Gordon Ryan has been very pleased about the work he’s doing with UFC Heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Jones might be on the brink of retirement but he’s still interested in advancing his skills as a martial artist.
Naturally, any time grappling training in an MMA setting is considered the question of what it takes to be an elite level grappler in MMA arises. While BJJ was once the key feature of UFC champions, nowadays anti wrestling meta seems dominant ie the competitor who can stay on his feet and outwork his opponent wins more often than the straight grappler.
Gordon Ryan told Morning Kombat:
“That’s a good question. I think that, number one, you have to have the ability if you’re a grappler, you have to have the ability to actually, of course, take the fight to the ground. So that means you have to have good, reactive and proactive takedowns in the open, like a GSP, for example, where you throw punches, get the guy’s hands up and shoot takedowns.”
“Or like George was very good at throwing jabs, throwing jabs that would chase them and then react to takedowns. But go down what question to the fans and put them down. So being able to come down in the open, being able to put him down on the fence like would be where you would apply body weight, the fence, put the guy down and then obviously once you get him them being able to hold them down and as you get on top of them, you can’t hold him down and do damage it’s useless.”
“So holding him down, stopping the initial explosion up and then being able to have a combination of working through a hierarchy of things while also having open hands to be able to punch when you’re happy, but still holding people down when they’re trying to get up. If they’re going to get up, it shouldn’t be for free. It should be them getting up, carrying body weight.”
“And if they’re not carrying body weight as they’re getting up, they should be getting hit. So the ability to take people down from top position to double down in the open, take people down the fence, make them carry body weight when you’re on top of them and they’re not carrying body weight and they aren’t getting up being able to hit them.”
“So those are the four most important things for me. Obviously, being able to do damage or or having strong submission to actually finish the fight for bottom position. It’s keeping inside position, having a dangerous where people are timid and reluctant to come into your guard because of the fact that you’re so dangerous. They play in the outside, which will mean that your guards so dangerous are, if they engage you, they get finished.”
“If they don’t engage you in high up and having the ability to hit pipes back up to your feet and stand up when someone’s trying to keep you down so that you can dictate where the fight goes. And I think those are the most important things. And it comes down to the same thing we always talk about is control that leads to submission either from top or bottom position.”
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