Just re-watched the Silva vs Travis Lutter fight there, and was wondering what people make of the Spider as a Jiu-Jitsu fighter. At the time, Lutter was being spoken of as one of the very top BJJ fighters in MMA, I remember Matt Serra (who knows a thing or two about jits) saying after Lutter's TUF semi-final win over Drago Sell, that Lutter was the "elite" of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black-belts. Of course, Mike "Idiot" Goldberg took this far too far at the Silva vs Lutter fight by attempting to portray Lutter as the "Michael Jordan of BJJ" patsch), but at least that shows the status of Lutter at the time. And Anderson caught him in a brilliant triangle that he set up with an upkick, held it despite Lutter's best attempts to break free, and then elbowed him into submission. I know Anderson is a black belt under the Nogueiras, but these days just saying "he's a black belt" doesn't mean much in an era where Rashad Evans is a black belt, and has never submitted anyone in his 12 UFC fights. Practically speaking, is Anderson as good as the very best BJJ practitioners in the MMA world, or not? :bbb
What makies Silva's BJJ so good is how he sets it up with striking. You look at most of his submissions and they come from hurting somebody with striking. His elbows and punches off the back are awesome.
I don't see how Michael Jordon could ever be associated with BJJ. How is bein graceful on the basketball court, and bangin females on his offtime be related to payin a naked man to roll around with you like a homosexual?
By the same token, how can you scoff at comparing a *****-magnetic stud like Michael Jordan to the greats of BJJ? Don't you know how much T&A Dustin Hazelett gets? :huh This content is protected
Silva's jiujitsu is obviously high level or the Nogueira's would not have gave him a Blackbelt. However I was never all that impressed with his triangle on Travis Lutter. There was no way Lutter was going to submitt to that hold alone because it was on properly. There was far to much space and the legs werent figure foured right you could see too much of Lutter's back and shoulder inbetween. I think locking him in one place and elbowing him into submission showed you how good a Mixed Martial Artist that Silva is but that didnt show me much about his Jiujitsu.
Better than Rashad Evans, not as good as Roger Gracie. He didnt want any part of the ground game of Damien Maia similar to how Overeem avoided Werdums ground game... they know their limitations. Until Silva competes against other submission fighters in a submission org like ADCC we cant know for sure. In MMA striking contaminates the results.
It was superb how he managed to catch a black belt like Lutter in it though. It was slapped on before Lutter could do anything about it.
Actually right before Silva started raining elbows he tucked his outside leg under Lutters thigh significantly tightening the choke. Also as James said Lutter has stated in interviews that he tapped because he was going to sleep no because of the strikes.