Jon Fitch: 'The Closed Guard is Dead'

by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 6:47 PM EST Comment 14 comments

"No guard for you!"

Jon Fitch spoke to Fox Fight Game immediately after Chael Sonnen scored an upset victory over Nate Marquardt:

"Nate didn't execute a game plan very well. I think the closed guard is dead in MMA right now, unless you are Demian Maia or Shinya Aoki forget about it. You are either getting up or getting on top, forget about pulling of submissions from your back nowadays. Strong wrestlers like Chael Sonnen will just pound you out all day long."

While a lot of sites (including us) our picking up on the "closed guard is dead" part of Fitch's statement, it is important to note that Fitch provided a massive caveat--unless you are really good at Jiu-Jitsu, e.g., Maia and Aoki.

We could easily spin this story in the inverse; stating that "ground-and-pound is the end all of MMA." Well, ground-and-pound certainly works well when you have the strength of an Argonaut and the wrestling pedigree of an Olympic alternate.

Mixed martial arts is still in its infancy and is still evolving at a breakneck pace. But we shouldn't be so quick to blindly dismiss components of the sport.

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Comments

He definitely knows more than I do

but come on. People will always get caught, even great wrestlers now and then.

Hadoken!!

by Brizzle T on Feb 8, 2010 7:18 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

there might be something to the “don’t be comfortable in full guard, you need to work out of it”

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Feb 8, 2010 7:20 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Didn't BJ spend a lot of the St. Pierre fight with Georges locked up in a pretty ineffectual guard?

well all right then

by some schmuck in texas on Feb 8, 2010 7:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

sorry, had a little mental flatulence there

considering the aftermath of that match, it’s probably the wrongest example ever to bring up

by some schmuck in texas on Feb 8, 2010 7:44 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

yea

i definitely thought you were saying that sarcastically to agree with fitch.

"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin

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by Zach Krantz on Feb 8, 2010 8:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

i was

i just forgot about greasegate and the attendant clusterfuckery

by some schmuck in texas on Feb 8, 2010 8:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Aoki uses rubber guard mostly

amirite?

I think it was a bad example… besides it’s not like everyone has a good guard to begin with. I mean just cause Frank Mir can’t execute a double leg doesn’t mean they have no place in MMA.

"It’s going to be like sex with a grizzly bear, you know, a lot of scratching and growling on both sides." - Don Frye

by Excelsior! on Feb 8, 2010 11:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

be comfortable???? hahaha

being on your back in a fight is never comfortable, u cant lie there and rest, u need to use technique and get the fuck outta there or setup a sub

GO TRAIN BJJ, its funny cuz they teach whitebelts this shit on the first day of class

by Cheyenne Erfani on Feb 15, 2010 5:30 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

comfortable was a bad word. Complacent would’ve been better

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Feb 17, 2010 9:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

ok, understood, i get what u mean

by Cheyenne Erfani on Feb 24, 2010 2:35 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Good points…saying it is “dead” may be an overstatement, but Nate clearly needed to do something different against Sonnen. He essentially guaranteed that Sonnen would keep taking him down and ride the GnP train as long as he could.

This may fall into the try-changing-your-game-plan-if-it-ain’t-working category more than the closed-guard-is-dead category.

http://twitter.com/scoozna

by scoozna on Feb 9, 2010 11:47 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

(slaps forehead)

The guard is dead? This from a blackbelt? oh jeez, fitch u just sound stupid

How about actually doing the guard correctly, like maia, for example, that triangled mr invincible (sonnen), at least everyone seems to be claiming this guy has the guard figured out

im no blackbelt but i know u have to use your legs to keep ones posture broken, u cant just be lying there like many ufc fighters do when on their back, the high level guys actually use hip movement and their legs to control someone in their guard, so if using your legs correctly, u can use 1 arm for head control and the other to elbow the shit out of the guy, if he postures up, then start moving hips and set something up!!!!

i know i know, sounds easy, huh? i couldnt do it. but it just takes practice, alot of practice, no one is a natural fighter, not even anderson, u have to practice, it just sounds cool and gives a guy an aura if u will when someone like yoshizo says anderson was born to fight, BULLSHIT, no one was born to fight

by Cheyenne Erfani on Feb 15, 2010 5:26 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

for example

in any of ricksons fights, when he has a guy in his guard, was the guy ever postured up for even a second??? NO!!!!!

the guy’s posture was broke the whole time while he heeled the fuck out of the guys kidneys, i really question alot of these ufc fighters blackbelts, if rickson read this, he would go to town on fitch as to why he was so stupid

by Cheyenne Erfani on Feb 15, 2010 5:28 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs