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- Chain Wrestling, Scrambling, And Single Legs From One Of The Best Grappling Fights Ever
Chain Wrestling, Scrambling, And Single Legs From One Of The Best Grappling Fights Ever
Why it helps to learn how to make people unathletic
William
September 21st, 2023
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Mateusz Gamrot’s Elite Chain Wrestling
This Saturday, one of the most impressive grapplers in the UFC, Mateusz Gamrot, is fighting a terrifying striking talent, Rafael Fiziev. Both men are on the younger side of the lightweight top 15, but with how competitive the division is it will be hard for either of them to get a title shot soon with a loss here. Winning is always important, duh, but this fight seems like it would put the winner one or two away from a title shot.
Gamrot is one of my favorite fighters to watch in all of MMA. Some of his fights’ decisions can be questionable, but his grappling ability is not up for debate. The ADCC World Championships competitor has never been finished in professional MMA, and he has some of the best chain wrestling in the UFC. Gamrot shoots singles, climbs for body locks, rolls out of disadvantageous positions, and never runs out of gas.
In June 2022, Gamrot faced another lightweight star Arman Tsarukyan. I cannot overstate how impressive this fight was. Both Gamrot and Tsarukyan scrambled for the full twenty-five minutes, using high level chain wrestling we rarely see in the sport. With Gamrot’s fight coming up, I thought it would be fun to go back and pick out the best exchanges from that fight. Let’s get into it and see what we can pick up on.
Round 1
Tsarukyan is behind Gamrot and Gamrot tries a Peterson roll. Gamrot tries to use a whizzer and sprawl his hips back but Tsarukyan gets behind him again. Gamrot touches the mat before going for a Peterson again. Gamrot walks over Tsarukyan’s head and back to get behind him and grab a rear body lock. |  |
Right now Brazilian jiu-jitsu players are over reliant on body locks in standing wrestling. Granby and Peterson Rolls are simple solutions that can force your opponent to open their hands, thereby creating winnable scrambles like Gamrot is above.
Round 2
Tsarukyan shoots on Gamrot. Gamrot gets a whizzer and steps between Tsarukyan’s legs to hit the uchi mata and they land in a dog fight like position. Tsarukyan counters Gamrot’s whizzer by locking his hands. They stall and decide to stand up. |  |
Because Brazilian jiu-jitsu players are over reliant on body locks they’re reaching for them in bad positions. This gives their opponent the opportunity to throw them like Gamrot does above. If you shoot and reach for the far side too early, any good wrestler is going to launch you.
Round 3
Gamrot has a rear body lock and steps in front of Tsarukyan’s foot to run him to the floor. Gamrot hops to Tsarukyan’s back and throws a hook in. Gamrot does not have diagonal control so Tsarukyan can post, stand, and escape. As they separate Gamrot tries to step in with an under hook to shuck Tsasrukyan by for the cheap ankle pick. |  |
Round 4
Tsarukyan sprawls on Gamrot’s head outside single. Gamrot posts his hand so he can move toward the leg and pull the end of the lever toward him. Gamrot climbs to a body lock and Tsarukyan cross faces before running to the fence to escape. |  |
Notice how Tsarukyan could start fighting back when Gamrot switched from controlling the leg to reaching for the body lock? When he let go of the leg he lost most of his ability to achieve positional dominance.
If someone cannot put their feet on the floor they cannot wrestle well. It really is that simple most of the time.
Tsarukyan digs an under hook to counter Gamrot’s rear body lock. Gamrot steps in front of Tsarukyan and runs him down. Gamrot gets on Tsarukyan’s back, extends his hook, and peels Tsarukyan’s post to ground him. Tsarukyan tries to crawl to the fence and Gamrot completes the back take. |  |
Then, just moments later…
Tsarukyan gets his head to the mat and moves back to the fence to wall walk. Gamrot holds the body lock and climbs to stay connected as the round ends. |  |
Round 5
Gamrot takes Tsarukyan down and lifts his feet off the floor. As Gamrot tries to climb to the body lock Tsarukyan stands. Gamrot gets the rear body lock and runs Tsarukyan to the floor. Tsarukyan ends by standing, turning into him, and sprawling with double over hooks to put Gamrot down. |  |
Chain Wrestle, But Make Your Opponent Less Athletic
Rewatching Gamrot - Tsarukyan was very entertaining and one thing stood out. Arman Tsarukyan is an athletic freak.
This man can damn near do a standing splits to defend takedowns and he’s nearly impossible to hold on the floor. It’s next to impossible to beat someone like that in a fair fight. To win you need to make them a worse athlete, and, no, I’m not talking about injuring anyone.
When Gamrot kept Tsarukyan’s feet off the floor Tsarukyan was stuck on defense. The second Gamrot stopped controlling Tsarukyan’s legs and reached for the far side to get body locks, Tsarukyan could stand and start to counter wrestle if not escape completely. Conversley, if someone can only put one foot on the floor, they can hardly generate force, let alone fight back.
This idea is the exact reason why Craig Jones is causing a small revolution in grappling. He’s neglecting side control to disrupt his opponent’s base and prevent their counters before they begin.
Not everything in grappling and martial arts has to be complicated. In fact, the best competitors are remarkable because of their ability to simplify the sport.
With good timing, GSP jabbed and double legged his way to all time great status. Simple solutions take good athletes a long way, and they make great athletes elite.
You don’t need to be a freak athlete, world class scrambler, or know every trick in the book. If you can keep your opponent’s feet off the floor and disrupt their base they can’t fight back.
As my professor in college used to say, “Don’t do anything fancy, just kiss it. Keep It Simple, Stupid.”
