’t get the choke but wanting to do something, I grab his collar and try to pass it around his head to my other hand. He turns to face me since he feels something around his neck which gets him to stop working to open my guard for a moment.

He turns towards my legs again and grabs my foot itself to try to peal off the lockdown. He creates a lot of space when he does this and I’m able to turn on my side again. With him opening his legs for a wide base, I pull my leg out and go to closed guard since my half guard was going to be dead as long as he had that lapel wrapped.

I climb his back several times from closed guard, but he drives in and postures to shrug me off. I get impatient and do something crazy like grabbing my own foot and pulling it over for an omoplata, which he rips out of.

I’ve got some kind of open guard for a moment then he gets double underhooks on my legs again and starts passing. I block the pass as I did before by bringing my hook in front of his face and pushing his elbow open. When he backs off I’m able to get the opposite side underhook and gable grip again.

He keeps driving and keeping my hooks out and eventually passes my legs. As my guard is lost, I shoot my legs out towards his, trying to get something. What I end up with is a strange position that you might mistake for half guard at first glance, but it’s not. I took a photo of it since it’s hard to explain:

What’s funny is earlier that day I was watching a match and saw someone do this same thing and me and the guy I was sitting with scoffed at it, saying it’s nothing good. And it wasn’t for them, since their opponent passed anyway. I still don’t like it but I have to admit it saved my ass. It kept him from scoring points for the pass, and gave me the second I needed to do the heel drag escape (which I put up just to refer to now).

While holding the weird non-half guard, he passed his arm in front of my face and I went for a kimura to keep his from getting a good grip on me, but knowing I wouldn’t be able to finish it from such an odd position.

As I return to half guard proper, he wraps my lapel again. My arm is stuck on the wrong side so I can’t underhook. He reaches between my legs and blocks my hips, then drives into me to keep me down while sprawling until he opens my half guard enough to pull his leg out. He passes to side control and gets 3 points.

After pausing to fix our belts, we restart in the middle with me under side control. I put my leg up on my knee to block the mount, since I know he’ll be looking to take it, and I’d never be able to come back from 7 points (and 1 advantage) down.

Luckily for me, he moves to north-south, which is better for me in this case, though I’m worried about kimuras. Once he’s above me, I start scooting my hips out (putting my head under his chest) and swinging my legs side to side. I go for the heel drag once then start turning to my stomach. He counters by getting a Nelson of some sort (forgive me for not knowing my wrestling fractions).

Then, out of nowhere, I throw a hook in and take his back. The crowd goes wild. A Brazilian guy cheers loudly.

AJ tries to stand and buck me off but I hook behind his knee and grab his leg with both hands so he can’t get up.

Then the timer goes off.

I win on points, 4 to 3.

Sadly, I don’t have footage of it since the cameras dead by then, but AJ and I both fought through the absolute division, each of us beating heavyweights and purple belts, to fight again. The match was almost a mirror image of our first match, with me fighting from guard for a while and getting passed. I actually go for the exact same escape and get the first hook in as I take his back, but he does everything he can to keep the second from going in, and the timer rings.

He wins by 2 points since he was given a takedown on my guard pull because he grabbed my legs. So he gets his revenge.

More footage to come. My first two absolute division matches next.

I know many of you have been waiting to see footage of me in action for a while. I have good news.

As I mentioned earlier, I competed in the Tampa Invitational on Saturday, November 18, 2006. I received DVDs of my matches earlier this week and I’ve been slaving over them all weekend to get them online.

I’m still working on the rest of the footage, but I thought I’d crack away a bit of the suspense by sharing the first two matches.

First Match

The footage cuts in, but all you missed was me jumping from standing directly to a closed guard.

In case you didn’t know, I have awful takedowns. So when I saw my first opponent doing furious uchikomi (repetition of entries) of throws with his judo coach before our match, I knew my first course of action.

He did a good job of staying standing, but then slammed me, taking me where I hoped to be. I thought it might have been an illegal slam, so you can see me turn to look at the ref to see if he was going to call it.

While I’m looking at the ref, pay special attention to my legs. You’ll see them go from around his waist then hop up to his upper back. This seems minor but it’s the key to what comes later. You’ll see this again in the next match.

Feeling in danger, he tries to stand and yank his arm out, which makes it easier for me to pass my leg over for the armbar from the finish.

Second Match

My match is the the background to another good match. The guy with the mismatched blue and white gi is AJ, who I go on to fight in the finals. I’ve included all of his fight too so you’re not left wondering how it ended, since you’ll probably see more of it than mine, because they keep blocking the view.

For reasons unknown to me, instead of jumping to closed guard like I had planned, you can see me sit and pull half guard. I later found out this was good sloppiness since my training partner Jon had lost to this guy earlier because he stuffed all the closed and spider guard pulls he attempted.

From half guard, I immediately get the underhook and grab his belt, then underhook his outside leg. I put my hook in for half butterfly guard and start rocking him up so I can go to x-guard. You can hear his coach yell to defend the x-guard, and he does, crossing his legs so I can’t put my second hook in.

I rock him up a couple more time but feel that he’s about to jump over my butterfly hook, so I go to half guard again. I take my arm out from under his far leg and grab his pants at the knee. I get a lockdown on his leg and try to sweep him to my right a couple times, but he defends by posting his hand on that side.

You can’t see it when the match in the foreground is in the way, but he starts whizzering me and reaching inside my collar. He didn’t have anything yet but I didn’t want to get into a brabo choke situation, so I quickly pulled my leg out and went to full guard.

I work on breaking his posture for a while, getting collar grips, underhooks, faking collar chokes, just pulling him down however I can.

Watch for when I use my left hand to feed his collar deeper to my right hand, then climb my legs up to his shoulder. This seems minor when you’re just watching but I specifically trained this before the tournament. I’ll show you more on this later.

Though he’s not able to get good posture, my opponent stands anyway. You can see me push on his knee and hips with my free hand. This is because I know that when my guard is this high, I’m vulnerable to them bringing their knee in behind my tailbone to break open my guard.

I get my hips high and turned how I want them. He feels the armbar about to come, so he does on last jerk to try to stand and yank his arm out, which makes it easy for me to pass my leg over the face and finish the armbar.

One of my training partners talked to him later and he told them about our match. He said that he had been warned to stay out of my guard, which he failed. When in my closed, he said he wasn’t really that worried since he expected me to do all of the posture breaking I was doing. He wasn’t worried about his arm, since he felt he could move it pretty freely and I wanted trying to cross it or anything like that. He was expecting me to go to a triangle, which he was anticipating so he could explosively stand and pull out of it and pass my guard.

Then he suddenly felt he couldn’t move his arm any more, which he wasn’t expecting at all. That’s when he does a last ditch effort to stand and my leg passes over his face.

I can explain why he’d feel this, and will later when I share the tutorial on the closed guard game I was playing for this tournament.

Until then. I’m going back to preparing the footage of the rest of my matches.