The weekend of grappling
CJI, ADCC and what it all meant - a month late.
Hey Homies,
This took a bit of time to put together. I wanted to let the weekend marinate - and see if anything emerged as a result of the events. I don’t think it has beyond Craig hinting more and more about the Sonny/Nicky Ryan rumours, and Gordon continuing to go off the rails. Usual service.
Enjoy.
Love, Clara x
PS: For people who subscribed for MMA content, don’t worry, I promise you’ll get an MMA newsletter soon!
Over 16th -18th August in Las Vegas, there were 162 matches, 65 submissions and unknown grams of cocaine consumed.
It was the ADCC/CJI weekend grappling folk had been waiting for since Craig dropped the bomb back in April that he was hosting his multi-million dollar event at the same time as ADCC.
It was a historic weekend for anyone with a vague interest in the sport.
CJI felt like a celebration of a new era of grappling, and ADCC felt like the familiar excitement you feel around international football.
To the shock of many, myself included, it worked.
Here’s some of my thoughts.
Kneebars are the new meta
Okay so maybe they’re not quite the new meta. Yet.
But, kneebars were utilized effectively across ADCC and CJI. And, as they’re my favourite submission, it caught my eye. It wouldn’t be a Clara post without talking about kneebars.
There were 4 across the weekend: more than straight ankle locks, d’arces, anacondas, head and arms and kimuras.
We had Charles Negromonte tap out Izaak Michell in the final seconds, attacking the leg from bottom half guard and getting the kneebar while Michell tried to step out.
Similarly, Tye Ruoloto tapped one of the most decorated collegiate wrestlers in Jason Nolf with one, entering from a bottom half/Z-guard-type position.
Danaher Junior Oliver Taza flawlessly tapped Davi Ramos with kneebar from a rolling saddle entry from Ramos’s single leg.
And, double champ Adele Fornarino hit one against Rafaela Guedes as Guedes slipped trying to pass Fornarino’s guard.
All of these kneebars were super fun, and I am definitely going to try and emulate them all to little to no success at open mat for the next 6 months.
One of my coaches told me ‘wherever there’s a heelhook, there’s a kneebar’. And to say that’s stuck with me is an understatement - to which my training partners can attest.
It’s also why they are a fun addition to a leglock game, and has formed my thinking about why kneebars are an underutilised submission at all levels of the sport.
After the popularisation of heel hooks in the past 15 years, people are getting better at hiding heels and misaligning knees in leg entanglements. If you lose the heel but maintain a threat by controlling the foot and maintaining connection with the kneecap, there’s an opportunity to find the fulcrum of the hip and enter into a potent heel hook/kneebar dilemma.
Instead of needing to maintain a more precise dorsiflexion in the foot, you can roll and hip and muscle your way into a kneebar. Less Lachlan Giles, more Frank Mir. Can’t get the heel, why not hip into the knee instead.
From the kneebars seen across CJI and ADCC, it definitely seems as though people didn’t expect the submission to come from a kneebar. Michell looked like he felt safe trying to step away before being caught. Nolf’s corner were shouting about being wary of the legs, but Nolf looked surprised when Ruotolo rolled to his side for the kneebar instead of catching the ankle or heel.
Hopefully people don’t forget about the kneebar anymore.
Kade Ruotolo v Andrew Tackett
MMA and BJJ social media was set alight by Kade Ruotolo v Andrew Tackett.
It was a high intensity match, with both athletes putting their bodies on the line to showcase modern grappling. Both Ruotolo and Tackett utilised wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu fundamentals and pure athleticism. It was a back and forth battle, nothing but pure heart. The entire Thomas & Mack crowd was screaming reminiscent of a UFC main event entering championship rounds.
One interesting comparison to the match was calling it Griffin v Bonnar, the fight that gave the UFC a lifeline when it was floundering. Is it Griffin v Bonnar, where we all felt as though we were witnessing something special - the kind of event you tell your nerdy friends about if they saw it? For many, it was just that. The match they’d been waiting for to show their parents who continually mistake their hobby as karate. The match they needed to show their friends to encourage them to join a trial class, despite the fact they have never once started a round standing.
For others, it was UFC 100 - showing the world that this niche sport had money potential from its homegrown stars, and a marketable product. This match has 559k views on Youtube, has been talked about by MMA stars and hyped up by Joe Rogan. I’m sure Dana White and Sean Shelby have been on the phone to Craig and Seth about signing a deal to use the CJI format for their Fight Pass Invitational, given this was the type of match facilitated by it.
For many, this was the showcase of a whole new era. We had people like GSP and Anderson Silva showcasing what it means to be a complete martial artist in the 00s - mixing different striking and grappling disciplines creatively and dominating as a result.
The same can be said for Tackett v Ruotolo. Gyms around the world are starting to switch from being jiu jitsu clubs to being ‘grapple’ branded, mixing all forms of grappling across their classes. The match was the inevitable product of the gradual shift away from pure jiu jitsu into this hybrid grappling. Both men combine wrestling, jiu jitsu submissions, judo with dedication and drive of Olympic athletes, showcasing a completely new evolution of grappling as its new competitive art.
Whatever it does for the sport, it was a ridiculous match between two of the most exciting athletes in the sport.
It gives grapplers a peek into what’s possible.
Ffion Davies is a pioneer
A pioneer is an innovator who is willing to try new things, seeing the potential where others don’t. A pioneer pushes boundaries to advance a cause or idea or break a record.
And I don’t know who better fits that description in the sport more than Ffion Davies.
Ffion Davies is one of the best grapplers in the world, male or female.
Had she stayed in the running at ADCC, it’s likely she would have added another title to her already stacked resume across gi, no gi and judo.
But, she didn’t. For years, women in ADCC have been paid less than their male counterparts, and have been told they simply aren’t as exciting or marketable as men.
Ffion thought fuck that.
She believed in herself, and jumped at the chance to take on a superfight in a new promotion, knowing whoever she faced would be a great match. And it was.
Submitting Mackenzie Dern is no small feat. She is a multi-hyphenate grappling champion with an MMA pedigree and a laundry list of wins over formidable opponents. Davies hitting a head and arm throw to a triangle to an armbar on Dern was beautiful.
After her win, Ffion rightly celebrated, but also chose to ask for a women’s division in her post match interview, and congratulated Dern on her UFC win against Lupita Godinez just two weeks prior. The definition of a girl’s girl. Playing Taylor Swift when she got her hand raised was a lovely touch, too.
Ffion has shown that can do anything she wants to do in the sport. Her legacy is already cemented at 29. And she’s using the platform she has rightly earned to make the sport better for the women she’s inspiring.
What a woman.
CJI’s format is a game changer
Switching over from CJI Day 2 to ADCC Day 1 mere hours apart was jarring.
The 3 mats running concurrent matches, the incredibly serious atmosphere and the big kicker: the deeply complicated scoring system. It made a lot of people question why, as a sport, we’ve made it so difficult for ourselves.
Why does scoring only kick in at a certain point? Why are there positive and negative points? Why is guard pulling penalised when it’s a fundamental part of the sport?
For a promotion that has constantly spoken about creating a spectacle and an entertaining product, it has created a scoring system that requires a lot of prior reading and knowledge of the sport.
The CJI format seems to clear up the questions around what is going on for most people. The 10 point must system is, admittedly flawed in sports like MMA and boxing, but at each break, we know who is winning.
It’s not perfect, however. We were not sure why they were winning. CJI needed to provide a lot more clarity on scoring criteria. For instance, we had Levi ‘losing’ to Kade, despite many people seeing the rounds being scored for him as they perceived his guard playing as effective initiation. It would have been a really good idea to have the scoring criteria explained to fans upfront as Jon Anik does at the top of UFC promotions.
But, it was the inaugural event. There were always going to be teething issues, and all things considered, the scoring made sense to most people. It’ll be fascinating to see the ruleset be trialed across other promotions.
Rising promotions with a cross sport audience like Fight Pass Invitational would benefit a tonne from adopting the CJI ruleset - open, 10 point must scoring with clear guidance on what scores points feels like it could open the sport up to a whole new set of spectators.
Guard Play as effective initiation
Levi Jones-Leary is one of the best guard players in the sport. Hands down. The Xanadu God is a wizard on the ground.
But, with the shift to mainstream success, guard play is a remnant of classic jiu jitsu, with new watchers of the sport not understanding the intricacies that come with maintaining guard. At events like ADCC or Polaris, you see the crowd cheer as someone moves from closed guard to half guard.
Controversial wrestler Pat Downey even took to socials to criticize guard playing after losing to Adam Bradley, despite failing to do anything to Trab beyond holding his head in a can opener. When you agree to a ruleset that allows for guard play, you can’t be annoyed when someone uses it to nullify the game of a collegiate wrestler. That’s just smart tactics.
In my mind, the criticisms of Levi end up being similar to folk who watch MMA and call good wrestlers crotch sniffers and complain every time someone manages to control someone on the ground. Anyone who has tried to take someone down with an iota of confidence in the stand up, or tried to pin them, it’s fucking HARD.
The skill and understanding of weight distribution and force, as well as the pure physicality to achieve it is just incredible. But, it’s a valid and effective form of martial arts, and in a sport that mixes them, it’s a smart strategy.
In the same way, guard play - and doing a good job of it - is a skill. Being able to monitor a person’s movements and respond in split seconds with frames and shins and feet is wizardry - especially playing guard against someone as explosive as Kade who literally slammed his head into Tommy Langaker’s stomach to pass his guard.
If we are now looking at grappling being part of the whole, guard play is still an effective form of grappling and will likely undergo the same level of derision as wrestling in MMA until it’s properly understood.
The price of expanding the audience of grappling we all have to pay.
Adele Fornarino had a legendary run
Daddy’s home.
She won the 55kg bracket by Mir Lock against Bianca Basilico, took home the Absolute division win by tactically outworking Bia Mesquita despite being the smallest woman to enter, and she completed her run with 4 submissions in 6 matches. Pure domination.
She’d been on my radar since her 17 second Aoki lock against Amanda ‘Tubby’ Alequin at WNO. ‘Daddy’ has been making waves since 2019 at brown belt, winning IBJJF Pans and European No Gi in 2023.
She trains under David Hart, has wins over the biggest names in the sport, and has been quietly making a name for herself.
I would love a Fornarino v Davies superfight at CJI or Polaris. She is so well suited to the lights and bravado, with a sheer love and passion for putting on a show.
Community
Through my page, I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with some amazing people - people who love combat sports but aren’t misogynists or racists. People who genuinely love the sport and don’t have time for the nonsense surrounding it.
But, most of them are MMA fans, not grappling fans. I’ve lost a bunch of followers who don’t have time for me also pivoting into grappling. I get it.
For the ones who stuck around, it was genuinely beautiful to watch so many MMA fans post about tuning into CJI. I think that’s my biggest yardstick of how successful CJI was beyond rest round chats the week after. People who love martial arts but found ADCC and other promotions dense and inpenetrable.
It was also lovely to see how many people were hosting watch parties, doing watch-along streams (shout out my boy Max at Combat Arcade), making fantasy brackets (I won mine) and just really rallied together across the weekend.
This sport is a community sport. From the jankiest of gyms, to the Thomas & Mack, modern grappling is bigger than it ever has been. ADCC was still as impressive as ever - not at all in part due to the pyro or lasers - providing the familiar format we’ve all grown to love. Seeing 3 people get submitted across the mats at the same time is, frankly, exhilarating. CJI had the big ticket event with the new energy, the personalities and the free stream. It felt like living with both Pride and UFC on the same weekend.
It was a really special time to be interested in grappling.
I am so fascinated watching a sport I do and love evolve - or take evolutionary leaps - in real time.
I can’t wait for the next iteration.