Dave Camarillo, a former coach at American Kickboxing Academy, is a black belt in both judo and jiu-jitsu and has developed a style known as ‘Guerilla Jiu-Jitsu’ that incorporates the best aspects of both sports. He is a Ralph Gracie BJJ black belt and also placed 3rd at the US Open in Judo. In a recent interview with www.mmafighting.com he had this to say about Judo Legend Flavio Canto and Ronda Rousey’s grappling skills:
“Let’s talk about Ronda Rousey. Can you give me, from a judo perspective, a sketch of Ronda Rousey’s judo game?
I think she’s a standard judoka. Judoka are traditionally very aggressive, they’re in shape, they kind of bully their way in. They are definitely technical, but if you compare them with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, you’re going to have that contrast of a bully: someone who just gets their grips, smashes their way in, only halts if the referee stops it and goes in again.You see that in her fighting style. She brings that into the cage. I think that’s why she’s overwhelmed so many opponents in the first round, because she bullies through that first round and a lot of people can’t just handle her athleticism, her brute aggression and her technique.
If judo doesn’t typically have a strong need for newaza at the world level, why does Rousey seem to have a strong game at the elite level? Why does her game seem to be developed in that particular area?
To be honest, I don’t know. For me, I just like going after arms. I train both jiu-jitsu and judo. But I think there’s a spectrum no matter what are you take. I’ve trained with Flavio Canto, probably one of the best mat guys I’ve ever rolled with in my life and he was not a jiu-jitsu stylist. He was a judoka. I think there’s something in someone’s training where they maybe did a couple submissions during randori in practice and they start developing in their mind a belief that ‘Maybe I can finish this thing on the ground’. They excel at it. Many judoka do not. I’ve trained with gold medalists that I had no problem with them on the ground, but once we started standing, they were throwing me all over the place. I think it’s just a thing where you kind of stumble upon it. I don’t know, I haven’t looked into her take on it, why she’s a submission specialist because many judoka are not. But I think it’s awesome.
I want to tell you something I heard. I’m not in a position to evaluate the truth of this claim, but I wanted to share it with you to see what you think about it. That is, a very high-level grappler talked to me about Rousey’s game, and they were saying certainly Rousey was very good, but relative to Kyra Gracie or Abu Dhabi-level medalist, she is not on par with that. Is there any way to evaluate the truth of that claim?
I don’t think she’s an elite-level ground tactician. Here’s how you do it. There’s a lot of hype surrounding many things, especially with MMA because we see it, kind of the finished product. And we see them against a certain opponent that we don’t understand their strengths. For example, if I haven’t rolled with her opponent or I don’t really know much about the sport, I’m not going to get a clear picture.
To understand, [Rousey] comes in with a lot of athleticism, which you gain in judo. And I’ve had first hand experience with that. That’s why when I started transitioning to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, it was so easy for me. In reality, it’s not that I was very technical. It’s just I was faster, my situational awareness was good, meaning I could see things coming. I was very good at judging what an opponent would be doing at a certain time and being able to counter that.
When I watched Ronda Rousey’s fights, I think she’s a phenomenal fighter, but she definitely has a lot of holes. For example, when Liz [Carmouche] had her back, she basically came in kind of with the wrong head and arm for MMA. You generally don’t want to do that because people can take your back. I think that was a technical mistake on her behalf.
Now, why didn’t she lose the fight? She fought out of it and that comes from how tough she is individually and also the sport of judo. That’s displayed in her fights. You’re seeing not just a technical stylist on the ground, but you’re seeing somebody who just will fight out of anything you put in front of them. She’s been able to do that.
Will that last? That’s the question. With all due respect, I tend not to succumb to hype. I hear all these things or I watch fights and I know that she plays a huge role in women’s MMA, but at the same time I would look at her skills as a fighter and I would have her do more jiu-jitsu so that she can get more technical on the ground and accomplish the same things with less energy expended, if that makes sense.
There’s some technical things I’ve seen her do in a fight I think she can do better. There’s some things I thought were brilliant. She does a few things. She goes with a juji gatame. She lost the position in that fight, went back to her guard and then, swept her again, never losing control of that arm. In the last ten seconds, got the wrist control, pulled the arm straight. It was brilliant. I think there are things leading up to that position wise that she can definitely improve on, so that’s the take of whoever you’re talking about giving information of ‘Is she a high-level, elite-level grappler like the women of today in Brazilian jiu-jitsu?’ I would say no, but remember she’s not fighting in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. She’s fighting in MMA and in MMA right now, she’s doing phenomenal.”
