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Why You Need To Study Specialists
Three Keys To Diego Lopes’s Game That Show Why Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Will Always Work
William
September 14th, 2023
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Now let’s get to today’s piece!
Good Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Makes MMA Easy
A few weeks ago, Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson was streaming and managed to piss off a large portion of the MMA world. Johnson was watching Street Beefs when he flippantly said MMA is the easiest sport to be a world champion in.
Johnson’s argument is that MMA is a generalized sport. In generalized sports specialists can exploit holes in their opponents' generalized games to become world champions. The counterargument says generalized sports like MMA are harder than specialist sports because of what you have to learn to be successful in MMA.
Let’s ignore the fact that these two arguments don’t actually intersect and go deeper on the conversation.
Contrast MMA with boxing or an even more specialized sport like sprinting. In both boxing and sprinting there are literally less movements allowed than in MMA. Less movements allowed yield fewer and more highly defined tactics and strategies for success. Less available strategies mean that there are fewer and fewer people that could ever hope to be successful in the sport.
Said another way, specialized sports require specialized athletes and your likelihood of being a specialized athlete that falls into the correct sport young enough to train long enough and eventually compete at a world championship level is exceedingly low. This physical egalitarianism is actually one of my favorite parts about MMA.
You can be a slow MMA fighter if you employ an effective strategy that accentuates your abilities, masks your slowness, and exploits the holes in your opponent's game. You cannot be a slow sprinter and expect to have any success much like your likelihood of being a successful boxer with a short reach is incredibly low.
In Johnson’s stream he also said that in MMA grappling is superior to striking. The combination of these two inflammatory comments is what we’re going to focus on today. We’re going to look at a grappling specialist in the UFC that is having success because of their specialization.
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Employed Effectively
I see a Brazilian jiu-jitsu resurgence happening in MMA right now. For a while, many fighters seemed to abandon submissions and completely neglected guard work in favor of developing their striking, takedown defense, and the ability to stand up.
Don’t get me wrong. All things being equal, I would tell all athletes to prioritize learning wrestling over other skills because of how overpowered being on top in MMA is. Conversely, being stuck on bottom in MMA really really sucks. With that being said, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu resurgence I'm seeing is not a return to traditional guard play.
The Brazilian jiu-jitsu resurgence that’s happening is a return to Brazilian jiu-jitsu techniques, with modern MMA elements added in. Top players are better integrating strikes into submissions and passing instead of focusing on one or the other. Bottom players are developing holistic grappling games that allow them to effectively play a version of BJ Penn's "60 Second Guard". There is also a reinvigorated focus on leg locking as well, but that only comes out through some of the best grapplers in MMA.
One fighter that does all of the above brilliantly is rising star Diego Lopes.
Diego Lopes Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Pedigree
Once upon a time, Diego Lopes was best known as the grappling coach for Irene Aldana and Alexa Grasso. Lopes's grappling roots go much deeper than that.
Lopes’s sister, Debora, is a black belt, his brother, Thiago, is a third degree black belt, his father, Elias, is a fifth degree black belt, and his uncle, Edmilson, is a coral belt. That means his uncle has been a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt for 38 years.
Lopes’s family’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu expertise literally predates the UFC.
Lopes first got his shot at the UFC in 2021 on Dana White's Contender Series. Unfortunately Lopes lost an absolute barnburner to Joanderson Britto and was not awarded a contract. Lopes was pushed back to coaching the UFC fighters while competing on the regional scene and in professional grappling. Lopes then picked up two professional MMA wins and one loss before getting called up to fight the undefeated featherweight terror Movsar Evloev on the week of the fight.
Lopes lost a close fight but won Fight of the Night, a contract, and everyone's attention. He would go on to win his next fight by flying triangle arm bar, and now he's cemented himself as a rising fan favorite. Let’s look at a few examples of why Lopes’s game is so special.
Smart Submission-Oriented Scrambling
Diego Lopes has a bottom game that's perfectly suited for MMA. Why? He's never static. From the second Lopes finds himself falling to his back he is already fighting for the next position.
All coaches teach techniques. Better coaches teach tactics about when to use techniques. The best coaches teach holistic strategies that tie everything together and give students a framework on how to win. One strategy an old coach of mine used to harp on is to beat your opponent to the next position.
No one’s game is perfect. No matter how strong your frames are, how good your base is, or fast you move your feet, you'll get scored on. When you find yourself past the point of no return, it's important to recognize that the position is lost AND you can win the scramble by getting to the next position first so you have an advantage over your opponent.
After striking Lopes from the back body lock, Evloev decides to drop down on a takedown. Lopes has a kimura grip and decides to fall back and attempt to counter with it ahead of Evloev settling in to the position. Lopes brings Evloev’s arm behind his back so Evloev is forced to roll and save his shoulder. | Diego Lopes vs Movsar Evloev  |
Lopes beat Evloev to the next position so he could make the best use of his kimura grip and still score. Just like every strike is not a knockout blow, not every submission attempt gets the tap. You can attack submissions to off balance your opponent, stand up, or just keep them on defense.
Sometimes Lopes beats his opponent to the next position and scores a submission win by doing so.
Lopes feels he is past the point of defending the takedown. What does he do? Get an over hook and jump into the triangle to beat his opponent to the next spot. Tucker would try to posture out and Lopes would attack the arm, sweep to mount, and get the tap. | Diego Lopes vs Gavin Tucker  |
Striking Into Transitions From Top Position
The best grapplers in MMA don't just grapple, they integrate strikes into their passing and submission attempts to make the best of both. They punch as they throw their opponent's legs by to finish passing guard just like they punch their opponents to distract them from the hand that's slipping under their chin for the choke.
Let's take a look at a few examples of how Lopes integrates strikes into positional advancement and submission attempts.
Rodriguez is turning into Lopes, trying to wrestle up on a single. Lopes counters with a d’arce choke. Lopes doesn’t quite have the grip so he uses his free arm to hit Rodriguez and distract him until he can fully lock in the d’arce choke. | Diego Lopes vs Angel Rodriguez  |
Later in that same fight Lopes showed some crafty gripping and hitting.
Lopes puts his hips into Rodriguez to flatten him out in back mount. Lopes starts to hit Rodriguez so he rolls to try to escape. Lopes locks in a body triangle as they go face up. Lopes gets a cross grip on Rodriguez and uses his free arm to hit him. | Diego Lopes vs Angel Rodriguez  |
He'll even say fuck it and try a leg lock.
Lopes is punching Beltran trying to pass his guard. Beltran kicks his leg straight into Lopes’s grip and he falls back into an outside heel hook. As Beltran rolls Lopes follows and switches to a knee bar to get the finish. | Diego Lopes vs Marco Beltran  |
I wouldn't necessarily advise anyone to sacrifice position and try a Hail Mary submission in MMA. If you are going to do one I guess it makes sense to distract them from your intentions by hitting them first.
Holistic Brazilian Jiu-jitsu Game
The most impressive part of Lopes’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu game is how wide ranging it is. Lopes actively attacks all limbs from every position he finds himself in to try and win the fight. Lopes combines offense to attack up and down the chain. Attacking up and down the chain means you attack the most accessible submission and progressively attack other submissions as your opponent escapes, with each submission being closer and tighter.
Imagine you’re in full guard. You attack an arm bar or triangle choke. As your opponent makes space to escape they give you access to attack their legs. This next submission threat will likely be tighter than the first. Your likelihood of winning and taking a better position goes up with each successive attack.
Lopes is trying to counter with a kimura again. As Evloev postures up and blocks Lopes’s legs, Lopes grabs Evloev’s leg instead. Lopes rolls through and clears Evloev’s secondary leg before extending the primary leg to attack the knee bar. The final 30 seconds of the fight would run out with Evloev eating this knee bar attempt. | Diego Lopes vs Movsar Evloev  |
Similar to the idea of attacking up and down the chain is a term that BJ Penn popularized, the 60-second guard. What Penn meant was you can only try to sweep or submit your opponent for 60 seconds. If you haven’t submitted or swept your opponent in 60 seconds, you need to try to stand-up. I could not think of a better way to describe Lopes’s bottom game.
Lopes brilliantly attacks submissions from his back to create opportunities for sweeps and stand-ups and ultimately maximize his chance of winning the fight.
Lopes upkicks Brito as he walks in. Lopes’s legs drop in front of Brito and he inverts on a leg lock. As Brito kicks out Lopes stands up before Brito tries to wrestle. As Brito comes forward he puts his head into Lopes’s arms and Lopes counters with the anaconda choke attempt. | Diego Lopes vs Joanderson Brito  |
If there is any room for criticism with Lopes’s game it’s that he lives and dies by the submission. He doesn’t get submitted, but he can be overly fixated on submissions to the point of losing the fight. Lopes’s submission skills are so strong that at times he can overcommit to attacking them when standing up might make more sense.
Lopes’s all offense style hasn’t been a detriment to his final success. Lopes managed to win a fight of the night bonus and his win money even after he lost his UFC debut.
Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as a Necessary Skill
This article is not designed to suggest that every professional MMA fighter needs to be a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, let alone train in the gi. What can’t be argued is that Brazilian jiu-jitsu provides unique techniques for defending yourself and finishing your opponent. Every fighter needs to study Brazilian jiu-jitsu and see how it augments their game and maximize their unique abilities and skills.
Take a look at Daniel Cormier. Cormier joined MMA late as a specialist with a pre-existing skillset not involving submissions. Cormier finished his UFC career with about 1/3 of his wins coming from rear-naked chokes. In fact, Cormier doesn't have any other submissions on his record other than rear-naked chokes.
Cormier is a specialist that leveraged specific techniques from Brazilian jiu-jitsu to maximize the effectiveness of his specialization. This made him a world champion and it’s something every fighter should do.
In generalized arenas your best bet for maximizing success is doubling down on what makes you unique.
