MMA-URLS

Welcome Mike Riordan to the Bloody Elbow grappling team. I like mixed martial arts in cages. I've heard critics dismiss the cage as a mere trinket of showmanship cooked up by the Gracies. No matter the rationale for its creation, I believe the cage is a boon to MMA, distinguishing it from any other sport and delineating it as an altogether new and unique product. Other detractors claim the cage results in a less realistic simulation of real combat, diminishing the fulfillment of MMA's central mission. I fail to understand this viewpoint as most actual fights I have seen have not taken place in empty meadows far from civilization; rather, they usually take place confined in areas in close proximity to rigid or at least semi-rigid barriers. Related Judo Chops Luke Rockhold Puts On A Cage Crawling Clinic Against Jacare Souza Luke Rockhold Jump Kick to Spin Kick The cage serves as a reasonable representation of these barriers. Not only does the cage function as a realistic environmental barrier it also possesses untapped potential to be used as a propulsion mechanism for many exciting fighting techniques. This entry looks at Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza's last fight against Bristol Marunde at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey and how Souza uses the cage in exciting new ways. More SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey Before a returning to discussing Jacare, first a little bit of foundational stuff that isn't as tangential as it may appear on first blush. Any practicioner of the grappling arts is aware of the fact that it is generally much easier to work a grounded opponent than one who is on their feet. By extension, once you ground an opponent, if you believe you can accomplish something meaningful while atop your opponent, you would prefer to keep him grounded. Therefore, when a grounded opponent seeks to stand up and escape your control, it is helpful to be able to return the opponent to the ground in a controlled manner. The discipline of American folkstyle wrestling (I prefer to call it scholastic wrestling and will do so from here on out) excels at teaching its practitioners controlled "mat-returns" when and opponent stands from bottom with his back to his opponent. In Freestyle and Greco wrestling stand-ups are comparatively rare as they leave one open to a high amplitude/exposure big point scoring move such as a suplex. In scholastic, the stress is on control rather than exposure, wrestlers receive no points for simply returning an opponent to the mat and therefore a move such as a suplex, even if it were legal in scholastic, would be less desirable as it could easily result in the loss of control. For this reason, a fighter intent on finishing a contest on the ground is best served executing a mat return which maintains control throughout. It makes sense to say that the same could be said for mat return situations in fights. Supplexes are flashy but will inflict an unpredictable amount of damage and can squander a position of control. Kevin Randleman learned this the hard way against Fedor. At higher levels of scholastic wrestling, the primary option for returning an opponent to a mat is to lock at the waist, step around the opponent, pop the hips to lift then pull him over your knee and onto his face. Two time NCAA champ Matt Valenti demonstrates below: Notice his hands are locked to the same side he steps to, this torgues the opponent away from him when he lifts and returns. Were the bottom man facing him he could potentially engage in a variety of funky shenanigans. Matt also steps around to the right side which will put him on his opponents off side. Most wrestlers are slightly worse at working from bottom when their opponent is on their right side. He also, upon landing, immediately reaches beneath the arm of his partner and grabs the wrist. The other move we are starting to see used more as a mat return on the college is this snazzy look-away whip over trip. Here demonstrated by Jordan Olliver on Illinois' B.J. Futrell. On lower level of wrestling, you most commonly see simple trips used as mat returns. Some coaches will instruct their pupils to trip their opponent backward if their weight is coming back, and to trip them forward if their "nose is in front of their toes." Here is the closest thing I could come to a gif of the latter scenario as Dustin Schlatter front trips some Kyrgystani guy after getting behind him on a nice outside step single leg. See how he pushes off his left leg while displacing his opponents right leg with his right leg. It doesn't get any simpler when bringing a guy to the mat. In Jacare Souza's last fight versus Bristol Marunde, Jacare uses a similar technique to bring his opponent to the ground, only he does so with an inventive twist. First off Jacare goes underneath Marunde's arms with a body lock. I won't call it a bear hug as I usually reserve that term for the technique that collapses the opponent's lumbar inward and sends his shoulder falling to the mat. Souza drives forward with the lock and starts to hip in. At this point Marunde really needs to be tougher with the whizzer and try increase the leverage on it by angling his right hip up and away from Jacare, as this is the only thing keeping Jacare from taking his back. Alas, Marunde isn't a strong enough wrestler to do this and his arm slips uselessly to Jacare's head. Souza now has Marunde's back, Marunde's nose is well in front of his toes, all Jacare has to do to bring him to the mat with a simple front trip, the same as shown above. However, Jacare decides to get inventive, he executes a front trip, but instead of pressuring forward with his rear leg planted on the mat, his back leg mule kicks off the cage like a swimmer in a turn. This looks really cool and it really increases the forward force as he trips Marunde. Unfortunately, it created so much force that I believe it causes Jacare to land on his left hip, far enough out of position to be unable to maintain control of Marunde's back. This occurrence of pushing off the cage would be fairly unremarkable, but it is made interesting in light of the fact that Jacare employs another cage-propulsion based grappling technique later in the fight. A control technique common to several grappling disciplines involves inserting legs underneath the legs of a grounded opponent, belly to back, while both facing the same direction. Joe Rogan calls it "putting the hooks in." I'm just a simple wrestling coach, the country rube of the martial arts world. I know nothing of this ornate and learned jiu-jitsu nomenclature. I call it throwing in legs. I always will. In scholastic wrestling, the act of throwing legs in on opponent who stands from bottom so that the bottom man supports the entirety of the top man's weight, is almost always done as a means of forcing a stalemate. When a wrestler is in top position in scholastic, the end goal of any of his actions must be to work for a pin. Anything other than this is the illegal act of stalling. Throwing legs in when a guy is on his feet leaves the top wrestler with no recourse but to simply hold on, he is merely preventing his opponent from escaping control, this is not working for a pin, it therefore is a stall. Please view the clip below. This is the Big Ten finals featuring Lance Palmer of The Ohio State and now of MMA, and Iowa great Brent Metcalf. Once Palmer is off the mat and hanging from Brent's back, there is really nothing Palmer can do t return him to the mat. He can't simply hang heavier to one side or the other, Metcalf is a world class wrestler and is too solid in the standing position. Palmer's use of this tactic can almost be described as cynical, he knows he is stalling, Metcalf knows and waves his arms out in frustration and the ref identifies it and raises his fist to call the infraction. But what if this action took place adjacent to a rigid structure like a wall or even the side of a cage? Lance Palmer could ever so cleverly push off of the cage with his free foot causing both combatants to fall to the mat while maintaining control of his opponents back. This actually happens in Jacare's match with Marunde. Portrayed in the two gifs below. Once again, Jacare gets the body lock, and once again, for reasons I do not understand, Marunde does not whizzer at all and simply obliges Souza by presenting his back. At least Marunde has the presence of mind to block Jacare's attempts to throw the leg in on the right side though Jacare looks perfectly content to simply step around and throw the leg in on the left side. Here is where Souza tries something that is almost pretty darned sweet. While Marunde is supporting his weight, Jacare reaches his leg all the way behind him, plants his foot on the cage, and kicks. Once again the result is really cool looking. Both men spiral to the mat and were Jacare to maintain back control and finish the fight from there, then we would really have witnessed something truly notable. Unfortunately, Jacare lands out of position once again and losses his position. I wonder if had Marunde been a truly dangerous opponent like, say, Melvin Guillard, would Jacare had initiated the choke immediately after throwing the leg and pulled Marunde back, ending the fight thusly? I'm pretty certain he could have and this raises the possibility that Souza had little or no regard for Marunde and was simply hot-dogging. At least hot-dogging is usually fun to watch, and in this case resulted in some meaningful innovation. Jacare's uses of the cage as a means bring his opponent to the ground from behind were probably superfluous and they definitely didn't work as well as they could have. They are still interesting. Fighters have only begun to exploit the cage as a constructive element in grappling and striking techniques, Jacare's cage use in his fight against Marunde is hopefully the harbinger of more ingenius cage based technique in the future.

Posted in: jacare, cage, opponent, leg, marunde

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In an interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani, Ed Soares has confirmed that Roger Gracie is signing with Black House management and more importantly, he is dropping to the 185 pound Middleweight Division. This is not the most shocking news as it has been rumored Gracie had been mulling a weight drop for some time and he has reportedly being working members of Black House, including UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva on Tatame.com a few months ago. Roger's run at Light Heavyweight sparked some hope for the resurgence of the Gracie family legend, but his biggest wins were over an aged Kevin Randleman and Trevor Prangley. In his most recent fight with Muhammed Lawal, Gracie was knocked out within the first round. For Gracie, this move makes a great deal of sense, for while he is long and tall, he lacks the heft and mass that the majority of elite Light Heavyweights enjoy. It is likely in any major fight Gracie entered at 205 lbs he would have been at a serious strength and size disadvantage. Furthermore, the top of the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight division is populated by strong wrestlers, who would likely be able to stop the Brazilian's attempts to take him down and win the striking battle decisively, as Lawal did. At Middleweight, Gracie will be on the tallest fighters in the division at 6'4" and be on more equal footing in terms of physical strength. Throw in that the talent pool is a bit shallower at Middleweight and Gracie's grappling abilities could make him a real contender at that weight. As of right now, Gracie is still in Strikeforce which is searching for new Middleweight talent to challenge current champion Luke Rockhold after the likely Tim Kennedy title shot. The arrival of Gracie opens up the possibility of a rematch of sorts with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, one of the handful of men to beat Gracie in a Brazilian jiu jitsu match. The match at the 2004 Mundials was a controversial one though, as Gracie broke Jacare's arm in the match only to see Jacare, who was up on points, stall out the rest of the time limit to claim the "win". It is a fight that could be an excellent and exciting title eliminator for a promotion looking for any way to generate excitement amongst a fan base that may have written certain divisions of Strikeforce off as dead.

Posted in: strikeforce, jacare, division, middleweight, gracie

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Former middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza walked away from Strikeforce “Tate vs. Rousey” with an event-high $92,000, as “Jacare” took home a $22,000 win bonus following his submission victory over injury replacement Bristol Marunde ($10,000) on Saturday night.

Posted in: strikeforce, vs, jacare, tate, submission victory

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Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza broke his left hand against Bristol Marunde at Saturday's Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey fight card seen on Showtime. Jacare beat Marunde handily -- landing a ton of hard overhand rights. This x-ray photograph published by Tatame goes a long way towards explaining why Jacare wasn't following up the right hands with many combinations. Jacare won the fight by submission in the third round, but it was really his wrestling and striking that won him the fight. He repeatedly tagged Marunde with hard punches, even dropping him in the first round. Combined with that dominant striking was a very nice series of take downs, several using the fence for leverage. This was Souza's first fight back since losing his Strikeforce middleweight belt to Luke Rockhold last September. Hopefully the injury won't require a tremendously long lay-off before he is able to return to action. SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey

Posted in: fight, strikeforce, jacare, souza, showtime jacare

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Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza had a change of opponents just a week out from his bout in Strikeforce, but he still made the most of his opportunity, stating his case for a title shot.

Posted in: title, strikeforce, jacare, shot, souza

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Ronald "Jacare" Souza discusses his Strikeforce third-round submission win over newcomer Bristol Marunde to open Saturday's main card in Columbus, Ohio.

Posted in: strikeforce, video, jacare, souza, marunde

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COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Watch below as Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza talks about his win over Bristol Marunde at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, his injured hand, how much he knew about Marunde and what's next for him.

Posted in: jacare, bristol marunde, marunde, columbus ohio, jacare souza

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Strikeforce: "Tate vs. Rousey" kicked off its main card on Showtime tonight (Sat., March 3, 2012) with a middleweight showdown pitting former division champion Ronaldo Souza against the unheralded Bristol Marunde. Naturally, Souza was favored heavily coming in, mostly due to the fact that no one knows who Marunde was coming into the evening's festivities. They know who he is now. For all the wrong reasons, of course, due largely to his eating one of the sweetest spinning back kick's to the face you'll ever see. He walked through it, and managed to survive to the third round, but he was thoroughly dominated and eventually succumbed to an arm triangle choke. What's there to be said when the biggest criticism coming from this fight will likely be Souza's inability to finish sooner? To the surprise of no one, "Jacare" dominated the early action, avoiding strong shots from his opponent and taking his back in short order. He got a little dirty once he did, though, headbutting Marunde in the back, which the referee reprimanded him for. Then the Brazilian was reset due to illegal shots to the back of the head. No point was taken but the message was loud and clear. It turned out to be a good thing because Souza landed a strong counter that sent Bristol crashing to the floor. He survived the shot, not to mention the follow up guillotine, but the first round ended with the former champion having asserted his control. Easy peasy. Presumably because he wanted to entertain himself, Souza came out in the second throwing spinning shit, as Nick Diaz would call it, unloading with kicks and punches that had Murande flustered and falling backwards. "Jacare" also hit a late takedown (FTW) and played with a leg lock for a few seconds before the horn sounded. By this point it was just embarrassing how wide the gap between the two was. The third round came and it was only a matter of time before Souza locked in the submission and forced the tap. Move along, folks, nothing to see here. Remember, too, to check out MMAmania.com's ongoing live coverage of the "Tate vs. Rousey" main card action by clicking here.

Posted in: round, jacare, souza, bristol, marunde

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Ronaldo Souza defeated Bristol Marunde by submission (arm triangle). The stoppage came at 2:43 in the third round. Jacare aggressive at the start of the first round when he landed a straight right that backed Marunde against the fence. Jacare was confident in his hands throwing punches early opening up opportunities for his kicks. Jacare hit a takedown and immediately took Bristol's back with both hooks sunk in. Jacare headbutted Marunde's shoulder and then threw punches to the head. The referee stood Jacare up after some questionable punches landed to the the back of the head. As Marunda closed the distance he was dropped with a punch. Immediately Jacare swarmed and worked position for the remainder of the round. Marunde connected with a heavy right hand but Jacare responded with his own combination at the opening of the second. Jacare followed up with explosive kicks before swarming and taking Marunde's back. Marunde showing a great chin but also weak head movement and defense. Marunde walked right into a right hand and then a knee to the midsection. Jacare found a home for his overhand right hand. Jacare took Marunde to the ground and looked for a leg lock to end the round. Jacare immediately took Bristol Marunde to the mat and swarmed with heavy top control. Marunde gave up his back and Jacare sunk a hook in and looked to set up an arm-triangle choke. Bristol Marunde did little to defend and tapped almost immediately. SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey

Posted in: right, jacare, bristol marunde, bristol, marunde

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Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza had no trouble beating Bristol Marunde at Saturday night's Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey event, dominating him for two rounds before submitting him in the third. The fight was a mismatch from the moment it was booked: Marunde was a late replacement who just isn't on the same level as Jacare, one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world. Marunde knew he had nothing for Jacare and mostly played defense before finally getting finished in the third round. In the first round Jacare took Marunde's back and appeared to be working his way toward a submission, but when Jacare hit Marunde in the back of the head, the referee stood the fight up, giving Marunde new life. Jacare then dropped Marunde with a right hand and pounced on him on the ground, but Jacare wasn't able to submit Marunde on the ground, and Marunde survived the first. In the second round Jacare opened up his striking, with punches, front kicks and even a spinning back kick, hurting Marunde in the process. But when he took Marunde down and took his back, Marunde surprisingly shook him off and got back to his feet. Jacare dominated the striking, but Marunde once again survived the round. Jacare started the third round with a takedown, and now he was finally in the place he wanted to be: Jacare stayed on top of Marunde and worked to improve his position for a couple of minutes before finally sinking in an arm-triangle choke to end the fight.

Posted in: round, jacare, bristol marunde, marunde, round jacare

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This is the Strikeforce live blog for Ronaldo Souza vs. Bristol Marunde, a middleweight bout on tonight's Strikeforce card from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. Souza (14-3) is coming off a fight where he lost his Strikeforce middleweight title to Luke Rockhold. Marunde (12-6), who is making his Strikeforce debut, has won his last four fights. The live blog of this fight is below. More Coverage: Tate vs. Rousey Results | Latest Strikeforce News Round 1: Both fighters open orthodox with Jacare taking center cage. The two clinch and exchange hard body strikes and uppercuts, but nothing lands cleanly. Jacare clinches, lands a knee up the middle, a hard right hand and manages to take Marunde's back standing. Jacare now working the back while Marunde is on all fours. Jacare peppering Marunde with shots while referee Keith Peterson stands them up. He warns Jacare for punches to the back of the head. As they resume, Marunde eats a monster right hand that sends him crashing to the mat. Jacare attempts a guillotine from on top, but can't get it. Jacare is back on Marunde's back, though for now with no hooks in. Marunde stands, pummels in and now the two are clinched against the fence with Marunde pressing in. MMA Fighting scores this round 10-9 SouzaRound 2:Round 3:

Posted in: strikeforce, round, jacare, marunde, nothing lands

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In the second fight of the Showtime portion of Strikeforce: Tate vs Rousey, Ronaldo Souza (14-3, 4-1 Strikeforce) meets Bristol Marunde (12-6, 0-0 Strikeforce). Originally Souza was scheduled to face Derek Brunson, but Brunson was unable to pass his pre-fight medicals. Brunson requires corrective (contact) lenses in order to fight. Stepping up on short notice is IFL veteran and Reign Promotions owner, Bristol Marunde. Jacare has long been considered on of the top middleweights in the world outside of the UFC. A world-class grappler, Souza has made the proper adjustments recently to add explosive striking to his overall game. The former Strikeforce middleweight champion defended his belt once in a submission victory over Robbie Lawler before dropping the strap to Luke Rockhold at Strikeforce: Barnett vs Kharitonov. As one of the top grapplers in the world, Jacare possesses the type of skills to create problems for any of his opponents whenever the fight hits the mat. If there is one knock against Jacare it's that in MMA he often looks to maintain position instead of looking to finish. Against Robbie Lawler it was incredibly frustrating watching Jacare struggle to put Lawler away on the ground. As one of the top grapplers in the world, there is an expectation (unfair or not) that once the fight is on the mat, there will be submission finishes. It may be a case that Jacare has fallen in love with his striking and isn't training as a grappler as often as he was before, but it's something to note whenever Jacare fights. His opponent Bristol Marunde is relatively unknown to event the most hardcore of fans. An IFL veteran, Marunde didn't set the MMA world on fire, going 1-3 in the promotion. Since his return to the regional scene, Marunde has recorded a 9-1 record with his latest win over Jay Silva at SCC 3 in November. Marunde may be best known for his exploits outside of the cage when he used his MMA training to apprehend a wanted rapist who was hiding in his neighbor's house. Bristol is a fairly well rounded fighter training out of the Throwdown Training Center in Las Vegas. He doesn't really do anything great but he does everything well enough to remain competitive. If he has a clear advantage it may be in wrestling but taking the fight to the ground would be a huge mistake. If we're being honest with ourselves, Jacare is the clear favorite in the fight. There's a different between fighting Jay Silva and fighting Jacare Souza and we'll see that tonight. Expect Jacare to outwork Marunde on the feet before getting the fight to the ground and setting up a submission finish. While Marunde will have a puncher's chance, the odds say that Jacare wins this fight without much trouble. Jacare should win the fight by submission sometime in the second round after putting on a grappling clinic. SBN coverage of Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey

Posted in: fight, strikeforce, jacare, souza, marunde

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submitted by MattyBlayze [link] [1 comment]

Posted in: ’t, silva, jacare, sonnen, mattyblayze

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Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was expected to face Derek Brunson next weekend at Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey, but Brunson was forced out of their bout this week for failing a pre-fight eye exam with the Ohio Athletic Commission. Luckily for Jacare, it was revealed today that Bristol Marunde will step up in Brunson’s place to take on the former Strikeforce middleweight champ in what will be his promotional debut. Hailing from Fairbanks, Alaska and fighting out of Las Vegas with the Throwdown Training Center, the relatively unknown Marunde (12-6) will be riding a four-fight winning streak into his battle with Souza. The 29-year-old last appeared in action at Superior Cage Combat 3 in November, taking out Jay Silva via unanimous decision. Recently deposed Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (14-3, 1 NC) will be looking to rebound from his title-relinquishing loss to Luke Rockhold and put one back in the win column when he faces Marunde. Jacare dropped a unanimous decision to Rockhold when they met in the Strikeforce cage this past September to dispute the belt. Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey goes down on March 3 from the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio and will feature a title fight between Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate and challenger Ronda Rousey.

Posted in: strikeforce, jacare, brunson, bristol marunde, marunde

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Superior Cage Combat middleweight champion Bristol Marunde has agreed to step in and take on Ronaldo (Jacare) Souza next week.

Posted in: week, jacare, marunde, face jacare, strikeforce marunde

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Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Ronaldo Souza has a new opponent for Strikeforce “Tate vs. Rousey,” as Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced Wednesday that International Fight League veteran Bristol Marunde has agreed to face “Jacare” at the March 3 event.

Posted in: strikeforce, jacare, souza, march, marunde

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Ronaldo 'Jacare' Souza has a new opponent for Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey on March 3, in Columbus, OH.

Posted in: strikeforce, jacare, march, rousey, face jacare

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Just 10 days before its next event, Strikeforce is scrambling to find a new opponent for former middleweight champion Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza. Derek Brunson, who was slated to fight Jacare on March 3 in Columbus, Ohio, has dropped out of the card because he did not pass his pre-fight medicals, Strikeforce has announced. So what was the medical issue? According to Brunson, it's that the Ohio athletic commission won't let him fight wearing contact lenses. "Ok here's the deal," Brunson wrote on Twitter. "I've been fighting with contacts for 11 fights ... never was an issue. Ohio won't pass my eye exam. ... Stevie Wonder can play a piano blind & blind people can drive cars, but i can't fight with contacts." I'm not sure who those blind people driving cars are, but Brunson says he's getting Lasik soon. Unfortunately, it won't be soon enough to fight Jacare in a week and a half. Losing Brunson vs. Jacare makes an already thin Strikeforce fight card even thinner. The card had already lost a planned fight between Gegard Mousasi and Mike Kyle when Kyle dropped out with an injury. One option for Strikeforce could be to put Jacare and Mousasi in the cage together in a rematch of the 2008 Dream middleweight tournament final, which Mousasi won with an upkick knockout. But that's probably not realistic, as Mousasi has since moved up to light heavyweight. Strikeforce's shallow middleweight division doesn't have many other potential opponents for Jacare, but as of Tuesday afternoon the promotion is working on finding someone who can step in and take on one of the best Brazilian jiu jitsu practitioners in the world on 10 days' notice. The March 3 Strikeforce card is headlined by a women's 135-pound title fight between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey.

Posted in: fight, strikeforce, jacare, contact, brunson

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A main card middleweight match-up between Derek Brunson and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza has been nixed from the Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey fight card.

Posted in: fight, vs, jacare, card, derek brunson

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Strikeforce - Luke Rockhold vs. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza

Posted in: vs, rockhold vs, rockhold, jacare, luke

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