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The ADCC World Championships are a only weeks away. This year will be in Poland and several MMA fighters have been invited to compete. The most interesting one is the man we’re profiling here, Jakub Wiklacz.
If you want to learn how to make butterfly guard and guillotines work in MMA you have to read this.
Table of Contents
Poland’s Place In Modern Martial Arts
You could make the case that Poland has the richest modern martial arts history in all of Europe. Don’t believe me? Look at who the country has created.
Poland was the first European country to produce both a man and woman UFC champion, Adam Wardziński is the first European man to win the IBJJF World Championships at Black Belt, and Wardziński, Mateusz Szczeciński, and several other countrymen will try to become ADCC World Champions this year as the tournament travels to their native country.
The ADCC World Championships is straight out of a movie. Abu Dhabi provides money for this tournament to travel around the world and host qualifying events for men and women to earn the right to wrestle for gold and glory. The two day event is comprised of 5 weight divisions with 16 men each, 3 weight divisions with 8 women each, and a no weight limit tournament for the men.
ADCC produces surprising stars and blistering highlights each year. One of the original stars created was Marcelo Garcia. He made a career with butterfly guard, rear naked chokes, and a guillotine that ripped off many a man’s head.
Garcia is trying to knee slice through Hart’s guard. Hart keeps his knees up, rocks to the side, and tries to wrestle up but he sticks his neck into Garcia’s armpit. Garcia closes a guillotine and passes to mount. Garcia moves with Hart’s bridge to better cinch the submission and gets the finish from his back.
Marcelo Garcia vs David Hart
This year’s ADCC features a Polish MMA fighter who fights like a bizarro world Garcia.
Jakub Wiklacz is Polish MMA promotion’s KSW’s former Bantamweight Champion with an 18-3-2 record. 11 of his wins are submissions and 6 of those are guillotines.
Jakub steps into a front kick. Przybysz shoots with his head outside. Jakub locks up an arm in guillotine and jumps to closed guard. He traps Przybysz’s arm in side of his guard in the process. Jakub squeezes for several seconds before the referee realizes he’s unconscious.
Jakub Wikłacz - Sebastian Przybysz V
Before we talk about Jakub’s chances at the ADCC World Championships let’s look at what he does that’s different than almost every other MMA fighter today..
Using The Guillotine
If you only looked at Wikłacz’s record you’d understand he can finish the guillotine from a variety of positions.
Gafarov wades into Wikłacz’s hips. Wikłacz clamps down on his neck with an arm-in guillotine and sits to half guard. Then he back rolls to get on top. Gafarov wrestles up to take top position. Then he has to concede mount to try to take some sting off Wikłacz’s squeeze. Gafarov taps at the buzzer.
Jakub Wikłacz - Muin Gafarov
I seriously doubt Jakub will finish anyone at ADCC with a guillotine. But that’s not the entirety of how he uses the submission. He threatens the choke to reverse opponents and advance position.
Przybysz has double under hooks. Jakub reaches over Przybysz’s back to pull out his legs. The funky throw fails but Jakub is able to turn back to Przybysz and reach over his head for an arm in guillotine. Then he flips Przybysz over and back rolls to mount. Przybysz squirms back to safety in half guard.
Jakub Wikłacz - Sebastian Przybysz II
Stuff like this is how you know Jakub has a coherent grappling game. His techniques give him incremental control of the exchanges until his opponent can no longer concede position and is forced to submit.
Before we look at how Jakub solidifies his spots on the floor, let’s take a closer look at how he scrambles and wrestles.
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