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First Things First

This weekend’s UFC Noche event ended up being an incredible spectacle. On the top of the card we were treated to Merab Dvalishvili using what I see as the cutting edge of wrestling in MMA. Today we’re going to review how he won, and what techniques are leading the way.

Modern Striker vs Grappler

It’s a story built into the fabric of the UFC. Which style is best?

Over decades of mixed martial arts competition, this question has crystalized into the iconic striker vs grappler match-up.

Can the striker stay on his feet long enough to score a winning blow? Or will the grappler grind out a grimy win?

We’ve seen countless permutations of this contest as fighters evolved. Out fighters focused on avoidance turned into sprawl and brawlers, people that denied takedowns to beat people up on the feet. You can look at legends like Chuck Liddell, Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and Jose Aldo for examples of strikers using takedown defense to continue their offense on the feet.

As striking in MMA became more sophisticated we were treated to athletes advancing their cause with feints and footwork to freeze anti wrestling foes mid fight. They kept their opponents guessing, reaching, and missing before uncorking a knockout blow. This is Sean O’Malley’s bread and butter.

The rangy bantamweight would juke and pick his opponents apart. Only one man, Marlon Vera, was able to solve his striking during O’Malley’s ascent.

O’Malley tried to defend his title against Merab Dvalishvili this weekend. He ended up stuck on the fence and underneath Merab for the better part of 25 minutes before he lost his title. But it wasn’t simply the takedowns that were most intriguing. It was how Merab used his legs for the entire fight to control O’Malley.

Technical Takeaways

Shooting Under Strikes

The game plan was simple. O’Malley had to Keep Merab away. This did not prove easy.

Some of O’Malley’s best work comes from his kicks. And he was able to stab Merab late in the fight with a front kick to wind him.

But this was not the story of the fight.

For the majority of the event, Merab was in the center pushing O’Malley back. This means O’Malley was less able to kick for two reasons:

1. It’s harder to kick while moving backwards

2. He did not want to kick so he could keep his base underneath him and not get off balanced easily

The problem was, whenever he would plant to strike and extend his combinations, or just swing back at Merab, Merab would duck in on his hips.

Fundamentally, in wrestling you are taught to keep your lead hand home. Why? If you extend your lead arm there is nothing stopping your opponent from reaching under it to grab your leg. O’Malley’s lack of jabbing tells me he was conscious of this.

O’Malley did score with his right hand, but he was never able to build enough offense to take control of the fight. He was playing Merab’s game the whole time. But, to me, the most interesting work came after Merab shot.

Trips And Turks

Wrestling in MMA is fundamentally different because of the barrier and the strikes. Good grapplers exploit this by pushing their opponents to the cage. Now, craftier grapplers are combining their feet with their hands by running their opponent to the fence, locking their hands, and tripping their opponent. This means they can take opponents down without ever releasing their grip.

Merab’s shot was reckless. It didn’t matter here. Merab put O’Malley on the wall and when O’Malley tried to fight hands his posture was already compromised, making for an easy trip.

When O’Malley tried to get up, Merab would alternate between body locks and head locks to stay connected. Then he could easily step behind O’Malley’s legs for turks to break his base.

Below we see Merab Countering O’Malley’s attempts to use his guard to stand-up.

When O’Malley was in front of him, Merab had easy looks at knees. This forced O’Malley to drop his base which only served Merab’s goals.

And here we see Merab cycle through body locks and knees to force O’Malley to the front head lock and plant him down.

If O’Malley elected to play guard, he was already so behind the action that Merab could just keep advancing and peppering in strikes.

Some are calling the main event boring and I completely disagree. Merab was dominant and active for the majority of the 25 minutes. If you’re looking to learn how to fence wrestle and hold people down this fight is a must watch.

I believe Merab’s grappling is at the cutting edge of MMA wrestling.

The last major innovation in MMA grappling gave us the addition of leg and wrist rides. Fighters like Khabib would sit on their opponent’s hips, hook a leg, and grab a wrist. This took away their ability to stand and defend themselves, while leaving the fighter on top an avenue to punch freely.

Merab’s trips and fence wrestling put him in a position where the turks and leg rides were immediately available. He didn’t have to transition to anything special. O‘Malley was basically stuck from the second his knee or hip hit the mat.

I believe that this is where grappling in MMA is heading. Why shoot a single or double when you can simply push your opponent to the fence, lock lock your hands, and trip to land in a spot where their base is already compromised? 

Sure they can scoot away because you’re not actively holding their legs. But how many times can they do that before they run out of gas?

What Else Is Worth Watching?

Midway through the main card we were treated to one of the best rounds of the year. Daniel Zelhuber and Esteban Ribovics beat the piss out of each other in the third.

The madness started with this lovely standing elbow from Zelhuber.

After a momentary break from an eye poke the action resumed. Zelhuber was trying to stand tall, bob side to side and stab Ribovics. Then Ribovics uncorked a hellacious overhand to hurt Zelhuber.

Miraculously, Zelhuber survived to hear the judges.

This fight was one of those excellent tight technical battles where the two men kept the action high, but measured, for the first two rounds to get their reads. Then they poured it all out in the third for a classic ending.

After these two fought, Diego Lopes and Brian Ortega squared off. Early in the first Lopes unloaded on Ortega.

This is the central problem with how their grappling matches up.

Ortega has a great, old school guard. He attacks posture and looks for upper body submissions.

But what happens when someone has great jiujitsu and can defend those attacks? When they stand out of his guard to strike, what can he do? He’s forced to wait on his back while the other has options to strike.

Ortega’s jiujitsu has always been a get out of jail free card. You hit him, he goes down, and then you can’t follow him for fear of his jiujitsu. But against an excellent modern jiujitsu player, that get out of jail free card just doesn’t reliably work.

You need to layer in modern answers for people that use modern attacks.

This isn’t to say you need to learn leg locks. But neglecting leg entanglements that directly lead to wrestle ups can only limit guard players.

John Danaher said it best, why would you ignore 50% of the human body?

We have a bit of a break in the calendar coming up. We’ll be looking away from upcoming fights to look at other interesting techniques, athletes, and stories from the peripheries of combat sports.

Make sure you subscribe to see what’s going on in the fringes of fighting.

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