UFC 194 is set to be an absolutely epic fight card, starting at the top with the long awaited main event of UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo taking on the Interim Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor. But, just before the headliner goes off, In the co-main event, UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman is set to face challenger Luke Rockhold in what could be the most intriguing match up on the fight card.
Both Weidman and Rockhold are fantastic athletes with well rounded, aggressive games hailing from elite camps, with some of the best coaches in the sport behind them. In terms of ground work both Weidman and Rockhold work with extremly well regarded jiu jitsu teams. Rockhold’s gym, the American Kickboxing Academy, is also home to Leandro Vieira, an elite level Brazilian Jiu Jitsu coach and the co-founder of the cutting edge sport jiu jitsu team Checkmat. Weidman trains Serra-Longo MMA, one of the very finest east coast gyms, and his jiu jitsu coaching comes through Team Renzo Gracie which is one of the very best grappling networks in the world. Weidman spends a great deal of time under former UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Serra in addition to being coached by Renzo Gracie and John Danaher, who are both considered to be among the very best grappling coaches in the world.
Both Rockhold and Weidman have very strong top games that are at once very similar and very distinct, and this is the first of a two part look at their grappling games. We will start with Weidman, who (true to his Renzo Gracie lineage) has a game that is a modern application of an old school mind set: takedown the opponent down, pass their guard, and then finish the fight.
This article will examine Weidman in each phase and then look at the modern wrinkles thrown into his game.
Takedown
Weidman is a prestigious and decorated wrestler, and it’s reflected in the cage. A two time D-I All-American, Weidman’s takedown is based around his outstanding shots. Weidman is primarily a pressure fighter on the feet, he likes coming forward and forcing opponents backwards and as a result many of his takedowns come while he is pressing in on opponents.
Let’s take a look at a textbook takedown from Weidman in his title defense against Lyoto Machida
Weidman starts off in the center of the Octagon pressuring Machida back towards the edge of the cage (1). Machida allows himself to be pushed as he does much of his best work off of his back foot. There is a brief exchange which Weidman ends with a left hook (2). Machida leans away from the hook and keeps his left hand up guarding against a follow up cross, but the shift in his weight leaves his lead leg very light. As Machida does this Weidman is already changing levels and dropping towards this lead leg (3). Machida is still reacting to the left hook and throwing a counter right hook hoping to catch Weidman stepping for another punch and by then Weidman has already taken a deep penetration step and is making contact with Machida’s leg (4).
It is important to note that the left hook, the level change, and Weidman’s contact with Machida’s leg all occurred within a second of each other. That kind of speed and reaction to an opening implies a deeply trained and drilled set of attacks on Weidman’s part. Weidman’s striking game is formidable due to his technique and power, but it is also enhanced by his ability to end his combinations with level changes leading to takedowns.
Let’s take a quick look at the finish to this shot.
Machida actually reacts very quickly to the contact on his legs and starts to turn his hips and shoulders in an attempt to angle and sprawl on Weidman, but by then Weidman has already advanced his grips, trapping both Machida’s legs (5). Weidman connects his hands and squeezes in, narrowing Machida’s base and turns to square back up with Machida (6). Weidman then drives right through Machida and after a brief battle he pins Machida’s hips to the mat (7).
Now a key to take away from this is that in 5 Weidman isn’t in great position, he is bent at the waist and his hips are still actually quite far away from Machida’s hips, but Weidman uses his initial shot simply to make contact and then advance his grips to work his way inside.
Another look at that concept in Weidman’s rematch with Anderson Silva.
Above you can see that Weidman very early in the fight shooting from way outside on the former UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva (1). Weidman doesn’t get a great penetration step, in fact his foot is still a fair distance from Silva’s foot, so what he ends up with is a very long range snatch single. Weidman is able to duck under Silva’s forearms (which Silva would prefer to have in Weidman’s shoulders or against his jaw) allowing Weidman to continue to close the distance (2).
Weidman establishes strong grips on Silva’s left leg, his right hand comes under Silva’s knee and Weidman’s left reaches down and grabs Silva’s shin from behind lifting the foot off the mat (3). This forces Silva’s weight off this leg and allows Weidman to pull the leg across his own body with his right arm, Weidman then steps his left leg under Silva’s leg trapping it into place (4). Weidman’s left hand has migrated from Silva’s shin up to Silva’s hip, keeping Sliva from exploding his hips backwards and making space to take his left leg out. As Silva hops to try to create that space and keep his balance, Weidman moves his left hand down to Silva’s knee (5) and then drives forward for the takedown (6).
It is a prime demonstration about how well Weidman works inside on opponent’s hips and how he is able to attain that position not just through speed and striking set ups, but also through superior grip fighting.
Pass the Guard and Finish the Fight
Once Weidman has an opponent down he seeks to neutralize the most potent weapon left available to a grounded opponent, their guard. While the guard can most certainly be neutralized, spending long periods of time in the closed guard is taxing and gives opponents a number of opportunities to enact offense. Fighters who spend great of time in the closed guard tend to have a few submission losses just based on the sheer amount of submission opportunities they provide opponents, an example being Chael Sonnen.
Weidman’s approach to the closed guard is simple and very much in line with competitive jiu jitsu wisdom, he avoids it completely. Weidman’s first defense when faced with a full guard situation is to stand to avoid it. Approaching the full guard standing is standard practice at the highest levels of competitive jiu jitsu, never allowing the opponent to attain the closed guard in the first place.
The position Weidman uses to approach the guard is a common one, known in the Ribeiro lineage as “the Headquarters” and it serves as a hub position that leads into a number of guard passes. For a quick primer in the position here is Ribeiro black belt (and the most accomplished American in Sport Jiu Jitsu) Rafeal Lovato Jr, who has put out a great deal of material on the “Pressure Passing” system he uses. The video is geared more for gi grappling and contains some sport jiu jitsu specific details, but the core concept is present in Weidman’s approach.
The advantages this position provides are significant. The guard players feet are both behind the top player and not able to be used to maintain distance or prevent pressure being applied. The guard player is also flat on his back with a leg trapped between the top player’s legs, limiting his mobility as well.
Here is a quick sequence of Weidman attain this position in the Machida fight:
Weidman had already taken Machida down and Machida is in a fairly good guard playing position, on his side with his left foot in Weidman’s hip (1). Machida’s right hand is trying to control Weidman’s head and break down his posture. Weidman beings to strike and feint strikes, which forces a defensive move from Machida. Weidman manages to get Machida to square his shoulders to the mat. Machida has his hands up in an attempt to block strikes and still has his left foot in Weidman’s hip, though it is far less secured there (2). Machida’s right leg is already in the proper position for the Headquarters, and Weidman uses his right arm to shove Machida’s left leg off his hip and down in-between his legs into proper position (3).
This is a position that Weidman makes use of when confronted with the guard consistently, below are three examples:
Weidman strikes from this position effectively, but most times it appears to be striking designed to get a reaction out of the bottom player rather than true attempts to end the fight. In the second Anderson Silva fight Weidman was very aggressive with his ground striking and as a result ended up spending much of the first round in the closed guard of Anderson Silva.
Now there are ways to prevent the top player from getting the Headquarters position, but many of those ways involve exposing one’s self to other types of offense. For example, in the first Anderson Silva fight, Silva was able to establish a deep De la Riva hook on Weidman. Rather than attempt to shed this strong point of control for Silva, Weidman instead chose to attack for a leg lock against it. While it was unsuccessful it did establish to Silva that Weidman would aggressively attack attempts to stop his passes in ways that exposed legs, forcing Silva to make a decision about risking a leg lock or risking a pass.
From the Headquarters Weidman also does attempt many of the passes normally used by BJJ players. He does occasionally try to set up the Side Smash Pass, which was a favorite pass of UFC great BJ Penn. Weidman also regularly attempts the knee slice, but his most favored tactic against other high level fighters is to force the half guard.
The half guard in MMA is a much preferable position for a top player than the full guard. The hips of the bottom player can be controlled, the bottom player has less control of the top player’s posture, and the majority of offense the bottom player could use from the full guard is gone once the fight progresses to the half guard.
In the half guard Weidman does an excellent job of balancing control with offense, first lets look at the control aspect.
Above is Weidman in his title defense against Vitor Belfort. Weidman has hit a takedown right into half guard. From there he establishes a strong cross face with his right shoulder, forcing Beflort’s head to turn and making it impossible for Vitor to get to work his hips and try to recapture his full guard. Weidman also has an underhook on Belfort’s far side and the combination of the cross face and underhook has Belfort pinned flat on his back. This is an ideal control position from the half guard.
Once this strong position is established, Weidman can start to work his hybrid offense.
Weidman elects to attempt a classic pressure pass, putting extreme weight down on Victor’s jaw with his shoulder, Weidman uses his left hand to try to shove down Vitor’s right leg (1). The champ is looking to free his knee and slide it to the mat to begin to establish his mount. Vitor reacts by fighting to slide under the shoulder of Weidman and relieve the pressure, allowing him to start to get to his side (2). Vitor’s right leg comes up to block Weidman’s knee and Vitor’s right arm controls Weidman’s left arm, preventing the pass. Weidman abandons the pass, Vitor’s move to defend the pass has left him open for strikes, and Weidman begins landing hammerfists and elbows with his right arm (3). Vitor again reacts, turning back to control Weidman’s right arm (4). But he’s now committed to trying to control both Weidman’s arms, leaving Wediman able to posture up. Weidman maintains a grip on the back of Victor’s head, giving him some control of Vitor’s mobility and leaving enough space to pull back for a strike if Vitor relaxes his grip.
This is an excellent demonstration of the relationship between striking and passing in MMA. Often to defend one mode of offense you leave yourself open for the other. And Weidman uses the strikes to force Vitor to remain flat on his back. If Weidman has one truly outstanding mat skill that he’s consistently showcased in his career, it’s his integration of strikes with his positional grappling.
In this case Vitor is in a bad situation so he attempts to be proactive instead of reactive.
Vitor turns dramatically into Weidman, planting his left hand on the mat. From here Vitor is hoping to scoot his hips back and either get to all fours to stand up or replace his guard. This is a common reaction in MMA, creating space in the hopes to quickly escape a bottom position. Many fighters seek to do just this and use it to stand back up. Weidman’s background in wrestling makes him very familiar with the scrambles that come out of these positions, and his answer for it is a front head lock sequence. While chokes are illegal in wrestling, the chain of chokes that come from front head locks tend to come very naturally for wrestlers crossing over to Submission Grappling or MMA. Grapplers who have trained with Weidman rave about his chokes from these positions.
Weidman has been able to showcase this skill set once in his UFC career:
Note how Weidman first attempts to control Tom Lawlor during his attempts to escape back to the feet, and as Lawlor’s attempts become more insistent Weidman threatens the choke. Rogan notes the choke is a threat but Lawlor insists on attempting to get up and ignores the choke grip. Weidman then progresses to the d’arce choke and proceeds to choke Lawlor unconscious.
Belfort however does not insist on trying to get up, he protects himself from the d’arce, so Weidman reestablishes his cross face and flattens Vitor yet again (5). This time Vitor is not able to block Weidman’s right knee and Wediman is able to slide it to the mat, making the move to mount (6). Weidman maintains a strong cross face until he is able to get a knee on the mat, from there postures up and begins to strike (7).
At this point, the end game of the fight begins. Weidman establishes his mount and starts pummeling Belfort. Above you can see Weidman in a prime power striking mount position. He has slid up on Vitor, his hips are over Vitor’s chest rather than over the hips. The result is that Vitor’s bridge is much less effective at moving Weidman. Also notice that Weidman’s knees are tight to Vitor’s side and that Weidman’s hips are actually elevated, while this results in Weidman’s weight resting on his knees and not on Vitor, it allows for much stronger punching power from this position. And it was the punching power from here that ended this fight.
Weidman’s top game is a well designed, MMA adapted bit of grappling. He seeks to attain the classic dominant positions through the progression of passing the guard and the application of strong top pressure. He uses strikes and submissions to counter defenses and escape attempts, forcing the opponent to either risk damage or a fight ending submission, or allow him to continue to advance position.
To close with, here is Tristar head coach Frias Zahabi, a black belt in the Renzo Gracie association who has trained with many of Weidman’s coaches. In this video he is teaching a passing sequence that Weidman frequently uses with some excellent details.
For more MMA and Grappling analysis, technique, and MMA Prospect talk be sure to follow T.P. Grant on Twitter or Facebook.