Max Gimenis and Mahamed Aly met at the New York BJJ Pro 2018 event in the ultra-heavyweight division. As is the case with most heavyweight matchups, initial contact happens off the feet. Not many heavyweights will pull guard. They’d much rather take their opponent down and stay on top.
Throw Down
We’ll focus a bit on the takedown game because that’s both opponent’s A game. Mr. Aly’s favorites are forward throws of type harai-goshi or uchi mata as a counter to the leg grab. However, in this case, Mr. Gimenis attacks first with a fireman’s carry into single leg. Mr. Aly goes for a counter but is ultimately thrown backward.
Defense
Finally some ground game; Mr. Gimenis uses the opportunity to attack the turtle for a backtake. The attack is stopped with the tripod defense and some effective grip fighting. They stand up. Mr. Gimenis still has dominant grips. Aly’s posture is broken. Probably because of this, he decides to pull half-guard which draws the match into a battle for the pass or sweep.
Guard and Pass
We see the rest of the match in a half-guard battle with Mr. Gimenis getting several advantages for the near pass. He does a couple of things to solid effect: turns Aly’s half-guard away from him to almost mount or take the back using the trapped leg and knee slides past the legs. Using the trapped leg to expose the back is an effective way of shutting down the option B sweep or log roll. The X pass, another thing that gets him past the legs, is just as effective. If you’re not familiar with the three look them up.
Conclusion
This was mostly a match commentary that just covers match essence. For an in-depth analysis leave a comment.
