The EUG Series: Gianni Grippo’s Berimbolo Game
This post is in paid partnership with EUG Promotions, hosting its first event on April 3, 2021, live on FloGrappling. Their inaugural event features an 8 man single elimination tournament of the sports best as they compete for $10,000 cash prize.
Gianni Grippo is one of the most active BJJ competitors at the black belt level in the world. With over 232 matches on record, Gianni’s faced virtually everyone in the sport at his respective weight classes, with wins over fellow EUG competitors Marcio Andre, Isaac Doederlein, Thiago Macedo, and Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor, as well as the likes of Paolo Miyao and Garry Tonon. Winning the world championships 4x across the colored belts, including twice at brown belt, Gianni’s status as one of the elite lower weight competitors in BJJ is unquestioned. After moving from Renzo Gracie Academy to Marcelo Garcia’s, his promotion to black belt at the end of 2013 launched with his first competition coming in the beginning of 2014, and it’s been nonstop ever since. With 3 Pan American titles to his name to date, his most successful year was 2018, where Gianni competed 67 times, going 59-8 over the course of the year, winning the IBJJF No-Gi world championships, NoGi Pans, Pan Ams, and the Kasai Pro 4 Grand Prix. At just 29 years old, the future is still very bright as he looks to make 2021 his breakout year.
When talking about Gianni’s game, the position that comes to everyone’s mind are the Berimbolo, which is the staple of his game. I’d explain it but I think Gianni might do a better job of that himself. The creation of the Berimbolo is one that is debated in the BJJ community, but its popularity exploded when the Mendes brothers started winning left and right, with the Berimbolo to the back being the key to their success, and of course later adding the leg drag off the Berimbolo as well. A key thing that’s important to note, from a conceptual standpoint, is that knowing when space needs to be filled vs. when it needs to be created. The Berimbolo requires a constant synergy between these two, use grips to close off and fill space to prevent your opponent from escaping or creating space with frames to allow for your own movement in the transitions of position. Gianni’s ability to utilize this position so effectively has made him one of the premier Berimbolo users in BJJ today, and there’s no better example to utilize than Gianni’s win over Shane Jamil Hill-Taylor in the 2018 Pans.
It was an incredibly close match, with both of these men battling for position nonstop throughout the match, attacking the legs and consistently trying, but failing, to sweep and control their opponent. With just over a minute left, Gianni is leading by just 1 advantage, with no points on the board. While aggressively trying to pass, Gianni is pushed knocked balance, scoring two points for Shane. He’s down and knows he has limited time to work, and begins to work his Berimbolo game.
Shane posts hand to try and get a better position of control, but Shane’s sweep unfortunately put him in a bad spot to defend against Gianni’s Berimbolo. Notice how Gianni’s right shin was slid under the hamstring of Shane as the sweep happened. This gives Gianni a huge leverage advantage over Shane in as he uses it to invert under him. He gets his grips on the jacket first, before switching to the beltline and pants, utilizing the space created to begin to bring Shane’s weight over his body and to get under him and out to begin working his back take. It’s important to not that Gianni’s left leg/foot is framing against Shane’s hip, preventing him from being able to bring his hips back under him and establish a good base as Gianni' is going under him. Shane’s in a bad spot, and knows it too, as he scrambles hard to try and shake Gianni off of him, but to no avail as Gianni rolls with him, keeping strong grips to maintain his position. The final attempt to end up on top, Shane tries to turn into him, but we see Gianni’s awareness of space shine here, with his grip on Shane’s side blocking him from being able to slide his elbow through as he rotates, forcing him to post his hand or be flattened. Once this happened, Gianni is able to post his right arm, secure top position, and ride out the remainder of the match to win the finals.
The Berimbolo to back take, as we saw above, is one we’ve seen used countless times by Gianni throughout his career. Here are a few more examples showing just how effectively he employs the technique.
Gianni Grippo hits the Berimbolo against Diogo Araujo at the 2018 IBJJF Boston Summer Open
Gianni sweeps Alexandre Molinaro at the 2018 IBJJF Las Vegas Summer Open
The Berimbolo to the back is the classic transitional period, and Gianni’s had the most success at black belt getting to the back of his opponents. Over half of his submission victories have been chokes from the back at black belt. Gianni’s preferred passing game, the Leg Drag, fits into his game perfectly as it forces his opponent’s shoulders off the mat, giving him back take opportunities. As seen in his Digijitsu video above, it’s a position he can get to from the Berimbolo sweep well, linking his preferred games together.
Against Vugner Silva, at the 2014 IBJJF World Championships, we see Gianni employ the Leg Drag to work his back take game. You can see the pressure he’s able to exert in this position, closing off space, pinning the hip of Silva to prevent him from being able to re-guard. As Silva posts and pushes to create enough space to get his guard back, Gianni is able to take advantage of this opening and circle around to work on taking his back. While Gianni would not finish the match here, he would go on to later choke Silva out from the back.
A quick sidebar, what Silva was trying to do, and was not successful, is something we can see here, when Gianni faced Hiago Silva at the 2017 BJJ Pro San Diego
Rather than try and post,framing and pushing against Gianni (which is what opened up Vugner’s back), Hiago posts to create space before inverting back under Gianni. This forced Gianni’s weight off him, and made him re-establish his base. Hiago took advantage of this extra space, turtled momentarily, and rolled over his shoulder, allowing him to establish a better defensive position. Anyway, back to Gianni taking people’s backs.
Against Felipe Simplicio, at the 2018 Boston Summer Open, we see how dangerous Gianni is when he can secure a back take. Felipe is in a bad spot, holding onto Gianni’s ankle to try and stop Gianni from climbing up to his back. He pushes hard against Gianni, hoping to off-balance him enough to scramble on top. Gianni is able to post and bring himself back on top, and starts to force Felipe onto all fours. As a last ditch, Felipe rolls away from Gianni and tries to secure a grip on the foot to attack it. Gianni rolls through with him and secures the back control, and from there it’s a matter of time before he gets the choke. Once he gets the points, he begins attacking the collar, secures the grip, and gets the tap.
Gianni’s addition to this bracket is one of the best that could have been chosen for the inaugural show. A consummate professional, Gianni always comes in shape, and puts on a pace that can often drown opponents who aren’t able to keep up. The bracket has some familiar faces to Gianni, and I expect he’s going to come in more than ready to face whoever his opponents will be. With the way his game flows together seamlessly, his control in his preferred positions, and finishing ability from the back, we can expect quite a show from Gianni on April 3rd.