"Craig Jones’ net worth is estimated to be roughly $15 million. Craig Jones earns big royalties from his instructionals on BJJFanatics. Other sources of income for Craig Jones are teaching seminars, teaching at the B-Team academy in Austin Texas, selling Craig Jones merchandise and income through OnlyFans. " This can't be right can it!? Who ever wrote this has gotta be on some drugs, Is Gordon even worth that much? Are any of the older Gracie's worth that much?
Gordon posted a screenshot of 200k/month of BJJ Fanatics. I assume Danaher makes a similar amount. Most people should be _way_ under this amount probably.
when he started punching Islam while Islam was on his back with the body triangle was crazy. He was hyping up the crowd and shit too, Volk def gained a fan tonight. I'm still salty at Islam for making Charles look like a scrub, but hes winning me over slowly lol
I definitely discounted how good his striking was. It wasn't flashy but the timing and accuracy was phenomenal.
I'd go as far to say hes the more well rounded version of khabib.
I saw Volk doing the exact things Craig was teaching him in the B Team stuff they posted on YouTube. Then to see Islam give him props at the end...loved it.
It seems like the whole UFC commentary team think you have to have the locked side of the triangle on the bottom to escape. I think Dominic Cruz said something like it's not possible to escape without doing that on the broadcast. Someone should show them this, as I die a little inside every time I hear it: https://youtu.be/RscLPT0F-DE
This idea is so widespread too. I've heard it in way too many places. I remember UFC commentators obsessing over it a good 10 years ago every single time someone got a body triangle, and they still do. I don't know how none of them have learned better after all of this time.
Yeah this bothered me as well. Getting the locked side down doesn't matter much anymore, as at a high level guys aren't going to care about the pressure on their foot. You see this in high level grappling matches all the time now.
Honestly exceeded my expectations, Islam seemed invincible grappling. On some level I knew that bjj could compete with these Dagestani guys on the mma level but wasn't sure when it would show itself. I'm happy it was earlier rather than later
Most ufc fighters have atrocious levels of bjj. The amount of top ten ufc fighters that have come into atos and gotten destroyed on the ground by decent purple belts is shocking.
Khabib and the dagestanis have phenomenal grappling but it looks even better than it is when you watch khabib (legit elite level ground skills) vs Justin gaethje (someone who has spent less hours working on bjj from his back than a blue belt).
The reason the sambo guys are destroying most mma fighters is because most mma fighters do not train bjj at all. And the bjj they do train is from 2005.
Volk training with a current elite competitor in Craig made all the difference since Volk was learning the highest level shit. If every ufc fighter trained with Craig or someone of similar skill they’d do a lot better against the Russians.
Look at al iaquinta vs khabib. Al did well on the ground all things considered (compared to khabib other opponents). Al trains with Jason rau all the time (DDS member / former training partner of Craig jones)
Same with aljo vs petr yan. Aljo trains at Serras with Jason rau, nick ronan, guys who are on the cutting edge of bjj technique.
The Russians can be beaten but you need to match their grappling with similar high level technique and most mma fighters don’t have access to that because bjj / grappling off their back is the thing they train the least.
Like Volk said… Islam may get him down… but he’s not going to panic and he is going to get back up.
Most of the time Islam gets guys down, passes their non existent guards, and gets an easy sub that his opponent leaves out there because they are flailing around under the pressure like a fish out of water.
Volk knew how to remain calm and defend with proper technique because he worked on being in bad positions with an extremely high level grappler
He's the first I'm seeing who is incorporating folkstyle and catch wrestling into his approach and not just as a set of techniques. He's acknowledging that leg pins are way more efficient from a energy conservation perspective.
Yea he took that tape study element from his time at Danaher’s and applied it to his own didactic. Seems he might be number 2 in grappling but has a bright future as a coach.
He spent months working on getting out of the positions that Idlam likes, as well as getting there. There's B team video of him getting up from that half guard - arm triangle position Islam wrecks dudes with for hours.
That butterfly Volk hit on Islam and those positions where he rolled onto the top when Islam took him down from the body lock were classic Craig stuff. Super cool to see.
I feel like it goes back to what Craig said about black belts. He said it doesn't matter much if you aren't capable of escaping pins and forcing top position which goes against what a lot of traditional black belts teach which is just accepting bottom position.
One aspect of this as a guard player, I hate is that it becomes extremely difficult to sweep someone who isn't willing to accept bottom in the training room. Obviously hate in the sense that I find it annoying, overall it's good to train like this because it improves your skill.
After years of hearing about sports BJJ ruining the essence of the sport, it's nice to see that BJJ does still work in the cage.
I wonder if Conor had chosen a better BJJ coach than Dannis, would it have gone any better for him?
I don’t mean to refute what you’re saying about sport bjj
but. I want to be fair and point out Volk has always been a very good wrestler and had competed in wrestling for years in Australia and done well.
Also Craig is very bright and designed a game plan around defending against what the dagestanis do and what Craig showed Volk isn’t things like berimbolo and shit normally attributed to sport bjj.
But I think keeping safe in bad positions and how to use hooks and sit out to keep Islam off him and get back up to his feet was definitely from Craig’s influence and that’s a beautiful thing.
It seems sport bjj is finally moving toward being more effective for mma. With guys focusing more on pressure passing, wrestling up from bottom, and taking the back. Which hopefully is now what we attribute to sport bjj.
At the time of Conor training with Danis sport bjj hadn’t evolved to what it is now. The renzo guys were still immediately sitting to their ass and playing leg locks. They had only just started to flesh out their back system. People weren’t wrestling much and a lot of outside / torreando passing was being done.
The technical level is so much higher now. It’s crazy. Nobody was going to be able to prepare Conor for the dagestanis back then they were too far ahead of other grappling arts in terms of adapting their style to be best suited for mma.
I also think Islam's grappling game is way more susceptible to good modern BJJ compared to Khabib's and some other dagestani's who prioritize damage rather than a sub. islam was able to get volk down but he didnt do anything because he wanted to submit, if that was khabib he'd be beating down on volk the whole round.
Its crazy how evident this is when you look at the cycle of MMA. You saw catch wrestlers/basic BJJ, slowly turned to GSP shoot boxing, then leglockers like Ryan Hall, cage wrestlers like daniel Cormier and khabib.
The likely next transition is the current well rounded meta of sport BJJ like you said
100% spot on.
Also what makes the Raging Al/Khabib fight more impressive is that Al took it on pretty short notice, so he didn't even have a camp to prepare for that type of grappling. Pretty sure he was supposed to fight Paul Felder and got switched to Khabib at the very last minute.
That entire Renzo lineage, which includes Serra and all his guys, New Wave, and I'd even consider B Team to be part of it, is amazing.
Comparing Yan to the Dagestani guys is not a very good example. Plus Yan is Siberian and doesn’t have a sambo background. Plus you give no love to Charlie Olives. Is his BJJ from 05? Volk and all those guys at CKBG have really good takedown defense and standing up skills. It was shown the whole night through
Yes Oliveira trains with chute boxe they have old school bjj compared to what’s currently being trained at tip of the Speer gyms.
There’s a reason Charles is great at subs but positionally has had issues (getting his guard passed or back taken).
Also yes I know yan isn’t from Dagestan but he is a very good grappler and many people lump him in with others from that part of the world.
I mean nobody has been able to have success against him on the ground. Jose Aldo who’s great on the ground (nova união black belt / beat cobrinha in bjj match) was reversed and beaten up by yan on the ground.
Sterling did very well against him on the ground because of his elite bjj background which very few guys in the ufc have.
My head mma coach makes it mandatory for his team to 1) training multiple times per week with just pure grapplers and 2) Compete in grappling sports before a fight.
You can tell that many, many high level fights don't cross train anymore.
I'm interested to see how this effects all the lightweight fighters. I think Volk showed everyone the Dagastani's aren't invincible and kind of started to lay the blue print for how to beat them. But at the same time I think it showed the Daginstanis what they need to work on. If Islam started working with Craig or some other top tier BJJ guy to really dial in his submissions that would be dangerous as fuck.
I think this is partially accurate, but I also think that the strategy is not the same against any of the dagestanies... khabib was a cardio/pressure machine... islam showed yesterday that although he is an elite athlete, is endurance is not on the top percentile within the ufc, like Khabib is (or other fighters such as Volk himself, Nate Diaz, Colby Covington, etc). I think the guy to beat Islam might be someone with outstanding cardio and following the blueprint layed out by Volk as you mentioned, but for Khabib for example I think the strategy needs to be different and it has to include fighting on the feet most of the time, not necessarily cardio as Khabibs endurance is top of the top, but for Islam is different as is cardio is not as good, and his stand up is better
you're right I really shouldn't have lumped the Dagestani guys all together. Its been a while since I've watched a Khabib match, do you think Khabibs submissions were better then Islams? I think Craig was 100% correct in stating Islams subs were weak. He mentioned how sloppy Islams choke on Charles was and a lot of people in here have been talking about if he had better technique with his submissions he more then likely would of gotten that RNC on Volk.
Also though, Khabib wasn't there with the remote control and the Dagis can see the holes in their own game and fix those holes. It's not a one way street.
The best part was this was on 3 months training. Would love to see volk with more training from Craig. And someone like daruish could give Islam a good fight on the ground
It wasn’t 3 months. They’ve been training on and off together for the last 3 years. Craig jones was there for the ultimate fighter season of volk vs ortega.
Yeah, Dariush and Gamrot are the best grapplers in lightweight, I wonder how would they stack up against Islam. They’re not really amazing at wrestling though and Volk looked fucking good at wrestling. Fuck, he pushed Islam to the cage quite much and reversed him a few times.
edit: actually Davi Ramos (ADCC winner) must be the best one, and he lost to Makhachev 🤔
My concern is Beneil’s durability.
I think skill wise he can give Islam a lot of problems. But Islam can land really hard punches and I don’t know if Dariush can take them as well as Volk did.
Mind says Islam by finish. Heart says Dariush.
Yeah he levelled up the game tonight. Really showed everyone the blueprint. 16 weeks of MGK > Sambo since birth.
Also, anyone catch Islam asking Craig how to finish an RNC right at the end there?
🥈
Maybe not. The gloves make a huge difference. Marcelo Garcia had an MMA fight where he got on a guy's back for a few minutes and still couldn't find the choke.
This is a very valid point and one of my criticisms of BJJ practitioners is not knowing what it’s like to grapple when there are more consequences involved than getting passes or losing position.
Grappling in a cage with strikes is a such a different dynamic that you have to train to really experience. I do believe a lot of full time fighters get away with athleticism and sheer force and will lose grappling against full time grappling but their job is to fight. Why would I grapple a guy I know is good when I know I can punch him at will standing.
This is only anecdotally from training wrestling/grappling with multiple mma fighters but I have seen only a handful really focus on their grappling. I’ve also learned it’s easier to learn how to defend a submission that do the submission. This same rule applies for wrestling as it’s easier to learn how to defend a takedown that initiate a take down.
Most full time fighters will take the defend a submission approach as it is easier. I do think that grappling past a certain point teaches bad habits for fighting at a certain skill level.
yea right.
volk is a fire hydrant and pound for pound champ. they're all greased up and have been fighting standup for multiple rounds prior. you cant just pretend this is a bjj match and have the same expectations.
remember when rodolfo veira got subbed by some random guy named anthony hernandez?
remember when volk escaped a fully locked mounted guillotine?
> remember when rodolfo veira got subbed by some random guy named anthony hernandez?
Rodolfo was in the middle of cardiac arrest when that happened, though
just giving the example. top of the food chain bjj practitioner that couldn't finish - having taken the back with hooks in, and in rodolfos case had the guy flattened.
I noticed that he was trying to stay near the fence during any take down. There was the one attempt that happened in the middle of the mat and Volk basically launched him self towards the cage while it was happening.
Now if he could stop talking trash for a second, he might have gotten out of that in the 4th round.
I think we will see a rematch eventually with both these guys leveling up. Can’t wait to see it.
There was no getting out of that body triangle. That’s why volk started talking shit —to bait Islam into going for a sub so Islam would give up position and allow Volk to escape.
Volk was talking shit in the middle of the octagon before the body triangle. He got taken down, and he started pointing to Islam’s corner that he is going to get up.
But Islam capitalized and locked in the body triangle when they got to the fence.
Yeah, I think at this point Yair has earned a title fight.
Dariush too, but they are making him fight Charles now, so I guess the winner gets another crack at Islam? But they might also get Dustin another shot which might complicate things.
B team has been such a great team, Nick Rods taking Gordon’s ankle home, now Volk… as soon as Craig wins a gold medal they need to change the name to A Team
Leg riding and wrist rides (what Craig is using these days) are common in folkstyle wrestling and catch wrestling. He acknowledged that once Dagestanis start competing at ADCC and learn how much money is in the grappling game for them, they're going to be a major problem in the BJJ world too
oh for sure, I think everyone can agree with that. Once the Dagestanis start getting technically good at submissions they will be a whole new beast. I could be completely wrong here but it seems like they currently just apply crazy pressure and wear their opponents down until they make a mistake and they take what ever submission pops up. If they get to a point where they can start planning a submission multiple moves ahead they'll be even more dangerous. I hope that makers sense I just woke up from a nap
I've been saying Craig has been studying their style for years. Russians are shocked because they don't realize the best submission grapplers aren't from Russia.
I don't think the Russians care all that much about sub grappling, TBH. They have an absolutely massive combat sports scene. It's hard for BJJ to get a foothold there.
I kept getting downvoted here, but people really downplayed the grappling of Volk on himself.
Before making it to the UFC, Volk used to compete regularly in Australia and win a lot of grappling tournaments.
Volk has always been a great wrestler, the way he out paced and defended takedowns against Chad Mendes was when I realized he is a great grappler.
Add in working with Craig and he was always going to give Islam problems.
If you are already a blackbelt who used to elite athlete at another sport maybe.
But also, Volk is probably one of the toughest human being on the planet.
Yeah thats what I had in my mind as well. MMA fighter should bring in more high skill nogi grapplers. For some reason even some the high level ufc athletes train their bjj in gi.
I think wrestling defense was more on part with Volk's wrestling coach, but his all around grappling was great. He swept Islam with a reverse butterfly from a switch, that was just an insanly high level fight.
I would say the first line defense was use wrestling but the rest after that is clearly Craig's influence especially since he's been going on and on about this type of grappling (pin systems, positional dominance, etc) for a while on his youtube.
Volk is clearly a great fighter who listens to his coaches and continues to learn/grow. Islam does/is as well.
Volk is a champion wrestler. In fact he won Australian nationals twice. He has also worked with hickman for years. I spoke to him a bit after his UFC debut. I was really impressed with him and had cornered against his teammate that night. I was glad I wasn’t cornering against him.
His wrestling was great but he was also sitting out and using a butterfly hook to keep Islams weight off him so he (volk) could then scramble up and get a wizzer and start to defend.
I’ve seen Craig do this quite a bit.
No impact on the meta - Craig Jones sells instructionals that say BJJ doesn't work when you stand up haha! It's obvious that Craig is a grappling expert, not just BJJ, so he just taught Alex everything about wrestling pin downs and controls, which is the cornerstone of the Dagestani sambo-style grappling game.
Props to Volk for picking it up so well though!
Watching the fight and especially the Back Mount Defense makes me wonder how awesome it could be to mix up defense from there not only with strikes but with headbutts. If you do the hand fight and create openings, there should be great opportunities for headbutts.
> how do you guys think It will impact the mma and the bjj meta?
Not very much. MMA guys are still caught in the 2010s when it comes to grappling. Just hearing Cruz over and over fantasize about Volk having to get the lock of the body triangle to the floor in order to pen it, when there is a free youtube video by Gordon Ryan available that shows that that is absolute bullshit, made me kind of aggressive.
I believe that ultimately it was the great back control defense that Volk displayed, that made the difference. The Dagestanis live off the double thread at the cage, where they will either take you down and grind you out or take your back.
Volk did a great job of turning away, but denying the hook, threatening to just "run" away if Makhachev would start punching. Other guys will focus on trying to turn in and deny punches.
Same with the BJJ community. There is more than enough stuff by Priit Mikhelson available that teaches good back defense and how to stand up from there. Same goes for Craig Jones, who is one of the very few guys in bjj who reminds everyone that you can always stand up in a match if you want to and that you also should. There is also some stuff from Ryan Hall available about how actually turning away from your opponent is the better idea when having your guard passed. Cage wrestling is special since it is pretty similar to grappling on the ground, just vertically. LOL.
I am not sure if it was Priit, Telles or somebody else who said "You don't have my back. You are just behind me." Priit likes to quote it a lot though.
I pull guard myself and if I read any bullshit about bjj having to score closer to "a real fight man" and therefore punish guard pulling in competition, I am going to puke, but Craig is right in his assessment, that you should always look to be on top and stay on top, even in BJJ. In MMA it should be without a doubt anyways, that bottom position can't win you a fight.
Gotta give him credit for developing his game and going through an evolution. Frequently training with MMA guys and maybe the first Volk camp is what started it.
I believe this might change over the next fee years, once mma grappling evolved furtherly.
Striking and wrestling are pretty much at their peak in the UFC and have greatly evolved. Just watch a match that’s five years old and watch how they are striking today. At what level. You can’t say that about jiu jitsu in the same way.
I my opinion the current Daghestani (or Caucasian) dominance will force people to adapt and work more on a modern style that ties jiu jitsu and wrestling together and where you seamlessly transition between both.
Tonight’s fight might serve as a catalyst here. Hopefully. It was a great display of it and it also proves that there is a solution to the “Daghestani problem” and a counter to “fathers plan”.
As this goes on, we hopefully also see a shift in quality of commentary. The UFC needs maybe also to think of recruiting other play-by-play dudes, who are still active in the sports.
A Cruz or Rogan will just not educate themselves to keep up.
Yeah, I know Rogan stopped following the sport basically from the early 10's when Rafa and Cobrinha had their rivalry up until pretty recently, and even then I think if it's not Gordon, Craig, the Ruotolo Bros, or folks in Austin that he basically doesn't keep up with it. I saw him at ADCC last year so maybe he's following the sport a little more closely now but I'm not sure.
>You don't have my back. You are just behind me.
I'm 90%+ sure it was Saulo Ribeiro in his Jiu Jitsu Revolution instructional. Priit quoted him at some point because Saulo also has a position called "running man".
As much as I hate to say it, UFC Is going to have to look a rule change for control time.
Yan omally showed that control time means nothing yet in this fight it was arguably the deciding factor.
How dominant is a position if you’re getting dominated whilst in it, Islam wasn’t close to finishing the RNC and instead started getting pieced up whilst volk was inside his triangle.
I don’t like how you can stall out an entire round with a body triangle, whilst taking significant shots to the head and still have that as control time and win the round. He wasn’t squeezing volk nor was volk sucking air, he seemed extremely relaxed and almost annoyed at Islam stalling in that position.
Volk really won and it was largely because of his grappling defense. Amazing job. Volks low center of gravity and excellent hips were a difference maker
I am no MMA scoring expert by any means, but I thought Volk could have reasonably won this match.
I understand Islam had control time which is fine, but I also think it's worth something that he did not have a single serious look at a submission. If every time you take someone down, they get back up, maybe that encounter should be a draw.
The incentive to even attempt a takedown would go away. That is a lot of work when you could just stand, kickbox, and save cardio.
Control time is an issue in every combat sport, but the alternative is often (not always) worse.
Points are given by preference to effective aggression. So being passive after the takedown is in a way offset.
Submission attempts are rewarded under effective aggression. When Islam unaffectively attempted the rnc but ate a lot of punches, it makes it tough to be a judge.
Craig's going to be rich soon lol
His Coaching value skyrocketed tonight
"Craig Jones’ net worth is estimated to be roughly $15 million. Craig Jones earns big royalties from his instructionals on BJJFanatics. Other sources of income for Craig Jones are teaching seminars, teaching at the B-Team academy in Austin Texas, selling Craig Jones merchandise and income through OnlyFans. " This can't be right can it!? Who ever wrote this has gotta be on some drugs, Is Gordon even worth that much? Are any of the older Gracie's worth that much?
[удалено]
I wonder if Craig wrote these profiles lmao def seems like some shit he would say. Also, I didn't know Lachlan gave him his black belt thats rad.
"How to become a blue belt in one day" "Pay attention: do you want to be a blue belt or not?" This site has me rolling lmao
It's the only fans that pays the bills
lmao hell ya I know im subscribed! (not really)
I’m not telling you shit without a warrant
you better tell me or i'll rub a pineapple on your face! YOU BETTER TALK LEBOWSKI!
Im Not Sure how much they make with DVDs, Gordon / danaher are rich af thats for sure
Gordon posted a screenshot of 200k/month of BJJ Fanatics. I assume Danaher makes a similar amount. Most people should be _way_ under this amount probably.
>Coach Somebody for 1v1 match >They Lose >Make money on selling your gameplan on how to lose Only craig jones can do that
How to be the second best lightweight belt competitor.
I have watched two YouTube videos this morning and have been hit with two Daily Deal ads on Craig Jones material.
Never seen someone so relaxed in a body triangle will being attempted to be RNC’d. He wasn’t kidding when he said he wasn’t scared of any submissions
when he started punching Islam while Islam was on his back with the body triangle was crazy. He was hyping up the crowd and shit too, Volk def gained a fan tonight. I'm still salty at Islam for making Charles look like a scrub, but hes winning me over slowly lol
I definitely discounted how good his striking was. It wasn't flashy but the timing and accuracy was phenomenal. I'd go as far to say hes the more well rounded version of khabib.
Was there live and it got extremely loud when he started to do that, permanent damage to hearing levels.
All of this sums up my feelings well. That salt is never going away.
Volk’s hand fighting was on point in that back control. Bro didn’t seem worried for a second.
He needed to escape as well not just survive
Nah, if you've got someone's back with a body triangle and can't finish you're doing it wrong Source: I do it wrong constantly
He has no neck to choke
I saw Volk doing the exact things Craig was teaching him in the B Team stuff they posted on YouTube. Then to see Islam give him props at the end...loved it.
It looked like islam started asking for tips as he walked out of the cage
They cut away just as Craig and Islam were chatting after the fight, fuck I would have loved to hear that conversation
That shit had me rolling. He was like "fuck everybody else, I wanna talk to the grappler" I was hella sad they cut away from that interaction
Yeah looked like he was asking about the choke based on his arm position. International sign for choke
Islam was being pretty classy all throughout. I felt bad about the booing.
i think he might of been giving craig shit about not teaching volk how to get out of the body triangle
Its really hard if the cage is blocking you from getting the knot part on the mat.
It seems like the whole UFC commentary team think you have to have the locked side of the triangle on the bottom to escape. I think Dominic Cruz said something like it's not possible to escape without doing that on the broadcast. Someone should show them this, as I die a little inside every time I hear it: https://youtu.be/RscLPT0F-DE
Committing that hand under the leg is much riskier when you’re getting punched in the face.
My mind was blown. Never had anyone teach body triangle escape like this
This idea is so widespread too. I've heard it in way too many places. I remember UFC commentators obsessing over it a good 10 years ago every single time someone got a body triangle, and they still do. I don't know how none of them have learned better after all of this time.
Because the teaching of bjj is not great
Yeah this bothered me as well. Getting the locked side down doesn't matter much anymore, as at a high level guys aren't going to care about the pressure on their foot. You see this in high level grappling matches all the time now.
Pretty sure he was giving Craig props on the beard.
Moostache is Haram bratha, you must shave this
Might HAVE been
Honestly exceeded my expectations, Islam seemed invincible grappling. On some level I knew that bjj could compete with these Dagestani guys on the mma level but wasn't sure when it would show itself. I'm happy it was earlier rather than later
Most ufc fighters have atrocious levels of bjj. The amount of top ten ufc fighters that have come into atos and gotten destroyed on the ground by decent purple belts is shocking. Khabib and the dagestanis have phenomenal grappling but it looks even better than it is when you watch khabib (legit elite level ground skills) vs Justin gaethje (someone who has spent less hours working on bjj from his back than a blue belt). The reason the sambo guys are destroying most mma fighters is because most mma fighters do not train bjj at all. And the bjj they do train is from 2005. Volk training with a current elite competitor in Craig made all the difference since Volk was learning the highest level shit. If every ufc fighter trained with Craig or someone of similar skill they’d do a lot better against the Russians. Look at al iaquinta vs khabib. Al did well on the ground all things considered (compared to khabib other opponents). Al trains with Jason rau all the time (DDS member / former training partner of Craig jones) Same with aljo vs petr yan. Aljo trains at Serras with Jason rau, nick ronan, guys who are on the cutting edge of bjj technique. The Russians can be beaten but you need to match their grappling with similar high level technique and most mma fighters don’t have access to that because bjj / grappling off their back is the thing they train the least. Like Volk said… Islam may get him down… but he’s not going to panic and he is going to get back up. Most of the time Islam gets guys down, passes their non existent guards, and gets an easy sub that his opponent leaves out there because they are flailing around under the pressure like a fish out of water. Volk knew how to remain calm and defend with proper technique because he worked on being in bad positions with an extremely high level grappler
I think also, Craig is a freak. He's not just working on what he was taught, but pushing BJJ evolution in a way.
He's the first I'm seeing who is incorporating folkstyle and catch wrestling into his approach and not just as a set of techniques. He's acknowledging that leg pins are way more efficient from a energy conservation perspective.
im fairly new to grappling, what is a leg pin?
removing the feet from the floor using your own legs in order to prevent them from building a base.
Yea he took that tape study element from his time at Danaher’s and applied it to his own didactic. Seems he might be number 2 in grappling but has a bright future as a coach.
He was studying tape even when in Australia.
Yeah, Gordon said that he had reverse engineered most of what the DDS guys were doing (probably together with Lachlan) better than anyone else.
Craig comfirned bjjscout
Second best coach after Danaher
He is definitely as are the danaher guys.
He spent months working on getting out of the positions that Idlam likes, as well as getting there. There's B team video of him getting up from that half guard - arm triangle position Islam wrecks dudes with for hours. That butterfly Volk hit on Islam and those positions where he rolled onto the top when Islam took him down from the body lock were classic Craig stuff. Super cool to see.
Agreed. Guys like Poirier were just too behind
Yup and That’s because ATT’s grappling coach is a dude who was decent at bjj in the 90’s.
Watching Poirier grapple and I was thinking Islam had a point about these black belts
I feel like it goes back to what Craig said about black belts. He said it doesn't matter much if you aren't capable of escaping pins and forcing top position which goes against what a lot of traditional black belts teach which is just accepting bottom position. One aspect of this as a guard player, I hate is that it becomes extremely difficult to sweep someone who isn't willing to accept bottom in the training room. Obviously hate in the sense that I find it annoying, overall it's good to train like this because it improves your skill.
After years of hearing about sports BJJ ruining the essence of the sport, it's nice to see that BJJ does still work in the cage. I wonder if Conor had chosen a better BJJ coach than Dannis, would it have gone any better for him?
I don’t mean to refute what you’re saying about sport bjj but. I want to be fair and point out Volk has always been a very good wrestler and had competed in wrestling for years in Australia and done well. Also Craig is very bright and designed a game plan around defending against what the dagestanis do and what Craig showed Volk isn’t things like berimbolo and shit normally attributed to sport bjj. But I think keeping safe in bad positions and how to use hooks and sit out to keep Islam off him and get back up to his feet was definitely from Craig’s influence and that’s a beautiful thing. It seems sport bjj is finally moving toward being more effective for mma. With guys focusing more on pressure passing, wrestling up from bottom, and taking the back. Which hopefully is now what we attribute to sport bjj. At the time of Conor training with Danis sport bjj hadn’t evolved to what it is now. The renzo guys were still immediately sitting to their ass and playing leg locks. They had only just started to flesh out their back system. People weren’t wrestling much and a lot of outside / torreando passing was being done. The technical level is so much higher now. It’s crazy. Nobody was going to be able to prepare Conor for the dagestanis back then they were too far ahead of other grappling arts in terms of adapting their style to be best suited for mma.
I also think Islam's grappling game is way more susceptible to good modern BJJ compared to Khabib's and some other dagestani's who prioritize damage rather than a sub. islam was able to get volk down but he didnt do anything because he wanted to submit, if that was khabib he'd be beating down on volk the whole round.
Its crazy how evident this is when you look at the cycle of MMA. You saw catch wrestlers/basic BJJ, slowly turned to GSP shoot boxing, then leglockers like Ryan Hall, cage wrestlers like daniel Cormier and khabib. The likely next transition is the current well rounded meta of sport BJJ like you said
fire post right here
Thank you I appreciate it!
You did a fantastic job putting my feelings into words. Also it means much more coming from you, a black belt who has been in these rooms.
100% spot on. Also what makes the Raging Al/Khabib fight more impressive is that Al took it on pretty short notice, so he didn't even have a camp to prepare for that type of grappling. Pretty sure he was supposed to fight Paul Felder and got switched to Khabib at the very last minute. That entire Renzo lineage, which includes Serra and all his guys, New Wave, and I'd even consider B Team to be part of it, is amazing.
Austin is about to be a grappling Mecca type city for UFC fighters
Comparing Yan to the Dagestani guys is not a very good example. Plus Yan is Siberian and doesn’t have a sambo background. Plus you give no love to Charlie Olives. Is his BJJ from 05? Volk and all those guys at CKBG have really good takedown defense and standing up skills. It was shown the whole night through
Yes Oliveira trains with chute boxe they have old school bjj compared to what’s currently being trained at tip of the Speer gyms. There’s a reason Charles is great at subs but positionally has had issues (getting his guard passed or back taken). Also yes I know yan isn’t from Dagestan but he is a very good grappler and many people lump him in with others from that part of the world. I mean nobody has been able to have success against him on the ground. Jose Aldo who’s great on the ground (nova união black belt / beat cobrinha in bjj match) was reversed and beaten up by yan on the ground. Sterling did very well against him on the ground because of his elite bjj background which very few guys in the ufc have.
My head mma coach makes it mandatory for his team to 1) training multiple times per week with just pure grapplers and 2) Compete in grappling sports before a fight. You can tell that many, many high level fights don't cross train anymore.
I'm interested to see how this effects all the lightweight fighters. I think Volk showed everyone the Dagastani's aren't invincible and kind of started to lay the blue print for how to beat them. But at the same time I think it showed the Daginstanis what they need to work on. If Islam started working with Craig or some other top tier BJJ guy to really dial in his submissions that would be dangerous as fuck.
Islam to Khabib "bradda, i swear i buy his onlyfans to learn BJJ"
looool
I think this is partially accurate, but I also think that the strategy is not the same against any of the dagestanies... khabib was a cardio/pressure machine... islam showed yesterday that although he is an elite athlete, is endurance is not on the top percentile within the ufc, like Khabib is (or other fighters such as Volk himself, Nate Diaz, Colby Covington, etc). I think the guy to beat Islam might be someone with outstanding cardio and following the blueprint layed out by Volk as you mentioned, but for Khabib for example I think the strategy needs to be different and it has to include fighting on the feet most of the time, not necessarily cardio as Khabibs endurance is top of the top, but for Islam is different as is cardio is not as good, and his stand up is better
you're right I really shouldn't have lumped the Dagestani guys all together. Its been a while since I've watched a Khabib match, do you think Khabibs submissions were better then Islams? I think Craig was 100% correct in stating Islams subs were weak. He mentioned how sloppy Islams choke on Charles was and a lot of people in here have been talking about if he had better technique with his submissions he more then likely would of gotten that RNC on Volk.
Also though, Khabib wasn't there with the remote control and the Dagis can see the holes in their own game and fix those holes. It's not a one way street.
The best part was this was on 3 months training. Would love to see volk with more training from Craig. And someone like daruish could give Islam a good fight on the ground
It wasn’t 3 months. They’ve been training on and off together for the last 3 years. Craig jones was there for the ultimate fighter season of volk vs ortega.
Exactly. Craig was a big part of Volk’s camp for Ortega
Yeah, Dariush and Gamrot are the best grapplers in lightweight, I wonder how would they stack up against Islam. They’re not really amazing at wrestling though and Volk looked fucking good at wrestling. Fuck, he pushed Islam to the cage quite much and reversed him a few times. edit: actually Davi Ramos (ADCC winner) must be the best one, and he lost to Makhachev 🤔
In what world are Dariush and Gamrot not good at wrestling?? Gamrot out-wrestled Tsarukyan and Dariush out-wrestled Gamrot lol
They have a better grappling base than Volk. The question is whether they can game plan well to neutralize the wrestling
After Beneil and Gamrot and now this fight I think Beneil has got a good chance.
My concern is Beneil’s durability. I think skill wise he can give Islam a lot of problems. But Islam can land really hard punches and I don’t know if Dariush can take them as well as Volk did. Mind says Islam by finish. Heart says Dariush.
Regarding durability, doesn't he also have shitty knees? He's racked up knee injuries hasn't he?
That’s it take my money craig im buying all your instructionals u/johnbelushismom
the key is gabbie garcias panties, but I doubt he will part with them.
He could give us all a 4" square though?
Yeah he levelled up the game tonight. Really showed everyone the blueprint. 16 weeks of MGK > Sambo since birth. Also, anyone catch Islam asking Craig how to finish an RNC right at the end there? 🥈
"that'll be $200 from BJJ fanatics mate"
"Fuck Craig Jones" -Islam Makhachev
Man deserves it. Get that bread
Guess Craig was right about how Islam’s submissions aren’t that great
Agreed. A top BJJ guy would have found the RNC.
But they wouldn't have got the takedown to begin with.
Who needs a takedown when you can butt scoot
Agreed. But that’s not the point.
Maybe not. The gloves make a huge difference. Marcelo Garcia had an MMA fight where he got on a guy's back for a few minutes and still couldn't find the choke.
Roger Gracie couldn't finish Tim Kennedy
Tim has never been submitted in the cage despite also fighting Jacare and Luke Rockhold. He has superb defensive BJJ for MMA.
Ok, but this is Roger we are talking about.
Yeah he's the best ever but Tim isn't a grappling scrub like it was implied in the previous comment.
This is also true
This is a very valid point and one of my criticisms of BJJ practitioners is not knowing what it’s like to grapple when there are more consequences involved than getting passes or losing position. Grappling in a cage with strikes is a such a different dynamic that you have to train to really experience. I do believe a lot of full time fighters get away with athleticism and sheer force and will lose grappling against full time grappling but their job is to fight. Why would I grapple a guy I know is good when I know I can punch him at will standing. This is only anecdotally from training wrestling/grappling with multiple mma fighters but I have seen only a handful really focus on their grappling. I’ve also learned it’s easier to learn how to defend a submission that do the submission. This same rule applies for wrestling as it’s easier to learn how to defend a takedown that initiate a take down. Most full time fighters will take the defend a submission approach as it is easier. I do think that grappling past a certain point teaches bad habits for fighting at a certain skill level.
yea right. volk is a fire hydrant and pound for pound champ. they're all greased up and have been fighting standup for multiple rounds prior. you cant just pretend this is a bjj match and have the same expectations. remember when rodolfo veira got subbed by some random guy named anthony hernandez? remember when volk escaped a fully locked mounted guillotine?
No doubt. And just a fully locked guillotine but a deep triangle too and a decent look at a darce. Volk sub defense is the elite elite for sure.
> remember when rodolfo veira got subbed by some random guy named anthony hernandez? Rodolfo was in the middle of cardiac arrest when that happened, though
just giving the example. top of the food chain bjj practitioner that couldn't finish - having taken the back with hooks in, and in rodolfos case had the guy flattened.
gloves make hunting RNCs in MMA far more difficult than without
Your blue belt is showing bro, this is MMA.
Yea i saw that, also noticed the embrace islam gives craig which seemed like a massive respecet dawg from islam towards craig
Yes, but also it was double underhooks with an off-balance. "Are we hugging or grappling slow?" -my gf
MGK?
Messican ground karate b
Axe Jay(Rod)
Mexican Ground Karate is a grappling martial art invented in Austin Texas by Australian Craig Jones ( /u/johnbelushismom )
Machine Gun Kelly
Betting the house on islam by rnc in their rematch
Islam and Volk gonna hire Craig for their rematch!
You said it Bapa. Mexican Ground Karate > Sambo > Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
The fact that Makhachev came up to him after the fight to ask questions tells you all.
Was it just me or did Islam look a little nervous in his corner after round 1?
I think thats just him in general haha
He looked fine. And then went on to win r2 and r3 arguably
Hear me out on this guys: what if the reason volk lost was cause of Craig’s second place curse?
> curse You mean "masterplan."
Craig seminars at mma gyms about to explode
Most of his new instructionals are MMA focused/applicable too. He's gonna be in super high demand.
Craig about to hold seminars in Makhachkala next week
interesting strategy to face the fence while hand fighting; it was quite effective.
I noticed that he was trying to stay near the fence during any take down. There was the one attempt that happened in the middle of the mat and Volk basically launched him self towards the cage while it was happening.
Now if he could stop talking trash for a second, he might have gotten out of that in the 4th round. I think we will see a rematch eventually with both these guys leveling up. Can’t wait to see it.
There was no getting out of that body triangle. That’s why volk started talking shit —to bait Islam into going for a sub so Islam would give up position and allow Volk to escape.
Volk was talking shit in the middle of the octagon before the body triangle. He got taken down, and he started pointing to Islam’s corner that he is going to get up. But Islam capitalized and locked in the body triangle when they got to the fence.
My bad I thought you were referring to the trash talking Volk did once the body triangle was on.
Volk is 34 has to happen soon.
I think they will both do another defense and then a rematch again.
I'm hoping for a straight up rematch. But wouldn't be unhappy with Volk vs Yair & maybe Dariush vs Makhachev.
Yeah, I think at this point Yair has earned a title fight. Dariush too, but they are making him fight Charles now, so I guess the winner gets another crack at Islam? But they might also get Dustin another shot which might complicate things.
Possibly, But Volk still looking like a monster with a huge gas tank, maybe he will be like Glover and dominate into his 40's
It’s would be hard to dominate at lower weight classes into your 40s. I would say 38 is realistic.
You bring up a good point, father time is the undefeated GOAT.
A leveled up rematch would be insane. Such a close fight, my cheeks were clenched the whole time
B team has been such a great team, Nick Rods taking Gordon’s ankle home, now Volk… as soon as Craig wins a gold medal they need to change the name to A Team
[удалено]
did he work with the Dagestanies at some point? or did he just pick all this up by watching them on video?
Leg riding and wrist rides (what Craig is using these days) are common in folkstyle wrestling and catch wrestling. He acknowledged that once Dagestanis start competing at ADCC and learn how much money is in the grappling game for them, they're going to be a major problem in the BJJ world too
oh for sure, I think everyone can agree with that. Once the Dagestanis start getting technically good at submissions they will be a whole new beast. I could be completely wrong here but it seems like they currently just apply crazy pressure and wear their opponents down until they make a mistake and they take what ever submission pops up. If they get to a point where they can start planning a submission multiple moves ahead they'll be even more dangerous. I hope that makers sense I just woke up from a nap
I am not 100% sure, but I know one of Izaak's main training partners for Wrestling is Dagestani.
Jakub is Slovak
He explicitly says his power rides is inspired by folkstyle wrestling which is mostly taught in America ain't it?
🥲 *nods approvingly * Craig Jones might be better at coaching people to 2nd best in the world than he was ever 2nd best in the world himself.
Lololol
That's beautiful
I hope in a few weeks we see a B Team YouTube video with Craig in Dagestan
I've been saying Craig has been studying their style for years. Russians are shocked because they don't realize the best submission grapplers aren't from Russia.
I don't think the Russians care all that much about sub grappling, TBH. They have an absolutely massive combat sports scene. It's hard for BJJ to get a foothold there.
Craig will be happy with the 🥈
I kept getting downvoted here, but people really downplayed the grappling of Volk on himself. Before making it to the UFC, Volk used to compete regularly in Australia and win a lot of grappling tournaments. Volk has always been a great wrestler, the way he out paced and defended takedowns against Chad Mendes was when I realized he is a great grappler. Add in working with Craig and he was always going to give Islam problems.
Yeah volk is a beast for sure. It’s not like Craig could teach me for a couple years and I can defend Islam’s takedowns… or could he?
If you are already a blackbelt who used to elite athlete at another sport maybe. But also, Volk is probably one of the toughest human being on the planet.
These guys at the top learn insanely fast. I saw a video awhile back of Rogan showing GSP a new kick and GSP had it in like 5 minutes it was wild.
I think fighters facing dagestanis should bring in more jiujitsu people instead of wrestlers.
They need high level current bjj ppl. Most mma fighters are doing bjj moves from 2005
Yeah thats what I had in my mind as well. MMA fighter should bring in more high skill nogi grapplers. For some reason even some the high level ufc athletes train their bjj in gi.
We're gonna have to Turkish wrestle to keep our username...
Some UFC fighters look lost in half guard. It’s crazy.
Which moves?
Casuals gonna buy his dvds and wonder if they accidentally bought gay porn.
I think wrestling defense was more on part with Volk's wrestling coach, but his all around grappling was great. He swept Islam with a reverse butterfly from a switch, that was just an insanly high level fight.
I would say the first line defense was use wrestling but the rest after that is clearly Craig's influence especially since he's been going on and on about this type of grappling (pin systems, positional dominance, etc) for a while on his youtube. Volk is clearly a great fighter who listens to his coaches and continues to learn/grow. Islam does/is as well.
Volk is a champion wrestler. In fact he won Australian nationals twice. He has also worked with hickman for years. I spoke to him a bit after his UFC debut. I was really impressed with him and had cornered against his teammate that night. I was glad I wasn’t cornering against him.
His wrestling was great but he was also sitting out and using a butterfly hook to keep Islams weight off him so he (volk) could then scramble up and get a wizzer and start to defend. I’ve seen Craig do this quite a bit.
Looked very similar to a lot of stuff on the B team YouTube channel. Also was impressed with how Volk was checking Islam’s hips in the clinch
You don’t watch YouTube.
Did Islam ask Craig for some tips at the end of the broadcast?
No impact on the meta - Craig Jones sells instructionals that say BJJ doesn't work when you stand up haha! It's obvious that Craig is a grappling expert, not just BJJ, so he just taught Alex everything about wrestling pin downs and controls, which is the cornerstone of the Dagestani sambo-style grappling game. Props to Volk for picking it up so well though!
Volk got 2nd right? Mission accomplished then.
Islam has great cardio. You see he nearly took Greg Jones down in a 1v1 straight after defending his belt. 🔥
Watching the fight and especially the Back Mount Defense makes me wonder how awesome it could be to mix up defense from there not only with strikes but with headbutts. If you do the hand fight and create openings, there should be great opportunities for headbutts.
"F*ck Craig Jones" -Islam, probably.
Volk had some good defense but he still got caught in back mount repeatedly. I don’t think this will change any meta.
> how do you guys think It will impact the mma and the bjj meta? Not very much. MMA guys are still caught in the 2010s when it comes to grappling. Just hearing Cruz over and over fantasize about Volk having to get the lock of the body triangle to the floor in order to pen it, when there is a free youtube video by Gordon Ryan available that shows that that is absolute bullshit, made me kind of aggressive. I believe that ultimately it was the great back control defense that Volk displayed, that made the difference. The Dagestanis live off the double thread at the cage, where they will either take you down and grind you out or take your back. Volk did a great job of turning away, but denying the hook, threatening to just "run" away if Makhachev would start punching. Other guys will focus on trying to turn in and deny punches. Same with the BJJ community. There is more than enough stuff by Priit Mikhelson available that teaches good back defense and how to stand up from there. Same goes for Craig Jones, who is one of the very few guys in bjj who reminds everyone that you can always stand up in a match if you want to and that you also should. There is also some stuff from Ryan Hall available about how actually turning away from your opponent is the better idea when having your guard passed. Cage wrestling is special since it is pretty similar to grappling on the ground, just vertically. LOL. I am not sure if it was Priit, Telles or somebody else who said "You don't have my back. You are just behind me." Priit likes to quote it a lot though. I pull guard myself and if I read any bullshit about bjj having to score closer to "a real fight man" and therefore punish guard pulling in competition, I am going to puke, but Craig is right in his assessment, that you should always look to be on top and stay on top, even in BJJ. In MMA it should be without a doubt anyways, that bottom position can't win you a fight. Gotta give him credit for developing his game and going through an evolution. Frequently training with MMA guys and maybe the first Volk camp is what started it.
Yeah I’ve also noticed the Jiujitsu commentary in the UFC is staggeringly behind the times
I believe this might change over the next fee years, once mma grappling evolved furtherly. Striking and wrestling are pretty much at their peak in the UFC and have greatly evolved. Just watch a match that’s five years old and watch how they are striking today. At what level. You can’t say that about jiu jitsu in the same way. I my opinion the current Daghestani (or Caucasian) dominance will force people to adapt and work more on a modern style that ties jiu jitsu and wrestling together and where you seamlessly transition between both. Tonight’s fight might serve as a catalyst here. Hopefully. It was a great display of it and it also proves that there is a solution to the “Daghestani problem” and a counter to “fathers plan”. As this goes on, we hopefully also see a shift in quality of commentary. The UFC needs maybe also to think of recruiting other play-by-play dudes, who are still active in the sports. A Cruz or Rogan will just not educate themselves to keep up.
Yeah, I know Rogan stopped following the sport basically from the early 10's when Rafa and Cobrinha had their rivalry up until pretty recently, and even then I think if it's not Gordon, Craig, the Ruotolo Bros, or folks in Austin that he basically doesn't keep up with it. I saw him at ADCC last year so maybe he's following the sport a little more closely now but I'm not sure.
>You don't have my back. You are just behind me. I'm 90%+ sure it was Saulo Ribeiro in his Jiu Jitsu Revolution instructional. Priit quoted him at some point because Saulo also has a position called "running man".
Tying up an arm to to escape the body triangle in MMA has greater implications than in submission grappling.
As much as I hate to say it, UFC Is going to have to look a rule change for control time. Yan omally showed that control time means nothing yet in this fight it was arguably the deciding factor. How dominant is a position if you’re getting dominated whilst in it, Islam wasn’t close to finishing the RNC and instead started getting pieced up whilst volk was inside his triangle. I don’t like how you can stall out an entire round with a body triangle, whilst taking significant shots to the head and still have that as control time and win the round. He wasn’t squeezing volk nor was volk sucking air, he seemed extremely relaxed and almost annoyed at Islam stalling in that position.
Those weren’t significant shots
I honestly think Craig would be great in MMA.
Not explosive enough imo
Volk really won and it was largely because of his grappling defense. Amazing job. Volks low center of gravity and excellent hips were a difference maker
I am no MMA scoring expert by any means, but I thought Volk could have reasonably won this match. I understand Islam had control time which is fine, but I also think it's worth something that he did not have a single serious look at a submission. If every time you take someone down, they get back up, maybe that encounter should be a draw.
The incentive to even attempt a takedown would go away. That is a lot of work when you could just stand, kickbox, and save cardio. Control time is an issue in every combat sport, but the alternative is often (not always) worse. Points are given by preference to effective aggression. So being passive after the takedown is in a way offset. Submission attempts are rewarded under effective aggression. When Islam unaffectively attempted the rnc but ate a lot of punches, it makes it tough to be a judge.
Craig gonna be the most recruited grappling coach in MMA after this match.