BTG 149 - Improving Cardio and Shitty Wrestling

[Music] Hello and welcome to another episode of Breaking the Guard. Uh we had quite a few events going on and a couple of them I missed. Uh, I talked about PGF on Friday, but I forgot to mention that there was a who's number one Friday evening uh with my old uh buddy Kit Dale and Bagar Roacha amongst other matches. Then on Saturday, there was a BJ Stars event and also the UFC which we previewed. And then on Sunday, there was a combat jiu-jitsu card. So, lots of and there was also a CFF or CFC like combat fighting championships which had like a grappling event as well. So, lots of events going on. Hard to keep track. I didn't watch all of them. I will touch a little bit on the events I did watch and give some feedback. Uh, on a personal note, if you guys follow my social media, you probably see I've been doing a lot of assault bike work uh every day. In fact, this week I did either sprints or 30 minutes cardio. And initially I was doing 30 minutes at like zone two, which for me is like just below 120 beats per minute. I'm not sure if that's entirely accurate. It know it goes by age. So 44 minus 220 puts me like a one I think six 176 would be like the top edge of my well that would be theoretically my top heart rate but that's not necessarily accurate because it depends on individuals but I say that because at zone 2 I can talk comfortably like nothing's happening right which I think most people that's the same. Now zone three for me is like 122 beats per minute up to like 130 something. And at that range I'm also breathing easily. I can hold a conversation no problem. So the first one I did zone two. The second one I did zone three. Then the third and fourth ones I did zone four which for me is over 141 beats 140 beats per minute up to I think it's like 156 or something like that or 157 for me. I'm also able to hold a conversation at that heart range. Now, my breaths are a little shorter, but not particularly difficult. So, that's interesting to me. But I also notice that when I'm training, it's very rare where I have a hard time breathing. But in any case, it's been now like almost like well, let's be real, like 10 days where I've been doing a salt bike daily. And again, there's a major difference between the sprinting and then the cardio run. So, sprinting is miserable. Um, I still feel like uh I have a lot of room to improve. Although like my power production is averaging over 500 watts, I still feel the last ones I'm dropping off a bit more than I would like. Uh, I've only had one run where I was over 500 all eight sprints. Uh, I'm still averaging over 500 because I'm going faster than that. And the first few I'm getting 600, 550 uh for the most part. So the last couple when I drop below 500 and it's like 450 or 470, you know, the average isn't working out. But I would like to have like minimum output of 500 watts the entire time. Uh and I've only done that once in the past 10 days. But uh regardless, been doing that. The cardio I've it's a lot easier to do. It's enjoyable for me because I can just do it and I'm getting my workout in. I'm getting a lot of sweat going and I am getting my heart used to staying at that range for 30 minutes straight. So, uh that should translate to some improved cardio on the mat hopefully. Uh, I did do an open man on Saturday and I tried to push more. I told you it's still a little bit of a struggle sometimes to get my strategy to shift a bit, but it's slowly getting there. Uh, like like day by every session like I'm pushing a little bit more, but like I'm not going full throttle. So, it's still tricky for me to make that adjustment. I think also it just with the selection of opponents that or training partners that I have sometimes it's like it's hard to push the throttle because I'll just run over the guy, you know, uh if it's a someone who's a lot smaller than me or someone who's a lot less skilled. Um, it just makes it trickier for me, you know, cuz I want to, but I got to, you see, that's the thing that I got to turn that switch on of just being able to murder somebody. Like right now, like I I try to be a good training partner so I don't look to hurt anybody or just neck crank them or whatnot. But a part of me is like I got to unlock that again just so that I have it because I haven't done that for so long that I'm very like nice to people. Like I don't face crank anybody because I'm like I I don't want to like pop someone's chin or neck. So like I just give up on chokes a lot. And you know that's helped me because I've been working now a lot on alternative ways of finishing from the back. like I've been getting more into using the straight jacket now and uh I initially had some problems doing it. I've found some tweaks uh that even for me where you know my leg doesn't really bend as much as it used to, I can still make it work by some hip adjustments and also by alternative submissions. So, and I'll talk about a little bit because that's a note I'm going to make on some of the competitions that I watched over the the weekend. But any case, that's my little cardio training story. I expect by at the end of this next week that I should start feeling the the improvements as far as conditioning. Although, to be fair, on the cardio sessions, I'm already pushing more. The sprints, I don't really feel like they've gotten any easier. But at least the the cardio sessions, I'm going faster each session. and putting more power output in each session and uh feeling good the whole time. So, who knows? Anyhow, let's jump forward. We had the UFC on ABC main event Whitaker and RDR. I'm going to be spoiling lots of everything I'm talking about. So, if you don't want to hear about that, tune off. But uh this fight was interesting. And I actually mean that because what was weird about it, Robert pegged him with a few jabs across, nothing super heavy, but RDR's reaction was terrible. Like he would turn away. He would like look really wobbled every time he got touched by Whitaker. But I'm not talking about like heavy power shots. Like it was just like, you know, a jab and like he would flinch or he would like look down and like turn away. Like it it was like the body language was terrible from RDR. Like I didn't expect that cuz I didn't I mean I haven't seen much of his fights because all his fights got underground relatively quickly. But uh it didn't really look particularly great. the one thing that he has besides being extremely tall and like he's really big for the weight class as far as like stature, but um his knees are crazy because he can throw that left knee from as they put like the other side of the cage and every time he threw that knee it hurt uh Whitaker at one point like he lost the first round I felt second round. I thought RDR had won that round. He did land some of those knees and it had effect. It wasn't a big round win, but he did win that round. Third round was one that people went back and forth on because RDR actually had him wobbled on the feet because he landed like two consecutive knees to the body that and started landing punches that were hurting Whitaker. And then when he went to throw another knee, Whitaker timed the overhand right that dropped RDR and he got on top of him right away. started connecting some big shots from the top and it looked like it was going to be over, but the Ritter recovered, was able to get back up to his feet and then he scored a takedown and was able to control him from the top. Although do that I guess that's a question of was that one finishing sequence that lasted about 15 seconds worth more than RDR winning the whole round the rest of the round like pretty dominantly. Most people thought it was and I could see that because that was the most significant damage. Although the Ritter did do some serious damage that round two. Like he like I said, he was very close to finishing. Uh not as close as Whitaker, but he was close. Uh but he wasn't as dominant as Whitaker was for those 15 seconds. Those 15 seconds, if you were RDR fan, you were like, "Oh my god, it's over." Uh so kudos to both of them for surviving those near flushes. Anyhow, round four and five to me were RDR rounds. Not by a lot, mind you. Uh because Whitaker gassed and I'm sure these all the body shots didn't help with that and he started to get a little sluggish, a little slower. And the Ritter was able to outbox him at some moments, but mainly the knees and a lot of clinching against the fence. And Ditter does a good job of staying busy. Like he'll be on the fence throwing some knees, throwing some punches to the body. Like he never stopped working. So he was outscoring. And now a lot of people didn't like that, but it is a fight and it is worn by inches. And those were the inches, little shovel hooks and little, you know, touches to the body where Whitaker was fine being there because I think he was just tired and didn't want to get into his any more exchanges or any more big knees from the outside. Uh, and Ditter ended up winning a split decision, which I think it's understandable. Now, as far as how this equates to the rest of the picture, I don't think he's going to be a champ. Not with the way he handled those strikes. Like I told you, I think Whitaker is on the way out. You know, he's still obviously very good and still a top 10 guy, but he's from my view, he's peaked. He hasn't shown any new skills. You could argue some of those skills have deteriorated. Uh doesn't look like he's growing as an athlete. So, he's an aging athlete deteriorating, right? And sorry to be cruel, but it it's just the reality. If I saw like some parts of the game evolving to become better, uh then I would say, "Okay, he can have some more life into this." But he doesn't seem like he's developing anything new. He's just trying to maintain what he had. and you that's not really that effective as you're aging that you're going to start dropping off. He's still doing the same blitzing and stuff which again still effective but he's not growing. Um when you have like the the next big card, Chime and um Driscus, those are two very dangerous guys. And those are two guys are also notoriously difficult to put on their back and also have good power and can strike. So, I'm not sure how the Ritter is going to do in those fights because he's going to struggle to take down those gentlemen. And I'm not sure how he's going to deal with the striking from those guys, especially with uh Driscus. And Driscus is probably the biggest guy in that division. Uh, I mean RDR might be taller, but by mass and I think by effectively strength, I think uh Drisk is is just on another level. He could be fighting a 205 brawl. So yeah, RDR needs to work on striking and particularly taking strikes and moving with them. He didn't look that great, especially in the early parts of the round and some of the later parts. He's a He's pretty funky. Uh so, you know, some people like, well, it's gonna be interesting because Riskus is another guy that's very awkward, but like he makes it work. Like, it doesn't look terrible on Driscus. It It didn't look great for RDR. Um, and I think he had a hard time taking down Whitaker, which historically has been very difficult to take down. I think Driscis is probably going to be harder to take down. And I think if I remember correctly, the he scored like maybe two takedowns, maybe three, and the last one was in the third round. So, as he got more tired, his takedown abilities got less even though Whitaker got more tired. So yeah, I don't think as long as if there's a Driskus or there's a Chime like RDR has the potential to be the champion unless he improves his striking abilities and his wrestling abilities to but mainly the striking. I think like if he got better at striking and more comfortable, he could then hang enough to make his grappling work. But as it stands right now, man, it did not look like he would be able to hang with those guys. I think he would just get pieced up on his feet. That's just my take though. Um, other fights at Consequencer, you had Peter Yan and McGee. This was actually a pretty competitive fight. Apparently, both of them decided they weren't going to take each other down and it was just going to be pretty much striking the whole way through and pretty much boxing. Yan won just about every round, but it was uh back and forth and that it not back and forth. Yan was pretty dominant. He landed the bigger shots, but he didn't go unscathed. Uh McGee definitely stayed in the pocket there with him and was throwing a lot of combinations. It just seemed like Yan had the bigger power. Like McGee would like throw lots of combos, but they weren't all power. like he was like touch touch boom whereas every time that Yan landed you can see like it made an impact and you know he got cut and he was bleeding so it was a lot more damaging um whenever Yan landed and still showing he's got it he did defend a couple takedowns that McGee did he didn't really go for many but he did go for a couple and uh so he still looks promising in that division and he he won the decision there. Then the last fight, Sharia Bullet with the name is slipping me. Damn, I hate when I lose a name like that. But he fought a guy that was pretty game and Sharia was landing lots of leg kicks that were pretty damaging. Not too much from the punching perspective, but the kicks were doing a good amount of damage. At one point his opponent cracked him with a good I think right hand, broke his nose, and you could see right away the nose cooked out, started bleeding. But seemed like uh when they got into the corner, they fixed it up pretty good because he wasn't bleeding after uh that damage. But his opponent really tried to take him down a lot. Sharia showed good takedown defense, never really gave him anything. Uh, and was able to beat him up. Still just piece him up with kicks from the outside. And it might have I thought it was two rounds to one, but the judges gave it three rounds to Sharia, which I guess you could say that also. He's showing that he's tough and even with a, you know, one eye and a broken nose and I've suffered three of them. Like it's hard to see when you once you break your nose because your eyes start to tear up and uh it's not pleasant. So I can only imagine being with one eye and tearing up. But he didn't seem like it really phased him too much. So good on him. His takedown defense looked a lot better this time around. Uh his opponent never got close to putting one in the back and he was able to stick in his feet. I just don't like his style. It's very evasive and he's not very damaging like he's just kind of like picking you apart. A very point karate style. So, and the fact that apparently he can't fight, you know, in the US, he has to fight outside really makes me wonder like what type of potential future he has in the UFC unless they're just going to do like how is he going to get to the title picture if he gets there and then never fight in the States? Like that's a it's a weird cell. So, it's weird that they're developing him as an athlete. But in any case, that's all I had from the the UFC. The who's number one on Friday, I will tell you after watching PGF kind of lame, lots of uh well, not lots, but the main event Kit Dale was a lot of passive wrestling. No real takedown attempts going on. Uh just lots of like uh like like it looks like I'm going for something, but I'm really not. Eventually, Vagner did secure a takedown. Got on top, but wasn't able to really pass. Just put a lot of good pressure. Kit was able to get back up to his feet. Vagner was able to take him down again. And then Kit went to give his back. Vagnner tried to chase the back. Then Kit uh reversed, got on top, got some close looks at uh passing the guard and oh actually my correction, he did pass a guard. Uh, so he did score a pass and I think at the very end Vagner kind of turtled and then Kit was trying to chase the back. My memor is a little fuzzy at the end there. It was a interesting one because it's like depends on the score set the the rules that you use you would score differently. Now, who's number one? From my understanding, it's supposed to be like submission, uh, threat is number one, then aggression, and then, uh, I guess positions. I I I could have that wrong because I have so many different rule sets in my head. But they judged it for Vagner and I kind of see that again is if it kit won easily. It would be 3-0 because none of Wagner's takedowns went straight to the back. They were all turtled and then Kit went to his guard. So those would have been zero points and Kit actually scored the guard pass which would be a three-0 and he might have scored a takedown too. I'm not at the end it seemed that towards the end Vagner gassed and that's when Kit really started uh being able to score and get the better positions. So it is uh interesting, but Vagner was in for sure in control for a longer period of time. But I don't know, like I'm the type that I like to score things based off how is this going to end if this match keeps going. And that one looks like Kit was going to win that if it kept going. If there was another five minutes, I think it would be easy win for for Kit. Uh but at the same time, this wasn't really an exciting matchup. Kind of just a lot of standing around, not much happening. Uh some few brief moments of interest. The the lady's co-main event, which was um Bagner's daughter and Adelferino. That one was pretty short and pretty nasty. Uh they started training leg locks and Adele got a lock and just ripped it. Unfortunately hurt uh Roachcha. But she was a good sport about it. Got up to her feet and everything. But yeah, like I don't know why anyone wanted to play footsies with uh Fornino. She's shown she's very dangerous with any submission, but also with particularly with the leg locks. So, I wouldn't be, and this is something I I try to tell all the competitors, like you guys going into leg locks, you're going into shootouts. And to me, the the idea of going into a submission shootout is the same as being a striker and going into the pocket just to exchange with somebody. Like there's always a chance you can get knocked out too, right? And this is kind of like a rockam sakum thing. It's like, okay, I'm going to give you two, but if you eat one of mine, it's going to end, right? And you're taking the chance that you're the better heavier hitter with a better chin. And the submission with the leg locks is kind of the same because a lot of these positions, especially at 50/50, both guys can have our opportunities to submit each other. So, you're really banking on you're going to be the better leg locker or have better counter defense. Doesn't seem like a great strategy in my opinion. It seems like one of more you're very high risk and you're a bit of a gambler where I would advise people like avoid the shootouts only. You I would only resort to a shootout if I had no other means of winning, right? like this guy is clearly better. He could pass my guard at will. I can't take him down. You know, I I have no real recourse to win this fight except in getting into a brawl. Then, yeah, okay, get into the shootout because that's your only chance. And that's usually people who are brawling is because they can't win the fight clean. They have to get it messy. But if you are a very technical athlete that has lots of options, resorting to the shootout to me is strategically poor, right? Like it's not a smart decision cuz eventually you're going to lose one of these shootouts. Even if you're the better one, like you know, like I said, if I have the guy who's number one in the world is the guy the number two in the world and they start exchanging with each other, the number two is going to win some of those. Not all of them, but he's going to win some of them. But um I feel the same with these layup shootouts because I I I've seen a lot of them. There was a lot of them in PGF. Uh there were some of them and who's number one? So yeah, I would caution people like all because you like the leg locks and you're good at it, realize so is your opponent nowadays, especially in the lighter weights. Like all the lightweights are just focusing exclusively on leg locks. And I understand it. It's hard to pass guard. It's easy to get into the legs, but you have to realize everyone's doing the same thing. So, you're going to you're going to get into a shootout. So, you have to ask yourself, how confident am I in my leg locks compared to my opponent? Right? Because if we're both similarly competent, do I have something else to bring to the table or am I solely relying on being a better leg locker? Because if it is, I would say, man, you need to work on your game, right? Like, you need to get everything else up to par. But um those are the two matches I saw from who's number one. Uh then there was the BJJ stars and that one was not that entertaining. That was even more standup wrestling. Lots of 00 referee decisions. The only finish happened Well, no, not the only finish. I'm sorry. There were some finishes, but um the main the final there was a finish in the last 10 seconds. And I think it was more of forced error because his opponent, even though 000 was given some passivity warnings and again the main event was Yatan, I forget the last name versus Pedro Mourinho. And Mourinho was a smaller man. Yatan was a huge guy. It must be like 250 plus. But Pedro was more aggressive. Got slightly better bites into some takedowns. Like he picked up a single leg was as close to the takedown as they got. And um was trying to make something happen. Shot in deep. Pedro got his guillotine. And rather than just defend the hands like you normally would, it looked like it tried to spin, which I've seen some people do. You try to spin out of it, but what he ended up doing was spinning and then Pedro just kind of shifted a little bit with him and got a really deep elbow high or wrist high guillotine. That made it even worse. Like in retrospect, terrible decision. He should have just with like 10 seconds left, he could just stayed on the hands. He would have lost anyways, but you would have not lost by getting your neck ripped off. So, Mourinho ended up winning the whole thing, but his previous two matches he won by decisions. There were a bunch of decision matches as well. And uh yeah, the what I call shetty wrestling and jiu-jitsu is still prevalent, right? And this is why now when I look at these tournaments and I had the the pleasure of being at PGF like this is a much better format for for TV. I think the length might be putting people off. I'm not sure uh because to commit to watching a 4-hour event is a bit much. But you know it is streamed on YouTube. You can watch it later. So, uh, I would definitely recommend watching it cuz there was a lot more action in PGF. Not very little wrestling in PGF because most people just pulling guard just to get to the ground and start trying to get a finish. There is some people that were wrestling, but a lot of them were. So, at least you're not dealing with the the prolonged wrestling battle where nothing's going on, right? Because when you have a 15minute match, there's not a lot of pressure to score a takedown. And I say shitty wrestling, and that's not saying that these guys don't know how to wrestle. Don't uh misunderstand me. What I mean to say is that it's just shitty to look at, right? Because these guys obviously know how to wrestle and do takedowns. But wrestling in jiu-jitsu is very different than wrestling in wrestling because there's so many different threats. And in wrestling, you don't have to worry about getting guillotineed or getting arm barred or getting mlatter, getting triangle choke, getting leg locked. Like there's so many different things that can happen when you go for a takedown. So there is a lot greater risk in shooting in jiu-jitsu than there is in MMA. So or in in wrestling. So you see, that's why a lot of people are gunshy. That's why a lot of people are just doing snatch singles. But it's also more difficult because the stances are different. There's no passivity warnings. So people can be a little more apprehensive and fight from the outside of it where in wrestling that's not a thing. And uh that's why I feel like everything should have a wall or a pit. You don't see prolonged wrestling battles in grappling format. Like if we looked at the the CJI, there weren't really any long wrestling battles that I can recall. Everything got to the ground cuz you're either getting pushed into the wall or someone scoring the taked down. And even in the UFC BJJ, yeah, most of the guys were pulling guard, but even the ones that weren't, they were scoring takedowns. So, I think everybody else needs to catch up. Make a bowl. I think the bowl is better. It's very definitive. U or even the pit's fine, too, right? One of those two things should be in all the grappling things because it's going to make things a lot quicker to happen. that there's not going to be it it changes how wrestling is going to happen in jiu-jitsu for sure because you can't just run away anymore because running away is actually going to get you taken down now because you're going to hit the back of the wall and you're not going to be able to move and it's not like the cage which it has give and I can use my hips. Those slant walls or the curved walls are disastrous for takedown defense. Uh you're not take you're not defending takedowns leaning against the wall. You're going to slide right down. Uh, so it's a lot more definitive. So what's going to that's what that's going to do is going to force the athletes to stay in the center. They're not going to allow themselves to get pushed back. And guess what? When people are close, that's when takedown's going to happen. When people are far away, it's very tricky. I try to shoot sprawl, right? But when we're close now, it's easy to get in. Um, so yeah, I think the rest of the promotions need to catch up. Get get a bowl, get a a pit or whatever the equivalent is. Put a barrier in there because this running people out of bounds stuff, it's old, man. Tired of seeing it. And it even when they're not running out of bounds is just the difficulty of being able to hold pin someone down or the ability just to run away without penalty is ruining an aspect of the sport. Because to me, the one of the worst things when you have two of the top ground fighters in the world and they spend 30 seconds on the ground because the whole fight was on their feet. It's like if I wanted to see people wrestle, I don't watch wrestling. And I do, but when I want to watch submission wrestling or jiu-jitsu grappling, I want to see some ground work. And it's just the incentive systems are not in place and the pen penalty systems are also not in place. And we have already models that show that you can get rid of a lot of the shitty wrestling by putting a barrier, whether it's a pit or a bowl. Use one of those or you do what PGF is doing, which is there's no points. You have to get a submission and that's it. I'm telling you that format for me. This is going to be is this I'm not sure if this is the second time I've seen it or the third time I've seen it. The third season I've watched, but they're very fun to watch. Uh I haven't watched all of them live. I watched a few of them live, but the the format is conducive to getting people to work hard and to go for kills or to go for breaks. So, I really do think uh and I really do hope that PGF continues to shoot up because it is a format that is a lot more entertaining both to casuals because you're going to be seeing lots of movement and also for like fans of the sport because we're going to actually see some of the crazier things when people decide to let go and not play like, oh, I have to win by advantage. It's like, no, that doesn't matter here. you have to get a definitive win, which is going to be a choke or or a joint lock. So, anyhow, uh that's all I have for you guys for this week. Uh I'll catch you all next week.