javi vazquez working the Rubber Guard

[Daniel Elizondo]

Javi and Eddie are friends.

Im sure they are friends when i said they used to be rivals in BJJ I was refering to Eddies DVD The Twister he shows a match on there against Javi that he ended up loseing but was very close and also mentions that they had a few tough matches against eachother I meant rivals on the mat didnt say anything about them not liking eachother personaly

[Matt "Gumby" Glach]

Wow I'm quite surprised that some of you were impressed with javi's RG, I mean yea he used it and was attempting different positions but to me it was pretty obvious that he wasn't skilled enough with it to finish chad, he didn't even get close to a submission as far as I could tell. He was able to control chad with it to some degree, yea, he neutralized him pretty well, but personally that's not what I want to see out of the RG, maybe my expectations are too high but I think most of the skilled 10th planet guys would have been able to pull off a finish with all those opportunities.

[Bill Keeling]

Well, I thought his RG was horrid! Loose as fuck and he had no idea where to go from MC or TMH... Right leg just kept hanging out (instead of controlling the hip or leg curling the back). Never dug his forearm in, hugged his knee, etc... Several finishes presented themselves (gogo, IC, TP, etc..) and he didn't appear to even attempt them... Don't get me wrong, Chad is tough as hell and Javi is no slouch either. I just hate seeing guys attempt sloppy RG when on the big scene. I can just picture traditional BJJ players grinning and smirking to one another "rubbish guard, see that shit don't work, etc..." And that is not the case IMHO I did like seeing Javi try to get some striking going from MC! I have been working striking from there (mostly short forward and backward elbows) and it is working pretty well so far He just needs to tighten that shit up!!!

[Scott Yockel]

I was glad to see a "non 10th planet guy" working the system at a high level. the guy has skill but just needs more reps also I could see the gloves gave him trouble. If your using the system in mma, you gotta use the gloves when your training your matwork.

[Jason Mallory]

Here's the fight.

http://www.mma-core.com/videos/_Chad...014140&tid=100

[frank-theman-james]

Sorry for the criticism. I didn't mean to offend any people here I was just speaking as a detached viewer of a fight on my tv. I understand that he was using the meat hook but he seemed too far underneath for that to be an effective option.

Again, I apologize for offending any friends of Javi as my comments were only made in a vacuum between my tv and my laptop.

I somewhat agree with you aj. it seemed that his guard was loose and weak around his knee. When chad tried the slam, if he would have had a tight squeeze and just took the bumb, I think he would have been fine and chad would have possibly abandoned any further attempts at slams. Jason does know more than me though, but I think it was loose.

[Jason Eisner]

I somewhat agree with you aj. it seemed that his guard was loose and weak around his knee. When chad tried the slam, if he would have had a tight squeeze and just took the bumb, I think he would have been fine and chad would have possibly abandoned any further attempts at slams. Jason does know more than me though, but I think it was loose.

Bill went as far as saying his Rubber Guard is "horrid." Knowing that Javi is a friend of Eddie and a very talented BJJ black belt, using that terminology on our forums might not be a great idea, but hey, if that is what you want to say...

Let me explain my position. I'm not saying that Javi's Rubber Guard is amazing, I'm saying that it wasn't as bad as most of you are making it out to be. Lets face it. With the limited amount of reps Javi probably has working RG, he was able to utilize it to nullify much of Chad Mendes' crazy athleticism. If Javi had played double wrist control, he would have definitely eaten a few hundred more punches.

Secondly his problem was the lack of options in his RG bag. Javi continued to hunt for the triangle off of the Meat Hook and after awhile it obviously became predictable. That being said, again, Javi was still able to use it effectively to nullify a lot of Chad's game, which usually consists of laying inside of someones guard, or in side control and punching them for three rounds. If you understand how athletic Chad is and how good of a wrestler he is, then you understand that Javi did pretty well from a position he most likely doesn't work very often.

Based on what we all saw last night, to make his RG more effective, Javi just needs more options and tricks from the position, but I'm focused on the positives. Chad Mendes was winning that fight no matter what last night. He is a young, up and coming fighter with insane wrestling. I think Javi did well with what he knew and I stick by that.

Bill said "I can just picture traditional BJJ players grinning and smirking to one another "rubbish guard, see that shit don't work, etc..."

Or we can say that Javi, a very talented Gracie Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, might become an ambassador for Rubber Guard now.

If we are talking hypotheticals then why not say that Javi enters that same conversation with these so called "traditional BJJ players" and replies "You know what guys. If I didn't use RG, I might have gotten punched out? If anything RG helped stopped me from having to look like Sloth from Goonies. I think we should investigate this position more."

Just my 2 cents.

[Bill Keeling]

Jason, I spelled out what I "thought", as in my opinion... I like the optimistic thinking your using, it is good for the universe
I hope Javi comes out to HQ and gets those reps in, and more so learns the small nuances that make RG so damn effective
I wasn't trying to hypothetically think of how many reps he has in, I was watching his performance and attempted use of RG. Big difference... Regardless, I hope he works on it and polishes it up! I also agree that Chad was going to win that fight, def hungry and a monster!!!

[Bill Keeling]

I was glad to see a "non 10th planet guy" working the system at a high level. the guy has skill but just needs more reps also I could see the gloves gave him trouble. If your using the system in mma, you gotta use the gloves when your training your matwork.

Excellent point about the gloves Scott! They def take getting used to....

[Eddie Bravo]

ok, now that yalls have made up, what are the options Javi could've tried out? Anyone? What would you have done?