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Bryce Mitchell: When Specialists Aren’t Special
Coming into UFC 282, Mitchell was seen as a uber-specialist along the lines of Brian Ortega. He was 15-0 and had a decent variety of finishes on the ground including many rear naked chokes, an armbar, a couple triangles, and of course the twister against Matt Sayles in 2019. Mitchell’s best attribute, however, was his top control as we saw in his fight with Edson Barboza. Going into this fight, Mitchell fought down as an undefeated fighter, something you don’t see often. That would prove to be a fatal mistake as Topuria was one of the hottest fighters in the division despite his relative lack of experience.
In the fight, we saw Mitchell unable to deal with forward pressure despite his grappling abilities. Most of his opponents have let Mitchell come forward at will and looked to deal with the pressure with the counter. The thought behind it is if a fighter comes forward, Mitchell will duck under and Mitchell will take them to his world and get the submission. At UFC 282, Mitchell had to deal with lack of respect for his grappling from Topuria. He failed to gain any respect of his grappling and found himself shooting for takedowns off the back foot and failing to get any ground control aside from one takedown.
The Topuria fight showed that off his back foot, Mitchell’s takedown skills are not bulletproof. We see this often with jiu-jitsu fighters. Their ground game is very good when they are on top, but you put them on their back, and they aren’t nearly as skilled when they are attacking. There are very few fighters right now that have the defensive grappling skills of, to bring a recent example, Roman Dolidze. Ironically, Dolidze is a fellow countryman of Topuria.
Another great example of offensive wrestling comes from the division above Mitchell and Topuria. Mateusz Gamrot is a very good example of what type of grappling Mitchell could utilize to get the fight where he wants it. At the top of the division, especially when it comes to fighters like Volkanovski and Ortega, it will be paramount to chain wrestle and we have seen Gamrot do just that.
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In his fight with Arman Tsaruykan, Gamrot (1) gets caught with a spinning back fist and is dropped. But, like Mitchell at some points against Topuria, (2) Gamrot will shoot the double. Tsarukyan being as skilled as he is, of course will sprawl out on the attempt and (3) Gamrot will shoot again. While Topuria did a good job exiting these scrambles when Mitchell shot, Mitchell showed almost no signs of a second or third attempt to wrestle. (4) On the second sprawl from Tsarukyan, Gamrot switches to the single leg as Tsaruykan looks to go behind Gamrot. With Tsarukyan pivoting around on his left leg, the same leg Gamrot has a hold on, (5) Gamrot switches legs. With the switch, (6) Gamrot will pull out the base of Tsarukyan and push through for the takedown. (7) Tsarukyan is now posted on his left leg and left hand which causes him to be off balance and Gamrot will (8) secure the takedown. It’s these two weapons, offensive chain wrestling and fighting off his back, that Mitchell should focus on instead of his striking. Instead of making the swimming pool wider, he should focus on making it deeper in places he’s already good.
Mitchell failed to get anything meaningful with his one takedown and as Topuria beat on him, his takedown attempts became more and more desperate. His striking was never really anything to write home about, but he used his kicks well in places. But as we saw at UFC 282, Mitchell isn’t all that much of a grappling specialist in the purest sense of the word. He’s great at top control but the ability to get there when someone calls his bluff leaves a lot to be desired.
Ilia Topuria: Fix Some Holes and You Have Yourself a Contender
Topuria was the biggest standout of the card by far. His domination of Mitchell was incredibly impressive but if you’ve been following him for some time, you weren’t surprised. If you’ve followed his career for any length of time, even if it was just the UFC run, you’d know that he’s quite complete for a fighter with 13 fights. But then again, that is the case with a lot of fighters coming out of Brave CF. Youssef Zalal is a kickboxer and Topuria exposed his wrestling with five takedowns, Damon Jackson was a wrestler that Topuria battered, he showed Ryan Hall to have major holes, Jai Herbert was a lightweight, and now Mitchell. Topuria is great but there are some things he needs to address before he takes on the likes of Arnold Allen or Volkanovski.
But first, we must talk about the excellence of Topuria. First thing is first, Topuria’s head movement. While MMA has a lack of head movement in general, Topuria’s is above average. He’s no Canelo Alvarez or Mike Tyson but you can see that he watches these fighters and incorporates what he sees into his striking game.
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When Topuria is looking to land a big shot and he’s not just swinging for the fences, he stands with a good power base. Notice how (1) his stance is firm, planted, and he’s on top of his hips. He will be dipping from side to side like we see with a Mike Tyson. When (2) Topuria dips to his left, which is his lead side, that loads up the hook and the uppercut, two big punches that Topuria fancies. As he leans away (3) Topuria loads up the rear uppercut with his motion. Keep all this in mind as we continue; this technique will play a role later.
As the rounds carried on, Topuria started getting closer and closer with his hooks that he threw with almost reckless abandon. It was this that allowed Mitchell to duck under Topuria and snag a takedown at the end of the first, but Topuria would come out in Round 2 with aggression and a bit more restraint. As he landed on Mitchell, he seemed to get more and more technical. Around the midpoint of Round 2, Topuria would drop Mitchell with a cross using the head movement we talked about earlier.
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As we can see in 1 and 2, Topuria is dipping side to side, playing peek-a-boo with Mitchell. He decides he’s found a spot he likes and, highlighted in red on frame 2, Topuria will launch the rear uppercut. (3) The uppercut does not land, unfortunately, but the hip torsion on the strike loads up the left hook (again, highlighted in red). The hook bounced off the shoulder of Mitchell, but Topuria mixes things up. (4) With the hip torsion from the hook, Topuria has a right cross queued up for Mitchell. The natural motion leads Topuria to (5) throw the cross and land clean, knocking down Mitchell.
Much noise has been made about the striking of Ilia Topuria during his rise through the UFC. In a five-fight span, he’s had some great knockouts and has made his stand up quite dangerous. But let’s not forget how good Topuria is on the ground. A native of Georgia, grappling is big in the region Topuria calls home. Georgia shares a border with Dagestan, and we’ve seen the skills that come from that region of the world in MMA and Olympic wrestling. Georgia even has its own folk style of wrestling called chidaoba. With the region being so deep in talent when it comes to grappling, Topuria is no exception to the stereotype even if he did move out of Georgia at 16. Early in his career, in fact, he pretty much won only by submission. Don’t believe me? Check the Sherdog archives for yourself! Topuria can grapple and we saw that against Mitchell at UFC 282.
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After the knockdown we spoke about above, Topuria countered a lazy takedown from a tired Mitchell. After the shot, (1) Mitchell was in his knees as Topuria had the dominant position standing. We can see Topuria grabbing the whizzer (overhook) with his left arm and reaching for the undertook with his right. Mitchell would set Topuria up for a pancake by standing on his knees. (2) With the whizzer and the underhook, Topuria will lift with the right hand and push with the left, taking Mitchell off balance and slamming him to the mat to get the reversal and eventually, the submission.
While Topuria looked great in most of the fight with Mitchell, there was room for improvement, as the title of this section implies. Topuria didn’t employ nearly as much body work as we have seen from him in the past. While this could have been a tailored game plan for Mitchell, it is almost never a bad idea to go to the body, especially when you put a pace on like Topuria. Keeping yourself ahead on the cardio requires body work when you push that type of torrid pace. Instead, I feel like Topuria got a little too carried away headhunting.
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In headhunting, Topuria often gets carried away with his wild hooks. It’s been a problem his whole career thus far and needs to tighten up before he faces a grappler or someone capable of pivoting off and lining up a cross. In the diagram above, we see Topuria way too overcommitted on a left hook that sent him flying past Mitchell and saw him fall into the fence. With Topuria over committed, he leaves his left leg open for an easy single, which is where Mitchell should have been looking to for exploitation. A fighter like Volkanovski, a possible eventual opponent of Topuria, will pick up on that leg, sit him to the ground and make life hell for him. Look also at his head, which is looking completely away from Mitchell. Never take your eye off the ball. Looking at your opponent is a cornerstone in almost any athletic endeavor. Should Topuria get put in this spot against Allen or Yair Rodriguez, it’s a pivot and cross that will do him in. Topuria needs to take it slow and work on these holes before taking on the top of the division lest he finds himself on the bad end of a skilled fighter.
All in all, Topuria showed that he’s quite a good all-around martial artist but not infallible. At only 25, there’s more than enough time for him to patch up these holes, add to his arsenal and become a true problem for not just the featherweight division, but for the pound-for-pound standings as well.