First UFC victory by a Gracie since 1994! Congratulations to Kron, son of Rickson Gracie. His nickname, Ice Cream Kron, means Cool Under Pressure. Ironically, you can tell that he's a sensitive guy and that fighting takes a huge toll on him.
He won in old school fashion. The progression was classic -- something I taught to Yale BJJ club students in the mid-1990s. Caceres throws a right, Kron ducks under to get the clinch, hiding his head under Cacere's arm. Kron takes the back, entwines his leg and uses his bodyweight to take Caceres to the mat. Kron moves smoothly into a rear naked choke, hiding his hands from Caceres. Almost no energy expended by Kron. Alex Caceres, an athletic UFC veteran, defeated in 90 seconds with a minimum of violence.
Jiujitsu, the gentle art.
Some background on Rickson and Kron, from Eddie Bravo and Joe Rogan. Kron's submission grappling fights against Garry Tonon and Marcelo Garcia are unbelievable.
I thought Khabib's grappling would dominate McGregor's striking. Tony Ferguson would have given him a tougher fight.
The finish was not a choke -- probably a jaw lock. It seems that Conor almost taps, stops, then realizes his jaw is in danger (or just gives up, which is part of his MO) and taps.
Once something has become widely understood, it is difficult to recreate or fully grasp the mindset that prevailed before. But I can attest to the fact that until the 1990s and the advent of MMA, even "experts" (like boxing coaches, karate and kung fu instructors, Navy SEALs) did not know how to fight -- they were deeply confused as to which techniques were most effective in unarmed combat.
Soon our ability to predict heritable outcomes using DNA alone (i.e., Genomic Prediction) will be well-established. Future generations will have difficulty understanding the mindset of people (even, scientists) today who deny that it is possible.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, there was an interesting case study in how useful new knowledge jumped from a tiny isolated group to the general population with big effects on performance in a community. Expertise in Brazilian jiu-jitsu was taken from Brazil to southern California by the Gracie family. There were many sceptics but they vanished rapidly because the Gracies were empiricists. They issued ‘the Gracie challenge’.
All sorts of tough guys, trained in all sorts of ways, were invited to come to their garage/academy in Los Angeles to fight one of the Gracies or their trainees. Very quickly it became obvious that the Gracie training system was revolutionary and they were real experts because they always won. There was very fast and clear feedback on predictions. Gracie jiujitsu quickly jumped from an LA garage to TV. At the televised UFC 1 event in 1993 Royce Gracie defeated everyone and a multi-billion dollar business was born.
People could see how training in this new skill could transform performance. Unarmed combat changed across the world. Disciplines other than jiu jitsu have had to make a choice: either isolate themselves and not compete with jiu jitsu or learn from it. If interested watch the first twenty minutes of this documentary (via professor Steve Hsu, physicist, amateur jiu jitsu practitioner, and predictive genomics expert).
... The faster the feedback cycle, the more likely you are to develop a qualitative improvement in speed that destroys an opponent’s decision-making cycle. If you can reorient yourself faster to the ever-changing environment than your opponent, then you operate inside their ‘OODA loop’ (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) and the opponent’s performance can quickly degrade and collapse.
This lesson is vital in politics. You can read it in Sun Tzu and see it with Alexander the Great. Everybody can read such lessons and most people will nod along. But it is very hard to apply because most political/government organisations are programmed by their incentives to prioritise seniority, process and prestige over high performance and this slows and degrades decisions. Most organisations don’t do it. Further, political organisations tend to make too slowly those decisions that should be fast and too quickly those decisions that should be slow — they are simultaneously both too sluggish and too impetuous, which closes off favourable branching histories of the future.
Choking out a Judo black belt in the tatami room at the Payne Whitney gymnasium at Yale. My favorite gi choke is Okuri eri jime.
Training in Hawaii at Relson Gracie's and Enson Inoue's schools. The shirt says Yale Brazilian Jiujitsu -- a club I founded. I was also the faculty advisor to the already existing Judo Club :-)
A great ~20 minutes starting at ~1:01 with UFC 155 contender Kevin Lee. Lee talks about self-confidence, growing up in an all-black part of Detroit, not knowing any white people his age until attending college, getting started in wrestling and MMA. If you don't believe early environment affects life outcomes you are crazy...
They also discuss Ability vs Practice: 10,000 hour rule is BS, in wrestling and MMA as with anything else. Lee was a world class fighter by his early twenties, having had no martial arts training until starting wrestling at age 16. He has surpassed other athletes who have had intensive training in boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, jiujitsu since childhood. It will be interesting to see him face Khabib Nurmagomedov, who has been trained, almost since birth, in wrestling, judo, and combat sambo. (His father is a famous coach and former competitor in Dagestan.)
Here are some highlights from Lee's recent domination of Edson Barboza.
When I was in Japan in the mid-1990s almost no one outside of a small group of MMA fans had ever heard of BJJ or Gracie Jiujitsu. Sometimes when I went to a judo club to practice I would just explain that I was a "newaza specialist" (ground technique specialist) or even that I wanted to do Kosen-style judo.
The Imperial Universities that specialized in Kosen judo did so partially because they were nerds! One could become adept at newaza with less natural athleticism and less practice than was required to become a true tachiwaza (standing technique = dynamic throws) specialist. A relatively small amount of training in ground technique allows a fighter to completely dominate an untrained opponent. The Kosen competitors would simply drag their opponent to the mat without using any flashy throws or takedowns, and then submit or pin them. More video.
I cannot really tell from the video whether these Kosen practitioners have also adopted techniques from modern BJJ. I see some spider guard, but apparently that is an old Kosen style! Don't let the black belts fool you. In Japan you go from white to black belt directly, and 1st dan black belt just means you know the basic moves and are still very much a student. These guys in the video don't look all that advanced to me for the most part. (It's not easy to be admitted to Kyoto University, by the way.)
Here's a top-level Kosen guy. He's destroying those scrubs in Canada ;-)
Wikipedia: Kosen judo(高專柔道Kōsen jūdō)is a variation of theKodokanjudocompetitive ruleset that was developed and flourished at thekōtō senmon gakkō(高等専門学校)(kōsen(高專)) technical colleges inJapanin the first half of the twentieth century. Kosen judo's rules allow for greater emphasis ofne-waza(寝技, ground techniques)than typically takes place in competitive judo and it is sometimes regarded as a distinct style of judo.
Today, the term "kosen judo" is frequently used to refer to the competition ruleset associated with it that allows for extended ne-waza. Such competition rules are still used in the Nanatei Jūdō / Shichitei Jūdō (七帝柔道Seven Imperials Judo) competitions held annually between the seven former Imperial universities. Similarly, there has been a resurgence in interest in Kosen judo in recent years due to its similarities with Brazilian jiu jitsu.
Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ) was introduced to Brazil through the Gracie family by judoka Mitsuyo Maeda. Maeda had significant experience fighting wrestlers and boxers; from this experience he developed a theory of combat that has evolved into modern MMA.
According to Renzo Gracie's book Mastering Jujitsu, Maeda not only taught the art of judo to Carlos Gracie, but also taught a particular philosophy about the nature of combat based on his travels competing and training alongside catch-wrestlers, boxers, savate fighters, and various other martial artists. The book details Maeda's theory that physical combat could be broken down into distinct phases, such as the striking phase, the grappling phase, the ground phase, and so on. Thus, it was a smart fighter's task to keep the fight located in the phase of combat that best suited his own strengths. The book further states that this theory was a fundamental influence on the Gracie approach to combat.
Two superb athletes will meet at UFC 221 for the 185lb championship. I'd say 65% chance Rockhold wins, but I won't be shocked if Yoel explodes and KOs Rockhold with little warning.
Like Chael Sonnen (below) I am really excited to see them grapple -- one of the top MMA BJJ talents (Rockhold) versus a former World Champion in freestyle wrestling. Rockhold's top game is very strong -- he might be the first person ever to control and finish Romero.
John Danaher is one of the deepest thinkers in combat sports, MMA, and jiujitsu. He has coached a number of world champions in MMA and jiujitsu/submission grappling (Georges St. Pierre, Garry Tonon, etc.). The recent leg lock technique renaissance is largely due to Danaher and his school.
Danaher was a philosophy PhD student at Columbia before discovering BJJ through Renzo Gracie's academy in NYC. When I was a Yale professor (in the 90s) I made trips to Renzo's for training. I don't recall Danaher (who would have been a student/instructor there at the time), but I do recall Craig Kukuk, Renzo's partner in the school and the first US blackbelt instructor.
Kukuk had played linebacker at Iowa State University (where I grew up), and we spent time talking about Iowa (a big wrestling hotbed) and the origins of jiujitsu and ultimate fighting in the US. I had trained in Japan and so knew quite a bit about the relationship between traditional Judo and BJJ. At one time I probably knew as much as anyone about the relationship between Judo, BJJ, MMA, and US folk style wrestling.
Romero is 40 years old! He is a former World Champion and Olympic silver medalist for Cuba in freestyle wrestling. Watch the video -- it's great! :-)
He lost a close championship fight yesterday in the UFC at 185lbs. The guy he lost to, Robert Whittaker, is a young talent and a class act. It's been said that Romero relies too much on athleticism and doesn't fight smart (this goes back to his wrestling days). He should have attacked Whittaker more ruthlessly after he hurt Whittaker's knee early in the fight with a kick.
Not too long ago a guy tried to cut in front of me in line for the bar at a fancy rooftop party. After a verbal exchange I squared up with him without even thinking. Actually, I was thinking Really?!? Do you know what you're getting into? Fortunately he backed down. It would have been extremely stupid to get in a fight over almost nothing. But those old instincts die hard.
The friend standing next to me (another scientist!) was amazed by the whole thing. I guess I was too.
3 great fights tonight (counting Jacare and Romero). Weidman vs Rockhold too close to call. I wonder whether either of them could beat peak (TRT) Vitor, though. I'm guessing Aldo might beat Conor, but not at all sure.
John Danaher discusses his coaching philosophy. Danaher trained UFC champions Georges St. Pierre and Chris Weidman, among others.
Danaher student Garry Tonon on wrestling and jiujitsu. He's shown rolling with AJ Agazarm, a former All-Big10 wrestler and no-gi BJJ world champ.
These fights are from a no-time-limit submission tournament a few years ago, featuring the top brown belts in the world. Some of the matches lasted over an hour, others ended after only 5 or 10 minutes. I like this style of competition much more than fighting for points.
I was surprised at how easily Luke Rockhold beat Lyoto Machida a few weeks ago. Once it went to the ground Rockhold completely dominated the fight.
If you're a grappler you might enjoy this video of Rockhold getting destroyed by a much smaller Rustam Chsiev at Grappler's Quest. Unbelievable how physical this match was. Luke could do nothing to Chsiev.
This will be one for the ages. I think Cormier can get inside on the taller Jones. We'll see Jones fighting off his back for the first time. I wonder what his guard is like.
In the last video Cormier is shown wrestling with Russian Olympic gold medalist Khajumurad Gatsalov.
Great interview with former Olympian (freestyle) Dan Cormier after he submitted another Olympian (greco) Dan Henderson at UFC 173 last night. I believe Cormier can beat Jon Jones. Cormier is only about 5"10 whereas Jones is 6"4 (both fighting at 205). Previous fighters have been forced by Jones to play his striking / top control game. But Cormier is smart -- he didn't get into striking exchanges with Henderson, who has a dangerous right hand. He kept the fight on the ground and dominated from the top. He can do the same to Jones. Using this strategy, he can use Jones's length against him -- we'll see Jon Jones fighting off his back for the first time. What I like about Cormier is that he is really developing his jiujitsu. Many wrestlers are unable to capitalize on top position due to lack of high level submission skills.
Great documentary of Overeem fighting in Boston and training in Ko Samui. The locations look very familiar to me even though I was last in Thailand almost 20 years ago. At the time I think I was the only guy on the island who knew any BJJ. I'm glad I didn't mix it up with any Muay Thai fighters, although I was tempted :-)
@26 min: great discussion by one of the trainers about the fast evolution of MMA techniques and tactics. @32 min, the attraction of the fight game.
The dreaded heel hook in action. Palhares has been banned from the UFC after this fight, for holding the submission too long. It doesn't actually seem that egregious to me in the video -- when the stakes are high, the fighter should not release the hold until instructed by the referee. See also Snap, Crackle, Pop.
Back in the day when grappling and BJJ were still fringe activities, I often had to travel to strange clubs to find training. It was intimidating to visit a new school where I didn't know anyone, even more so to spar with people who could easily injure me. The one submission I was most afraid of was the heel hook. The two serious injuries I sustained in years of training were from a straight armbar (juji gatame) and a heel hook, which sprained the tendons around my knee. The heel hook is much more effective on the street, where the opponent is likely to be wearing shoes and pants (escaping by pulling the leg out is much harder than in MMA), although there are also reasons not to pull guard in a street fight.
Palhares reportedly cried at the weigh-in after a hard cut to 170 lbs. In the past he's fought at 185 and probably walks around at 200 or so.
Love this guy -- especially his attitude and his unorthodox striking style. Very good cage smarts and mental game.
Don't know how he'd do against a good wrestler. So far I'd say he's only fought scrubs. Too early to tell, but right now he's got nothing for fighters like Aldo or Edgar.
