I’m not here to blast the art of jiu-jitsu. I think it’s a wonderful martial art, but Fabricio Werdum’s repeated attempts to implement his specialty against Alistair Overeem cost him a win.
A huge win at that.
The thought process going into the fight was that Werdum has the better ground game as Werdum was able to submit Overeem 5 years ago with a kimura. It was no secret that Overeem wanted to keep the fight standing as that has become his specialty over the years even though he is well versed in submissions. However, the best chance for him to win the fight was to keep the fight standing and try to knock Werdum out. That’s what he did as he stopped takedown attempt after takedown attempt from Werdum. Werdum actually begged for Overeemto come into his guard as he lay on his back. The times that Werdum was successful in pulling guard, Overeem immediately got up out of his guard and motioned for him to stand back up.
It’s like pitcher throwing nothing but fastballs right down the middle of the strike zone with Ken Griffey Jr. swinging away in his prime. That pitcher might wanna try something different after giving up 8 home runs in a row right? Throw a curve ball, change up, or something.
It seems like guys that specialize in Brazilian jiu-jitsu are the worse though when it comes to changing up gameplans. We routinely see it when submission specialists lose the first two rounds of a three round fight. What are they doing in the third round? Still going for the takedown that’s been stuffed all night and paying the price by eating punches and knees for doing so, and they still end up losing the fight. That’s not limited to jiu-jitsu guys, because tons of wrestlers do it as well. However, a wrestlers chance at getting the takedown and landing that one big punch is higher than a jiu-jitsu guy finally getting the takedown and them going to work for the submission to win. Each scenario would depend on the matchup, but you get the point being made. At what point does a fighter switch it up when plan A isn’t working? I mean there are other ways to win besides submission, because this is mixed martial arts not submission grappling. I’m generalizing here but it’s like some jiu jitsu specialist believe in their art so much, that they are willing to lose a MMA fight just because they want to implement their jiu-jitsu game so much.
I don’t understand that at all.
The thing that makes matters worse is that Werdum was actually holding his own against Overeem striking wise. Had Werdum stood with him the entire time would he have gotten knocked out? It’s certainly possible, but you have to play the percentages. The odds of Werdum being able to submit Overeem were virtually zero because Werdum couldn’t get or keep Overeem on the ground. When he did pull guard Overeem just stood back up. So even whenWerdum was successful in pulling guard, it was obvious that Overeem was not going to do anything that would open up a submission.
That was time and energy spent that he could have been effectively striking moving in and out of Overeem’s range because it was clear that Overeem was looking to land one big shot to put him away. If Werdum would have abandoned his strategy of getting the fight to the ground when it was clear he would have little success there, he at least would have had a decent chance of beating Overeem.
His belief that his jiu-jitsu would win him the fight cost him the win.
One thing that BJJ guys need to start doing in MMA is having the mindset that being on bottom equals losing. These guys are too comfortable with being on bottom and they need to work harder on getting takedowns and top position instead of pulling guard – not that Werdum didn’t try some takedowns – but he’s not great at them from what I’ve seen. Maybe he just needs to become great at them to complete his mission.
Wrestlers come into MMA training and pair up their wrestling skills with submissions, or they learn to strike to compliment their already competent grappling. Werdum needs to do the opposite and add wrestling or some Judo to his submission skills, because his takedowns and guard pulling aren’t cutting it.
There is probably a lot in the different forms of wrestling that he could use to his advantage, and there are certainly under-utilized Judo throws and trips he could use. He needs to do these things or learn to strike well like the Nog Brothers did. If he had been able to strike a bit better, or if he had been able to secure top position, he probably would have been declared the winner of that fight. Some people think he won it anyway.
“One thing that BJJ guys need to start doing in MMA is having the mindset that being on bottom equals losing. These guys are too comfortable with being on bottom and they need to work harder on getting takedowns and top position instead of pulling guard – not that Werdum didn’t try some takedowns – but he’s not great at them from what I’ve seen. Maybe he just needs to become great at them to complete his mission.”
Yep..see this is big..if you saw the Ariel Helwani interview with one of the Gracie’s(can’t remember which one…Rorion’s son)..he was talking about being on the bottom…the way he was speaking..it was that same mindset that BJJ is the superior martial art…guys don’t wanna engage because it’ll open up submissions…
I was like…tell that to Matt Hughes when he busted Royce up.
Fighters with BJJ backgrounds need to understand that they have to learn other disciplines to be successful…look at all these wrestlers adding striking to their games(Munoz, Faber, Guillard, Edgar, Maynard, etc)..you can not win in MMA at a high level consistently with just BJJ…ask Marcelo Garcia.