Fighters Only

Issue 127

April 2015

10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu founder Eddie Bravo explains how his student, UFC welterweight Ben Saunders, pulled off the World MMA Awards’ ‘Submission of the Year’

After two decades of action inside the Octagon, fight fans could be forgiven for thinking they’ve seen it all. From devastating striking techniques to shocking submissions, there’s not much left unseen. So when something new comes along, it’s bound to capture fans attention.

At UFC Fight Night 49 in Tulsa, Oklahoma last August, returning 170lb’er Ben Saunders took on welterweight debutant Chris Heatherly and became the first fighter ever to submit an opponent with an omoplata inside the Octagon.

The omoplata is usually used as a way of sweeping opponents instead of submitting them, yet Saunders was able to put enough torque on Heatherly’s shoulder to force him to tap out.

However, to get himself into the position where he’d be able to pull off the move that won him a sought-after trophy from the Seventh Annual Fighters Only World MMA Awards, Saunders decided to bring in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu coach Eddie Bravo to help him shore up his rubber-guard game.

“Ben has always been a rubber-guard player but he was playing a version of the rubber guard that I never play with,” Bravo tells FO. “It was kind of weird, but it was working in his fights so I never told him not to use it. We were never that close and for a while I lost track of his career. Then he saw the video where I’m showing Rickson Gracie the rubber guard and he realized he was playing it differently.

“So Ben sends me a direct message on Twitter asking if I would be doing a seminar in Florida any time soon. He wanted to learn the rubber guard correctly because he’d had the call and was going back to the UFC.”

Instead of working with Bravo directly Saunders spent time with Tyler Woolsey, one of Bravo’s students out in Florida, grasping the fundamentals of the rubber guard. Impressed by what he learned, the 31-year-old reached out to Bravo to be in his corner for the bout with Heatherly.

Coming in on short notice, Bravo didn’t have much time to work with Saunders. However, what they did manage to work on led directly to his award-winning victory. Bravo explains: “The fight was on Saturday and I didn’t get there until Friday evening. I went and met up with him in his room and we went over a bunch of basic stuff and funnily enough, the most basic path in the rubber guard is to the omoplata or the omoplata sweep. The basic path is to take it all the way to the omoplata.

“I knew that it was really easy for him to triangle his legs with both arms in because you need to have really long legs. During the day we practiced getting him in mission control, throwing elbows, getting his opponent’s hand on the mat and getting into the omoplata position. I thought the guy would roll out of it so we figured we’d use that to get back into top control and stand back up again.

“However, Chris Heatherly didn’t roll so we thought f**k it, we’ve got to finish this. Ben just stuck with it and got the submission.”

So the ‘Submission of the Year’ for 2014 wasn’t a move ‘Killa B’ had drilled and drilled throughout a long training camp. In fact, it was a night of going through the basics that not only led to one of the most memorable finishes in UFC history, but Saunders bagging a sizeable bonus check and a much-coveted World MMA Awards statue.

THE BRAVO BREAKDOWN

Jiu-jitsu pioneer Eddie Bravo breaks down the key moments leading up to Saunders’ victory at UFC Fight Night 49

1. Heatherly takes Ben down, which is actually great because he’s so dangerous off of his back. He didn’t even need to pull guard. He got side control but Ben recovered and managed to get into full guard.

2. Ben trapped Heatherly’s left arm, which is the main ingredient of using the rubber guard.

3. Instead of going to mission control (where Saunders would hold his leg across the back of Heatherly’s neck), he’s naturally creating a triangle with his legs because they’re incredibly long. It’s a different approach to the rubber guard that he uses.

4. From there he started throwing elbows, which is something we were working on as

well. They were great because that’s what he was focusing on. You could see Heatherly wasn’t thinking about ground ‘n’ pound. He was using his arms to block those elbows.