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Two Of The Worst Beatdowns Of The Year
How Two New Stars Were Made At UFC 314
William
April 15th, 2025
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FIRST THINGS FIRST
Welcome to Open Note Grappling.
Every Tuesday morning I send out a breakdown of the best combat sports action. In less than 10 minutes you'll learn how the top fighters win and anything else fighters, martial artists, and fight fans need to know.
UFC 314 gave us two of the most dramatic, surprising beatdowns of the year. Those beatings also created two new stars, Paddy Pimblett and Jean Silva. Today we’re going to study why Michael Chandler and Bryce Mitchell couldn’t get anything going against them. Then, in the Premium Notebook, we’re going to analyze an interesting up and coming prospect’s back attacks.
If you want to learn why Chase Hooper was able to threaten Jim Miller, and what he could have done to cement the finish, upgrade to the Premium Notebook.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
THE HARDCORE FAN’S MAIN EVENT:
Bryce Mitchell Puts His Own Neck On A Platter
The hardcore fan’s main event was near the beginning of the pay-per-view of UFC 314. Jean Silva was scheduled to take on his toughest test yet, Bryce Mitchell.
Before Mitchell made headlines by sympathizing with Hitler, he was known as a sneaky good featherweight contender. Not the best athlete nor the most imposing, but a hard nosed grinder that could spoil most anyone’s night. Silva is his opposite.
Silva is a compact ball of Brazilian muscle. He’s an acrobatic striker that exploded into the UFC with 4 TKOs in 13 months to start his run with the company.
Many thought Mitchell could steal the fight by taking Silva to the floor and holding him there. But in the second round the Brazilian ended up ripping Mitchell’s head off with a ninja choke.
Mitchell changes levels to grab a single leg as Silva marches forward. Silva pushes Mitchell’s head down and elbows him. Mitchell’s head goes across Silva’s body. Silva punches his arm under Mitchell’s chin across his own body and locks up a figure 4. Mitchell tries to spin out of it but ends up getting choked unconscious instead. |  Jean Silva - Bryce Mitchell |
This submission was as much about what Silva did as what Mitchell gave him.
When Mitchell shoots takedowns he’s almost always completely bent over. Then, he usually finishes his takedowns by circling his opponents down to the mat. This means Mitchell’s head is often right there to get guillotined.
In fact, Silva almost caught Mitchell twice before finishing him.
Watch where Mitchell’s head goes in this sequence. Mitchell pops Silva with a rear straight, bends over, and grab Silva’s hips. As Mitchell circles Silva down to the mat Silva grabs a guillotine choke because Mitchell’s head is right on Silva’s hip. |  Jean Silva - Bryce Mitchell |
Even when Mitchell reshot he was putting his head out there to get ripped off.
Silva pushes Mitchell away for a classic technical stand-up. Mitchell follows and puts his head in for the takedown attempt. Silva punches his arm across to try the ninja choke. Mitchell slides down for a single leg. Silva swings at Mitchell as they disconnect. |  Jean Silva - Bryce Mitchell |
Shooting like Mitchell does isn’t inherently wrong. Many wrestlers build entire Olympic careers shooting with their head low and outside. But in grappling and MMA it leaves you at risk of being guillotined.
If you want to shoot with your head outside you should try to immediately run to your opponent’s backside, or lift them.
Cormier has a single. Gustafsson is trying to sprawl. Cormier pulls Gustafsson, puts his head outside, and lifts Gustafsson for the huge slam. Cormier was never at risk of getting guillotined because he kept his posture up while moving Gustafsson’s feet until Cormier could lift him. |  Daniel Cormier - Alexander Gustafsson |
Really though, why shoot when you can just punch into trips to finish takedowns like Alexander Volkanovski did this weekend.
Volkanovski is punching Lopes with left hands. Every time he does he pushes Lopes back further. When Lopes is bent over with his hips far back Volkanovski has a relatively simple trip. In judo they call this a kosoto gake. |  Alexander Volkanovski - Diego Lopes |
2025 is definitely the year of judo’s UFC resurgence. The best grapplers in MMA are all finding novel ways of combining trips with kicks, punches, and fence wrestling for takedowns like this.
A NEW STAR MOVES TO THE TOP 10
Paddy Pimblett Punishes Michael Chandler
The worst beating of the night came from Paddy Pimblett. He made Michael Chandler look bad. Like really bad and old.
Pimblett smacked Chandler around the cage with hard single shots. Every time he got on top, Chandler lost a few months off of his life. What stood out to me was how Pimblett kept his base on top of the wild Chandler.
Pimblett is hunting the rear naked choke. Chandler’s back is on the fence so it’s not there. Pimblett slides his left foot into Chandler’s pocket to mount him. Now the fight is basically done. Chandler can only turn underneath Pimblett as he rains down punches and elbows until the ref says enough. |  |
Earlier in the fight Pimblett used another subtle control point to hold Chandler in place beneath him. Pay attention to Paddy’s legs in the sequence below.
Pimblett slides out of half guard. Chandler tries to escape through the new space he’s found. Pimblett takes Chandler’s back and locks a body triangle but he threads his outside leg between Chandler’s legs. Now, Chandler can’t turn out of Pimblett’s mount nor back control. |  Paddy Pimblett - Michael Chandler |
More and more fighters are modifying the body triangle by threading their outside leg between their opponent’s to limit how much the defender can turn. You’ll see variations of this from young Japanese stars Tatsuro Taira and Rei Tsuruya.
Look at Tsuruya’s legs to start this sequence. He has a figure four with the outside leg laced between Jiniushiyue’s legs. Tsuruya uses the position to crank Jiniushiyue’s spine. Jiniushiyue turns face down and Tsuruya starts punching. The ref quickly steps in to save Jiniushiyue. |  Rei Tsuruya vs Jiniushiyue |
What impressed me the most from Pimblett was how well he countered Chandler’s offensive grappling.
SNEAKY SUBMISSIONS CAN SAVE YOUR SKIN (EVEN WHEN THEY DON’T WORK):
Why Be Better When You Can Be Tricky?
Paddy Pimblett is a weird fighter. He stands straight up and down and moves kind of awkwardly. But he knows how to slip submission threats in at the right time to take back the tempo of a fight.
Look at how Pimblett kept Chandler defensive even when he was in a much worse position.
Chandler has a rear body lock. Pimblett elbows behind himself to keep Chandler honest. Chandler opens his hands to move to a safer angle but that gives Pimblett space to attack a kimura. Chandler tries to slam Pimblett so Pimblett hooks Chandler’s leg to stay safe. |  Paddy Pimblett - Michael Chandler |
Shortly after this sequence Pimblett got back to his feet and kept attacking with more submissions.
Chandler has Pimblett pressed against the cage with a left under hook. Pimblett is hanging on Chandler with that same side over hook. They both trade knees and pitter patter strikes. When Chandler bends over and reaches high with his under hook, Pimblett launches himself into a triangle choke. |  Paddy Pimblett - Michael Chandler |
This is the thing with Pimblett, and submission specialists more generally. They’re able to pull these crazy configurations from out of nowhere.
It’s like fighting the personification of an Uno reverse card.
Just when you think you’re about to start scoring they start to rip off one of your limbs or choke you unconscious. You can never fully settle into your offense because the threat is always there.
Maybe. Or maybe it isn’t.
By the time you second guess yourself they’ve already smacked you a few more times.
Before Pimblett cemented his name by taking out a veteran fan favorite , the young prospect Chase Hooper scrambled all over the floor with Jim Miller. Both Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belts showed their grappling chops for the full 15 minutes.
Hooper has a rear body lock. He sags to the floor and throws a hook in on Miller. Because Hooper only controls one hip, he isn’t able to get to Miller’s back and attack the rear naked choke. Instead, Hooper sits under Miller to enter the truck and attack leg locks. |  Chase Hooper - Jim Miller |
Hooper had the edge for most of the fight, but he still wasn’t able to fully threaten and seal it. And if you want to learn why, keep reading the Premium Notebook below.
If you want to keep reading (and you’re not a Premium Subscriber) click here to upgrade. It’s only $5 per month, you get extra analysis in every article I write, and you can even try a week for free.
CHASE HOOPER’S MODERN BACK ATTACKS:
Why Hooper Was All Over Miller But Not Able To Finish
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
What Are We Talking About Today?
Want to learn more about the ninja choke? Click here to see Craig Jones explain how Leon Edwards used it against Colby Covington. You can also see Chito Vera explain it here.
Want to read more about Paddy Pimblett’s game? Check out this article I wrote ahead of his last fight.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
This might be the most important boxing news of the decade. “UFC/TKO is requesting an amendment change to the Ali Act.” The Ali Act protects boxers from exploitative contracts and essentially prohibits promoters from monopolizing titles so elite fighters can enjoy an open and competitive market. Basically TKO (the UFC’s parent company) wants to run a boxing league like the UFC so they need to rearrange legislation to do it. Oof. Read what this could mean here.
Before their first event ever happened, the GFL “postponed” the show. This was the company trying to sell us 41 year old Tony Ferguson vs social media influencer Dillon Danis. You have to think the GFL is completely dead and you can read how the whole series of events unfolded here.
John Danaher announced his team for the second Craig Jones Invitational. Dorian Olivarez at -66kg, Giancarlo Bodoni at -88kg, Luke Griffith at -99kg, and Dan Manasoiu at +99kg. New Wave will also be holding an internal trial for their -77kg spot. Watch the announcement here.
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