UFC 290: Defensive Grappling and a Lopsided Rivalry

More of the Same from Pantoja - Moreno?

UFC 290 is this weekend and the main card looks like it will provide a stellar evening of fights. Jalin Turner and Dan Hooker are squaring off in what should be a good battle of rangy strikers, Robert Whittaker will be fighting Dricus Du Plessis to see who is the number 1 contender for Israel Adesanya, and Alexander Volkanovski will try to continue his dominant run at featherweight by fighting interim title holder Yair Rodriguez. Amidst all of this Brandon Moreno will try to defend his title against the man that beat him twice, Alexandre Pantoja.

Pantoja and Moreno are two of the most exciting flyweights in the UFC. Of the two’s eighteen UFC wins, thirteen have ended in a finish. Both are awesome to watch, but I am particularly interested in Pantoja’s performances.

Pantoja’s nickname is the cannibal but he fights like a zombie. On the feet Pantoja walks forward throwing hard punches until he can drag his opponent to the floor and pass to their back. Pantoja has never been finished in his professional career and owns four submission wins from the back in the UFC alone. You could easily argue that Pantoja is one of the better back attackers in the UFC today.

One thing that stands out from Pantoja’s back attack game is the lack of variety. You’d assume that someone with so much back mount success would have tons of tactics from that position but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

There’s no straight jackets, hand trapping, nor rear triangle threats when Pantoja is behind someone. He holds on tight, hits hard, and rips his arm across his opponent’s face until they submit. Sometimes Pantoja doesn’t even get his arm under his opponent’s chin before squeezing away. It’s as simple as it is effective.

Before we talk about how Moreno and Pantoja match-up, let’s look at each of Pantoja’s back finishes. They’re interesting to look at together because each fight looks an element of his overall back attack tactics. We’ll be reviewing how the back attack game works on both sides here today.

Back Attack Berserker

In Pantoja’s first UFC submission win he took on Neil Seery almost six years ago to the day.

No hand trapping nor fancy grip breaking. Pantoja just stayed tight to Seery’s back and ripped the choke through with superior strength, good timing, and a single minded focus.

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