Fighter with unexpected good grappling/bjj skills

[Typrune Goatley]

If anything, it's surprising that his striking is pretty good.

Ironically he makes a lot of the competition style BJJ mistakes.

Interesting...what mistakes have you seen him make in fights?

 

[marvinparsons]

Jorge Gurgel and Andy Wang were mainly strikers, but supposedly they could also grapple.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

Robert Whittaker

Hell yes. I was convinced he would never win a title because his grappling was no good. After he smoked Jacare i started to believe!

 

[Paolo Delutis]

I have Pettis, Conor, and Ortega in mind

What....


Ortega is a Gracie guy lol lmfao..

Conor is not a good grappler lol ...

Pettis always had good submissions, lacked wrestling though...

 

[Paolo Delutis]

Robert Whittaker

Robert wrestles with the Australian international team...he can definitely grapple..

 

[Nathan LaMontagne]

Interesting...what mistakes have you seen him make in fights?

The big one is giving up top postion a little more, especially in scrambles.

Also deep half is super risky in MMA

 

[arcadeperfect]

Robert wrestles with the Australian international team...he can definitely grapple..

That's not his original background. His original background was Karate and Hapkido and then he jumped right into MMA. He only started wrestling with the Australian team deep into his MMA career. On top of that the Australian team isn't even known for their wrestling.

 

[Dr. Rose]

Also very skilled.

Slightly different skillset, but both can be lethal.

Too soon?

 

[wufabufa]

Kit Cope

 

[gentel]

Leon Edwards - Won the first round of Leon-Usman 2 by tripping Usman and taking full mount, and took down Colby, and almost subbed him too

 

[taugrim]

Holloway.

Once his long win streak started, he had great TDD, good GnP, and submissions.

It's ironic because most people identify him as primarily a striker.

I do think Max plays to his strengths because his vision, striking defense, and striking diversity have been a big advantage against everyone except Volk.

 

[SG123]

Don't confuse exhaustion with poor grappling. Conor is pretty decent. He actually defended well against Khabib. But Khabib is Khabib

His definitely did better than most vs Khabib, despite it still being a domination

 

[markantony20]

Conor showed at least in my opinion pretty good BJJ skills against Holloway but it seemed to fall off after that where for the Mendes fight he was just holding on to keep Mendes from posturing up(granted Conor had torn his ACL not too long before the fight so that could be a factor).

 

[markantony20]

Volk has good defensive grappling imo, not so much offensive but he’s showed very good sub defence in his career.

 

[markantony20]

MVP

He was nullifying Lima surprisingly well in the first round of their fight with just wrist control.

We all know how the fight ended but still.

 

[It Just Is]

Leon Edwards - Won the first round of Leon-Usman 2 by tripping Usman and taking full mount, and took down Colby, and almost subbed him too

I think this is a solid answer. Edwards has surprisingly good MMA grappling. A striker foremost, but one who is not afraid to grapple someone if he sees an opening, even if that opening is against a fighter who has the better credentials. I think Volk's grappling is also underrated. Barring Max's earlier losses, Max's MMA wrestling and offensive jitz has come a long way.

Gus in his prime had surprisingly good offensive and defensive wrestling.

 

[moreorless87]

The reem?

I would say moreso that people forget what his earlier MMA run was often based on grappling moreso than striking.

 

[560ti]

The reem?

Great choice. My first ever BJJ coach (8th degree black belt Carlos Machado) was asked a similar question years back. Question being which MMA fighter do you think has underrated grappling and his answer was Overeem. 17 wins via submission in MMA and won the Euro qualifier for the ADCC

 

[AfroBanana]

Gus and Leon were my immediate first two thoughts. Both faced extremely good wrestlers and showed how capable they are.

 

[Ludwig von Mises]

Wanderlei was known as a striker/brawler but has never been submitted in 50 fights. Underrated grappler for sure.