UFC 313's Triangles, Trips, And Violent Takedown Defense

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Last week was a whirlwind of great grappling. Today we’re talking about good takedowns, better defense, and some slick triangles from UFC 313. Then, in the Premium Notebook, we’ll be analyzing three of the best finishes we got at UFC FPI 10, including one of the coolest leg locks you’ll ever see.

Now let’s get into it.

UFC 313 was advertised as a necessary event. Magomed Ankalaev was finally getting his title shot against Light Heavyweight superstar Alex Pereira. And while the fight was tense, not much happened.

Ankalaev is a well rounded fighter. He can kickbox, wrestle, and his footwork always leaves him in a good position to pressure. We all thought he would have to take Pereira down to steal the fight from the champion.

In the end, Pereira defended all of Ankalaev’s takedowns but still lost. Really he gave the fight away with inactivity and an inability to get his hands going.

One cool thing that stood out to me was how well Pereira tripped Ankalaev.

And this wasn’t a flash in the pan. We saw Pereira try it earlier in the fight.

Really the story of the fight was how well Ankalaev checked Pereira’s lead hand. He left the champion unable to do much beyond poke with leg kicks. Ankalaev did pop Pereira with a few hard punches, but that’s about it.

The fight that I was most interested in came at the top of the prelims. Joshua Van took on Rei Tsuruya.

Van is an all action pressure fighter. He kicks and punches in combination to the head and body while walking forward the whole time. He’s a highlight machine.

Tsuruya is a world class grappler. Literally.

As a teenager Tsuruya wrestled internationally for Japan. Today he uses some of the most unorthodox takedowns you’ll ever see. Watch this drop seoi nage variation.

Tsuruya even used similar throwing mechanics to take Van down in the center of the cage as well.

Tsuruya has a rare mastery of timing and weight distribution that you just can’t understand unless you’ve felt yourself become weightless through someone else’s takedown attempt. But style points don’t win fights. Damage does. And Van took every spare bit of space to hurt Tsuruya. Watch this painful takedown defense.

The fight was the perfect pairing of striker vs grappler, but Tsuruya’s inability to do damage left him the loser. It looked like Tsuruya wanted Van to engage him in the grappling and counter wrestle once he initiated the takedown. But When Van started hitting Tsuruya, he looked like he didn’t want to be there anymore.

Van is 23 and Tsuruya is just 22. Both probably have close to a decade to improve their games and I wouldn’t be surprised if they meet again in the future.

Elsewhere on the card we got two triangle submissions.

Triangles in the UFC are rare. There have been less than 100 in the promotion’s history. When there are two in one night we need to take a closer look.

Brilliant timing from Ferreira to snatch this finish. The second triangle we got was as much to do with defensive liabilities as it was offensive skills.

This finish was a weird one. Turner postured out of one submission then went straight into another. Then, he turned the exact wrong way giving Bahamondes the angle to close the triangle up tighter. I’ll put a link in the notes so you can see a video on how to properly defend a triangle choke.

One of the overall headlines from this past week was TKO, the UFC’s parent company, total takeover of Las Vegas. Before the UFC Pay-Per-View on Saturday, there was a Power Slap show on Friday, and a UFC Fight Pass Invitational Grappling card on Thursday! Before we get out of here today I want to take a look at my favorite moments from UFC FPI 10.