Verdum on Magalhaes loss. The White belts were correct.

[K Madden]

Its not a matter of if he did it right, its the point of the situation. Thats like saying- if only the QB completed that pass in the end zone, they woulda won! There are a ton more things going on at the moment..reasons he probably didn't do it. Hindsight is 20/20. its the point of the pressure. We alllllll know how to do armbar, just not an armbar in the finals of ADCC.
If only he passed the guard he would have won! If only he submitted him! really easy to say from your couch...or even in hindsight.

[Brent Smith]

lol i think the whole point was completely lost..

[Spínola]

Yes, white belts for the win!!!

[Jacob Allen]

Werdum also said told his training partner to let him do the open leg armbar on him, and he showed him that it works.

[Jon Helton]

Its not a matter of if he did it right, its the point of the situation. Thats like saying- if only the QB completed that pass in the end zone, they woulda won! There are a ton more things going on at the moment..reasons he probably didn't do it. Hindsight is 20/20. its the point of the pressure. We alllllll know how to do armbar, just not an armbar in the finals of ADCC.
If only he passed the guard he would have won! If only he submitted him! really easy to say from your couch...or even in hindsight.

+1

[Danny Stolfi]

Werdum also said told his training partner to let him do the open leg armbar on him, and he showed him that it works.

Exactly. And he more or less stated that Magalhaes is a freak of nature bc his arm wouldn't "click".

[David Rosado]

Watching the fight, hearing the interview, I'm not sure if we'll ever really know. It's kinda speculative.

Kendall makes a good point. But on the other side of things, I think we all know that pinching the arm with closed legs can help a lot. Maybe Werdum got so used to doing it with open legs that he figured he didn't need to adjust. Maybe Vinny is just "un-armba-able." Maybe Vinny could shed light and tell us whether or not he believes Werdum would've finished if he would've pinched the arm.

There's a lot of maybe's. I wouldn't say the white belts are 100% right. But it's not like they were 100% wrong either.

But from what I gather from the interview, it's not like Werdum was TRYING to close his legs and pinch the arm. He just figured it would work as it was. Clearly it didn't. And just because it worked on his training partner doesn't mean it would work on Vinny Mag. Clearly it didn't. And we can speculate that Werdum might have finished if he would've closed the legs.

I think I'll PM Vinny and see what he has to say.

[David Rosado]

I PM'd Vinny. I think his input would be valuable to the discussion. I'm not sure if he'll respond. I know he's a super busy guy. I asked him the following:

Basically, the question is: Do you feel as though Werdum might have tapped you with the arm bar had he closed his legs to isolate your arm? Did his open legs give you more room to wiggle and avoid the arm bar? Or are you just a freak of nature with super flexible joints?

I'm not sure if he'll respond, but I figure it's worth a shot. Regardless of anything, "rookie" mistake or not, Vinny's defense was incredible and he earned that win. Closed legs or not, I dare anyone try and get armbarred by Werdum and not tap.

[David Rosado]

No, he was impressed because of his error. Just as GSP with hardy made a mistake and then a myth starts that Hardy is some kind of rubber painless monster, which he is not. You can pop any elbow far back enough so the ref would have stopped it.

And so the hole gets deeper.

In all fairness, nothing in that interview implies that Werdum feels he made a mistake. If anything he affirms that he made no mistake since the same armbar worked on his training partner.
GSP admits to making a mistake. Werdum seems to believe that Vinny is just a freak of nature.

[Danny Stolfi]

In all fairness, nothing in that interview implies that Werdum feels he made a mistake. If anything he affirms that he made no mistake since the same armbar worked on his training partner.
GSP admits to making a mistake. Werdum seems to believe that Vinny is just a freak of nature.

Thank you.