UFC’s Renato Moicano recently made a lasting expression during his expletives loaded interview during which he gently requested more money. Moicano defeated CKB’s Brad Riddell and forced him to reconsider his career choices.
Moicano hails from Brazil but had moved to Florida some years back, deciding to pursue a career in MMA more seriously. Today BJJ is in somewhat of a crisis in the UFC. The Nurmagomedov clan has stepped in the spots reserved for BJJ specialists in UFC thanks to their accent on offensive wrestling and submission as opposed to sport BJJ.
In terms of BJJ representation in UFC, biggest names are Mackenzie Dern, Gilbert Burns, Rodolfo Vieira and Charles Oliveira. And if we examine their performances it’s clear there is a deficiency in the sport when it comes to transitioning action from the feet to the ground. While Oliveira made up for his lack of wrestling with striking – there’s still a question about efficiency of modern bjj in MMA contests.
Volkanovski’s BJJ coach explained some of these efficiencies succinctly recently:
“I honestly agree with what Makhachev says, a lot of people deserve to have that black belt taken away.”
“I kind of agree with that. I think what those guys are doing is sort of superior to what we’ve been doing for a long time because we built an entire sport around conceding bottom position.”
But it can be argued that a good number of UFC talent lacks when it comes to jiu-jitsu. This is a remark UFC’s Renato Moicano recently made when confronted with a footage of a spontaneous altercation in Brazil.
In the video we can observe some ground work in broad daylight. Both participants in the conflict seemed versed in the gentle art.
The guy on the bottom (a dominant position in BJJ) can be seen trying to set up a triangle/armbar from the get go.
He cycles through variety of viable submission options even briefly contemplating omoplata – an obscure shoulder lock that’s rarely seen in MMA.
Despite the amount of resistance the man on top puts up, the bottom guy slides under his base in order to sweep sneaking under one of his legs at which point he manages to get up.
His opponent can be seen grabbing a chin strap as to control the action while standing.
The two quickly land back on the concrete with the both guys now attempting respective guillotines.
While the top guy is quick to give up, the bottom one proceeds to hold the submission until he dazes his opponent at which point he mounts him.
He then quickly sets up an armbar at which point on lookers interfere yelling at him as to not injure his counterpart.
The red shirt man clearly surrenders at his point, nursing a sort of injury to his arm. And the victor walks away.
MMA fandom had fun with this comment and quickly shifted scrutiny to the new Brazilian Middleweight champion.
