The All-Time Great: Marcelo Garcia
Photo courtesy of Ric Ricard
This article is part of our “long article” requests through Patreon! A huge thank you to Alteroc (@crwate01) for this excellent topic suggestion.
In an effort to learn more about combat sports, Alteroc laid out an article format that covers three athletes from a specific sport:
An all-time great
A specialist
Someone “weird”
This article covers #1 for jiu jitsu: 5 time World and 4 time ADCC champion Marcelo Garcia.
Before I begin, I just want to say it was incredibly difficult to write this piece. Not because I didn’t want to, or lack of motivation; it’s quite the opposite. To be tasked with putting together a piece breaking down the technical brilliance, and historic run, of a man I am lucky to train under, so respected, scrutinized, and looked up to, felt like something I could not do justice. With that being said, I truly hope I accomplished the goal of this piece, to give his 2003 performance the shine it deserves, and maybe some useful technical explanations of what he did and how he did it.
I can wax poetic for hours about Marcelo, and I know many others who could do so as well. I’ve had the privilege of learning, training, and interacting with one of the undisputed greats of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for nearly a decade now. I consider myself lucky to have done so. It’s important for me to note that his legendary status is deserved, both on and off the mats, and I feel it’s important to mention just how good a man he is, in addition to his grappling pedigree.
In this piece, I will be taking at look at Marcelo’s historic, and breakout, 2003 ADCC run, where Marcelo was a last minute replacement for Denis Hallman. He was, unsurprisingly, a massive underdog considering the names populating his bracket, with multiple past and future BJJ World/ADCC champions (6 to be exact, excluding Marcelo). In just about 17 minutes of match time, Marcelo announced he had arrived and as we saw from his next 8 world titles, he was here to stay.
Let’s take a brief look at the competitors Marcelo beat to claim his first of 4 ADCC titles.
Kiuma Kunioku - A 2 time King of Pancrase, he was a solid MMA grappler with wins over Frank Shamrock, Nate Marquardt, Genki Sudo, Guy Mezger, and a draw with Sean Sherk. While no slouch on the ground, he was not a noted submission grappler in his own right. It would however be a good metric for the sheer difference in skill level between the two as Marcelo dismantled Kunioku, seemingly with ease.
Renzo Gracie - At the time of their match, Renzo was a 2 time ADCC champion, 1998 and 2000, was already an established legend of BJJ, and was among the better MMA fighters to come from the Gracie clan as well. With an established gym in NYC for nearly a decade at this point, Marcelo’s complete shutout of Renzo over the course of their match was astonishing at the time. Renzo beat Georges Sotiropoulos in the first round.
Vitor “Shaolin” Ribiero - The 3-time BJJ World Champion, Riberio was making his second foray into ADCC. With names on his resume like Fernando “Terere” Augusto da Silva, Leonardo Vieira, and Daniel Moraes coming into the event, Marcelo’s lightning quick victory over him, which left Shaolin unconscious on the mat, is to this day one of Marcelo’s most iconic victories. Shaolin beat Jason Ramstetter and Pablo Papovich before facing Marcelo.
Otto Olson - While likely not known to the BJJ community, Olson was a 3-time NCAA All-American wrestler for the University of Michigan, placing 2nd in 1999. In addition, he is on multiple records list for Michigan, with 174 wins and a 41 consecutive win streak as well. So in a nutshell, pretty damn good wrestler. Marcelo taking him out in the finals, after Olson defeated Daniel Moraes, Terere, and Chris Brown to make it there, shows that beating Olson the way he did was a perfect cap to an incredible run of performances.
In order to not have this end up being an extremely long piece (save that for a proper profile), I will focus on three things in particular that Marcelo utilized blazing through this field. The three things I’m going to focus on are the following:
1) Arm-drag
2) X-guard
3) Back control
I will not be focusing on his passing and top control game here, but needless to say they are more than worth re-visiting in a future piece considering his passing game is legendary as well.
Arm-drag
A staple of Marcelo’s game, especially early on, his use of the arm-drag allowed him to consistently get to his opponents backs and initiate takedown opportunities without having a typically strong wrestling game. I’ll let the man tell you himself how and why he made this such a key part of his game.
From the tie up, Marcelo pulls Kunioku into a seated butterfly guard and immediately attempts an arm drag. Kunioku stands and tries to pass to his right side, but Marcelo hangs off the arm as he tries to yank it free. Kunioku looks to spin and swing him off, but fails to do so. Finally, rather than give up his back mount, Kunioku drops down to his back, where Marcelo begins to assault his open guard, nearly passing to side control. Kunioku is able to bring a knee back in across Marcelo’s hips, attempting to force Marcelo back, pushing his face away to re-establish a guard.
After a brief period of hand-fighting, Marcelo initiates the arm drag by taking advantage of Shaolin placing his right hand on Marcelo’s shoulder, too far away to catch Marcelo’s right hand as he grabbed Shaolin’s left tricep. Marcelo’s sits back and Shaolin is forced to post his left hand and foot to prevent himself from slamming face first into the mat, but it’s these reactions that allow Marcelo to immediately climb to his back. Shaolin tries to stand, but Marcelo maintains the momentum and continues to spin around, dragging Shaolin back down to the mat and catching his right arm in a crucifix position. While the positional battle was occurring, Marcelo was slipping his right arm under the neck. By the time Shaolin attempted to roll to get his hips flat on the mat, it was already too late. A last ditch effort was made to rotate inward towards Marcelo, but the choke was locked in and he was put to sleep.
Against the far more accomplished wrestler, Marcelo initiates an arm drag and attempts to pull Otto forward to begin working his x-guard from the bottom. It fails, and Otto is able to escape and reset on the feet.
On his second attempt, we see Marcelo utilize the arm drag entry to grab a hold of a single leg. Marcelo again pulls Otto on top him, this time getting a hook under him to kick Otto over. As Marcelo attempts to turn and get top control, Otto rotates and turns his hips down to the mat. His earlier guillotine grip helps him here as he’s able to leverage the pressure down on Marcelo’s neck and back out from this engagement.
X-Guard
While the X-Guard is one of the most famous pieces of his game, it only made a few appearances throughout this ADCC run. Despite not utilizing it often, it was a key component in two of his victories. When facing stronger or more capable wrestlers than himself, it was the perfect weapon to attack from the bottom, and lead to his strongest offensive tools of the back take and RNC.
With the X-guard position secure, we see Renzo attempt to run away, but Marcelo grabs his left ankle tripping him up and Renzo lands in a prone position. He pushes his weight back over Marcelo’s hips and Marcelo utilizes this momentum to work to finish the sweep and get on top. Renzo recognizes the danger, posts his left arm, and kicks his leg out to free himself. Rather than pursuing the single leg, Marcelo sits back. We see Renzo attempt to bypass Marcelo’s guard by cartwheeling over, to no avail. Marcelo wraps the right arm up, threatening the arm drag, then hints at a guillotine, and switches back to the arm drag. This got the reaction he wanted, as Renzo was posted his right leg and Marcelo dragged him forward, establishing a single leg X-guard position. Renzo stands up and over Marcelo, giving him the space needed to bring his leg inside and establish the X-guard once more. From there, Marcelo simply grabs both of Renzo’s ankles and pushes him over to secure the sweep and begin working from the top.
Forced back to the edge of the mat by the terrifying butt scoot of doom, Otto is forced to engage and attempts to grab a front headlock. Marcelo immediately pulls Otto on top of him, securing the right hook behind Otto’s left leg. In order to prevent an attempt to free the leg, he also has his right hand just above Otto’s knee until he can secure the second hook inside for the X-guard. From there, he gets his left arm under Otto’s right leg to try initiating a sweep. Otto is getting slightly desperate here, and after a brief moment of floating, he attempts to spin out of the X-guard. In order to maintain control of the legs, Marcelo switches to a kneebar, but Otto was able to free himself. However, he was unable to free himself entirely to attempt to pass, as Marcelo’s underhook of his right leg allowed him to bring Otto’s weight too far forward. This brought Marcelo’s legs back into play to continue attacking the legs as they rolled out of bounds.
Back Control
I’ve used the word legend/legendary a lot in this piece, and it never felt unjustified. Marcelo’s back game is truly legendary, and it’s no surprise that 30% of his 56 submission wins are via the Rear Naked Choke. It can best be summarized in this wonderful highlight video of Marcelo just doing chokey things.
After re-starting in the middle of the mat (they went out of bounds), we see Kunioku attempt to use this moment to attempt to explode out of this position. He turns into Marcelo who jumps and grabs the seat-belt, rolling with Kunioku. Notice how after locking the seatbelt in, Marcelo momentarily positions his body across the shoulder and neck line of Kunioku, forcing him to roll to the left side and stopping any attempt to create a strong base. From here, Marcelo uses his head as a post and forces Kunioku to roll through, giving him the opening to slide his second hook in.
This next segment is not a single moment or instance from the match with Renzo, but rather over 6 full minutes of Marcelo controlling Renzo from the back mount. I was combing through it, searching for individual moments to discuss, and I will with timestamps. but it is necessary to share the clip in full. From the moment Marcelo was able to establish the back mount, to nearly the end of the match, Renzo was forced defend himself the Mata Leao finish. There was nothing he could do, except survive. He did survive, but he was utterly dominated in the process.
:03 - Renzo rolls over, trying to grab Marcelo’s right arm under his left, presumably to prevent a seat-belt while likely looking for an escape out the back door or rolling Marcelo over to get on top. Regardless, Marcelo immediately frees his arm and locks up the seat-belt position and wastes no time, throwing his leg over to establish a hook as he slides his foot in the arm and thigh gap of Renzo. Renzo is doing whatever he can to defend against the second hook from here, and Marcelo pulls over to the side of his hook. Renzo tries to keep the gap closed by lowering his elbow and raising his knee, but Marcelo is able to sink it in anyway.
:50 - Renzo attempts to slide his hips and bring his head to the mat, which would give him leverage to slide back and free himself from the seat-belt and hooks. Marcelo fights for head positioning and also begins to shift his leg position as well, switching from an unlocked and loose body triangle, to classic hooks in, to foot on the thigh to push off, to finally releasing one hook to kick Renzo over so he can reset in a stronger position and establish both of his hooks again.
We see him do this numerous times, and it’s something Marcelo favors heavily compared to locking a body triangle, as it gives him far more options to follow and attack his opponents. Marcelo’s leg positioning on the back is crucial to his ability to control and follow his opponents as they attempt to escape or defend his positional advancements, and also forces them to divide their focus between his hands and legs.
3:45 - Marcelo’s seat-belt control and hand fighting throughout this long period of back control need attention as well. With Renzo attacking his grip hard with both hands, Marcelo briefly sits back to pull Renzo back on top of him, but Marcelo is higher on the back than normal. He does this so that he can use his leg to push down Renzo’s grip-attacking right arm. This took the pressure off Marcelo’s hands for a moment and he was able to also sink the hook right back in with one motion. The sequence continues with Renzo desperately working to break Marcelo’s grip as Marcelo continues adjusting, releasing when necessary and re-locking when Renzo opens up for even a moment.
As Otto attempts to hip bump Marcelo onto his back, or at least create a scramble to escape, Marcelo stops pushing to hold Otto down and instead begins to snake his way to Otto’s back. Marcelo simultaneously stands on his right leg and throws his left over Otto’s back while wrapping up the his neck. Once he had the leg over, Marcelo slides his right leg in and gets the hook before Otto could close the opening. Marcelo works for the second hook, and Otto is blocking with his left hand, but it isn’t necessary. Marcelo’s right arm sunk in so deep, he didn’t even need to lock the second arm in, as Otto began to tap right as he did.
With Otto Olson’s tap, Marcelo became the 2003 77kg champion, a title he would defend in 2005 and 2007. Within a year or so of making his debut on the competition scene as a blackbelt, an underdog and late replacement, Marcelo’s 2003 run is legendary, and rightfully so. He would of course go on to become one of the greatest submission grapplers of all time, open and run one of the largest and most successful BJJ academies in the world, and become a trailblazer in is creation of MGinaction, an online teaching database created with Josh Waitzkin. If there’s a person who truly encapsulates the term All-Time Great, I posit you will never find someone more fitting than Marcelo Garcia.