The World Keeps Growing

Last week was one of the best weeks fighting has had in a while. We had marquee events in MMA, submission grappling, and boxing taking place all over the world.

Here we’re going to look at the three people who stood above the rest and what the separated success means for the future of combat sports.

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Now let’s get into it.

Victor Hugo is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu stud. He has won the IBJJF World Championships in gi and no gi. But he stands above his contemporaries for two reasons.

One, he’s like 6’7” so he’s literally taller than almost everyone else in the sport. Two, Hugo moves like a little guy despite his towering frame.

Hugo's personal brand is “Big Man Flow” because he glides around everyone he competes against even when he starts on bottom. Check out his first match from the weekend.

In Hugo’s second match he used a scoop de la riva to shutdown Ruslan Abdulaev and prevent him from passing.

This guard forced Ruslan to turn away. That gave Hugo the angle he needed to take the lead.

Then Hugo found the finish with a relatively underused submission.

Hugo was back on his back in the second day of competition. He started out against Scottish powerlifting world champion, Mark MacQueen.

Hugo found himself playing half guard again in his final match of the tournament. Saunders was trying to hunker down, keep his legs heavy, and pass while avoiding Hugo’s leg locks. So Hugo went after Saunders’s upper body instead.

Saunders tried to pass before Hugo could get to a submission. This ended up giving Hugo the space he needed to find his final finish.

Four matches, four submissions, and three came from playing half guard. That just goes to show you that you shouldn’t neglect the “basics”.

Hugo used his post tournament interview to announce that he wants more big matches for his legacy, but his time in ADCC and major tournaments is done. Not a bad way to go out.

I’m going to do a paid article later this week to talk about the other competitors who stood out. Helena Crevar, Felipe Pena, and some leg entries from the young European studs.

For now, let’s move onto MMA.

Three days before ADCC and 5000 miles away, Rizin packed 50,000 people into a stadium to see Razhabali Shaydullaev fight AJ McKee. Who says JMMA is dead?

Shaydullaev slammed McKee all over the floor to leave the larger man exhausted. He threw right hands to weave into takedowns, dropped heavy ground and pound, and shrugged off McKee’s guard. Plus Shaydullaev used slick scrambling to stay ahead of McKee’s moments.

We saw a similar maneuver play out again in the third.

This might not look like a big deal but it’s extremely important for MMA’s overall grappling meta.

Everyone is getting fed up with fighters holding onto the rear body lock to squeeze out decisions. Shaydullaev showed us, again, sometimes it’s better not to rely on standing up for hand fighting. Sometimes it’s better to granby, scramble, and use more unorthodox techniques to find safety. Remember how Kody Steele got out of a body lock a few months ago?

The age of the spazzy scrambler is upon us. Only they can save us from Dagestani death grips.

Shaydullaev’s win moves him to 20-0 with 19 finishes at just 25. He has a claim to being one of the top 3 featherweights in the world and he’s not in the UFC!

You can read more about Shaydullaev’s destructive game at this article 👇

The UFC held their annual celebration of Mexican independence with UFC Noche this weekend. There Tommy Gantt bullied Drakkar Klose from the word go.

Gantt Spent much of the next 10 minutes pressing into Klose. But in the third round he got Klose down and passed to the back.

Once Gantt secured a position to ride from he got busy to open Klose up.

This finish moves Gantt to 12-0 as a pro with 11 finishes. And he only debuted as a professional in April 2014!

Gantt has got the goods. Now we gotta see him in harder fights.

Poland. Japan. A Mexican Independence Day celebration in Glendale Arizona. The last one sounds a bit weird but the broader theme can only be viewed positive.

The wide world of combat sports has a healthy global audience.

People have been bitching that the UFC is falling off for the past few years. I maintain that the athletes continue to get better generally while the UFC is failing to promote them. The bigger issue for American fans is that we’re getting more Magomedovs than Matts.

I don’t care where good fighters come from. I just want good fights. But I have to acknowledge that a lot of casual viewers want to see people that remind them of themselves doing well. And right now the champions hail from Houston (by way of Myanmar), Siberia, New South Wales, Arizona, Dagestan, Las Vegas, Auckland, and Manchester.

The global participation makes the sport feel thinner to American audiences that got used to seeing champions coming from California, New York, South Florida, and New Mexico primarily. And the globalization of combat sports is happening in submission grappling too.

This year’s ADCC World Championships was the first time the event had male champions from three separate countries without an American getting a gold. Not to mention it was the first time a Polish grappler won.

Plus two Spanish women got medals and this is the first year any woman from Spain has been on the podium!

Yes. We need to advocate for more fighters making more money. And we need to tune in to smaller promotions to promote a balanced fighting ecosystem. But don’t let that distract you from the fact that it’s never been a better time to enjoy fighting of all flvaors.