We shook hands and got to it. We
started on our knees and he basically shoved me back, and yeah, he's
strong so I went backward and he immediately jumped into side
control. Okay that's fine, let's see what he can do. He got a good
position and felt pretty damn heavy. Then he quickly attacked an
americana and I tapped just as quickly. I don't like americanas.
Okay, big guy knows what he's doing a little bit. I was curious of
what he could do and a bit careless so I got tapped. All good. We
reset, started again, and I was focused on not getting tapped again
and mounting some offense.
We shook hands and began round 2. He
shoved me again but this time when he pushed me back I slid to create
more distance so he couldn't pounce onto the top position again. I
figured I wouldn't be able to get him on his back so easily so I sat
down to bait him into butterfly guard. It worked, he came close and I
attempted an arm drag. That didn't work so well. He was strong enough
to keep his posture, plus my angle was a little off, and I ended up
in half guard on the bottom. Dude was heavy. He quickly tried to
transition to full mount but I shrimped and regained half guard.
Eventually I was able to recover into full guard. Time to go for a
sweep...easier said than done.
I got control of his arm and attempted
a pendulum sweep. Didn't work, I couldn't get my body angled
properly. His neck was a little exposed so I attacked a cross-collar
choke. My grips were in pretty deep but his chin was tucked blocking
the choke. I could've cranked it hard but that would just hurt his
jaw more so than choke him. I hate when people do that to me so I
chose not to do it and let go. I fought to get control of his arm
again and attacked an armbar but the guy was so strong he just
literally ripped his arm out of my grip and immediately tossed my
legs aside and got into side control. Dammit!
I kept my arms in tight, did not want
to give up another americana. I bridged to create space and rolled
belly down. Trust me, bridging and rolling under the weight of a guy
his size took some effort. I got a grip on his legs and was in a good
spot to go for a double-leg. I felt him start to sprawl and try to
create distance to break my grips. Right then my mindset switched. It
went from let's practice technique to
time to get aggressive. Attack, attack, attack!
I bull rushed into him before he could
sprawl, swept his legs aside and got the guy on his back. Now I was
on top in side control driving my shoulder into his face to keep him
facing away from me. Did not want this guy turning into me. I stayed
aware of my body position because if I was off by just a little bit
the guy could literally pick me up and toss me aside. I kept my
shoulder in his face and shifted my hips to keep his arm out from
under my body so he couldn't push or lift me.
With side control established it was
time to advance my position. I wanted to tire the guy out so I
transitioned to knee-on-belly (a pretty self-explanatory position). I
drove my knee and shin down into his gut while pulling his body up
into me. The cringe on his face told me I had it anchored pretty
good. When he gasped for air, I drove my knee in harder. When he
gasped again I transitioned to the full mount. I quickly dropped my
chest into his face to close the distance (don't want him tossing me)
and to make things uncomfortable for him. I could feel him tiring.
Good thing because fighting for the top position took a lot of energy
out of me.
His elbows were sticking out so I
attacked an armbar again. In hindsight I should've attacked a choke
since everybody is weak at the neck but in the moment I saw an
opening for an armbar. The guy – did I mention he's really strong –
easily yanked his arm back and rolled me over. Now I was on my back
again. Dang it! Sure I had him in full guard but I didn't want to be
on the bottom. The guy's heavy...
I broke his posture down and held him
close to keep him from muscling out my guard. When he regained his
posture he leaned back a bit...just as I was hoping he would. I
attacked a situp sweep and got the guy on his back and I was in full
mount again. Okay, no armbars this time.
This time the guy scrambled like crazy.
He bumped, bridged, and pushed. I struggled to maintain the mount but
didn't feel too stable so I got out of mount and went to side
control. I felt a little more stable but he continued to scramble. I
tried to pin his arm down with my leg but it wasn't happening. I was
off balance and the guy basically lifted me up and rolled me onto my
back. We scrambled. Somehow I ended up on my feet with a grip on his
legs and he was on his back. I went for a bull-fight pass. The whole
time I'm thinking stay offensive, pressure him, keep him working, get
him too tired to defend.
I tried to pass his guard and the guy
rolled away from me onto his side. His back was exposed to me and I
sensed that if I could take his back he'd be mine. If I could get his
back I could sink in a choke. I attempted to step on his hip to take
his back but as I didn't have the right leverage and the guy just
grabbed me and rolled. I was on my back again. Dang it!
The guy was in side control and put his
weight on me. At this point I'm feeling pretty damn tired. I realized
something. When a guy is strong as hell and not tired he's strong as
hell, but when he's tired and I'm just as tired, he's still strong as
hell.
I felt my gas tank nearing empty. It
was becoming a burden to breathe. I had to get out of his
side-control and regain the top position. I bumped, bridged, and
scrambled. We ended up in a weird position. He was still on top sort
of in side control but I had a grip on his legs, similar to a
bull-fight grip, and I was still on my back. I couldn't move because
I was exhausted. My gas tank was pretty much empty. But so was his. I
could tell because we both lied in this awkward position for about 10
seconds catching our breath.
With the few drops left in my gas tank
I had to make a push to regain top position. I had a grip on his
legs, he was on top, but lying more on my hips than my chest and he
was off balance. I did the only thing that came to mind and sat up.
Lemme tell ya, doing a sit up with a big guy sitting on you trying to
hold you down is difficult as hell. But the grip on his legs helped.
As I sat up I lifted his legs as best I could hoping to roll the guy
off even more off balance. To my surprise, it worked. It took every
ounce of strength I had left but it worked. The guy rolled onto his
back, I regained the top position and I was in side-control once
again driving my shoulder into his face. The guy was more tired than
I was and the voice in my head told me to attack. Ignore the fatigue,
suck it up, and attack.
I transitioned to full mount, which was
pretty easy telling me the guy was exhausted. I drove my chest into
his face and looked for options. I wanted to attack a choke. At first
I thought arm-triangle but I'd have to move his arm and I didn't want
to battle against his strength. Simply didn't have the energy for
that again. Then I thought of a collar choke. A good option. Then I
had the idea to bait him into turning over so I could take his back
and attack a choke from there. Rear naked, collar, bow and arrow, any
of those would work. I figured I'd feint an americana just to get him
to roll a little so I could take the back but just as he started to
move the way I wanted him to, time was up. The sparring session was
over.
Damn, what a roll! Even though I didn't
submit the guy I felt in control for most of the match...ya know,
excluding that first 30 seconds when I was careless and gave up a
submission. If we were keeping track of points that second round, I
would've won by a healthy margin. I gained a lot of points with a few
sweeps and advancing to the full mount. I probably had around 20
points. He gained points from passing my guard a couple times and a
couple sweeps. He probably had around 10 points. It was an utterly
exhausting roll, but damn fun.
Next time I need to focus more on
maintaining the top position and not getting reversed onto my back.
Even though I prefer to play from the bottom, I should get better at
maintaining top position and setting up submissions from there.
Something to keep in mind for next time.
