The Venomous Grappling of Luke Rockhold
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
Former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold spent most of his time at the top heralded for his striking. It’s not hard to see why, considering how rapidly he ascended to the top of the MW rankings, but despite his early success on the feet, his later career revealed significant flaws in his standup game.
However, despite the attention paid to his striking during his rise, Rockhold'’s grappling was quite frankly the far more terrifying aspect of his overall game.
Rockhold had complete confidence in his grappling ability, and his kick-heavy striking attack often saw his opponents to try and take him to the mat. His split-second reactions to grappling initiations, whether by choice, accident, or off him hurting his opponent, all too often spelled the end of the fight. To illustrate this point, only one of Rockhold’s victories in the UFC was finished on the feet (Costas Philippou) with the rest being either submission wins or ground and pound finishes (including his title win over Chris Weidman).
With all of that said, let’s take a trip down memory lane and watch in awe the grappling ability that Rockhold consistently displayed through his UFC career, dominating virtually every fighter who engaged with him on the ground from start to finish.
vs. Tim Boetsch: UFC 172 - Winner by Submission Rd 1 - Inverted Triangle Kimura
Tim Boetsch is a fighter known for his toughness, grit, and the ability to give better fighters than him difficult bouts. Luke had just wrecked Costas Philippou (who knocked out Boetsch less than 2 years prior) and came into his fight with Boetsch as a big favorite. Under the spotlight of rising expectations, he delivered.
From the start Boetsch wanted to wrestle, (and as a former D1 wrestler, I don’t blame him for trying to lean on those skill here) and, less than 30 seconds in, he caught a lazy lead front kick from Rockhold to initiate a head outside single leg; it was the beginning of the end for him. Rockhold immediately sat the corner, HARD (emphasis Ed Gallo’s), and butt dragged simultaneously. When Boetsch attempted a front roll, Rockhold rolled with him and they ended up in a standard shot and sprawl position. That’s when things got really bad for ol’ Tim.
With Rockhold being in a typically weak position, with Boetsch holding a single leg against his shallow sprawl with no underhooks, Rockhold allowed Boetsch to drag his leg in and immediately sat down on his side to lock up an inverted triangle.
Boetsch knew he was in deep trouble as Rockhold started squaring his hips up on top of Boetsch’s shoulder line and began pulling at his feet to break his base. Note that Rockhold was continuously pressuring his hips down to attempt to flatten Boetsch out, which would have tightened that triangle up and elicited a tap.
So Boetsch stayed crunched up and held onto that left leg for dear life. To get Boetsch to open up, Rockhold began elbowing every open spot on the body he could find, and it worked. Boetsch eventually was able to get Rockhold to the fence, but it did not help him one bit. At this point, Boetsch was reaching far back doing whatever he could to try and stop the strikes from Rockhold, who was able to take advantage.
Rockhold immediately secured the arm and allowed Boetsch to turn slightly in the triangle to give Rockhold a better angle to attack the arm. With Boetsch on his side, Rockhold continued to put pressure on the head and neck by extending his hips, thus never allowing him to focus fully on defending his arm. At 3:16 Rockhold fully committed to the kimura, wrenching the arm upwards.
Sidebar: When attempting the kimura from the top, make sure that you bring your chest close to the arm before trying to wrench it. This gives more leverage to the attacker rather than being postured and just pulling with your arms. Anyway, back to the fight.
One thing we can say about Boetsch is that he’s powerful, and despite Rockhold being strong himself, he was unable to free the arm and this gave Boetsch enough space to get his back to the mat, the correct response on his part. With Boetsch’s back flat on the mat and Rockhold pretty far past the center line of Boetsch’s body, he knew he is not in the ideal spot to continue controlling him; indeed Boetsch immediately begins to bridge and work his trapped arm in to create something resembling a frame and relieve the triangle pressure to escape.
To counter this, Rockhold released the triangle briefly and extending them with locked ankles, allowing Boetsch to try and extend his arm, hoping there would be space to slip his elbow through. Rockhold was waiting for this, re-locking his triangle, with the slight change being the position now was deeper in his armpit rather than on the triceps, a much tighter position for control. The other important distinction is the direction of Rockhold’s left knee. Before re-applying the triangle, his knee was pointed up at the ceiling, which would not allow him to “sit” on Boetsch effectively. After switching, his knee was pointed more towards the mat, which let him release the kimura to push himself back into a postured state while simultaneously pinning Boetsch’s arm as well, preventing Boetsch from crunching it into his body like on the first kimura attempt.
With a secure position of control, Rockhold re-applies the kimura and cranks Boetsch’s arm for the tap.
vs. Michael Bisping: UFN 55 - Winner by Submission Rd 2 - Guillotine Choke
This one is short, but sweet as can possibly be. After rocking and knocking Bisping down with a high kick, Rockhold pounces immediately to land punches on the dazed Brit. He circles around to the right side of Bisping, who’s just trying to cover up before Rockhold passed to his side. Despite the daze, Bisping is aware enough to know he cannot stay there covering up, and begins to turn and stand up. Rockhold places his left hand on the back of Bisping’s head, forcing him to look down and prevent him from seeing incoming strikes. Rockhold’s strikes to the body, and uppercuts to the head while Bisping has his hands on the ground, keep him from focusing on Rockhold’s planned neck attack.
As soon as Bisping’s left hand is removed from the ground, Rockhold switches his left hand from the back of Bisping’s neck, to wrapping up his neck. He then secures a high elbow guillotine and pulls Bisping down to the ground, but does not wrap up a full guard. Instead, he gets a butterfly hook and a leg over the back, very similar to Marcelo Garcia’s guillotine (Marcelotine) position.
Marcelotine vs. Standard Guillotine
Rockhold uses his butterfly hook and the high elbow to roll Bisping to his back. Small detail to note here is that as Rockhold rolls him, Bisping still has his right hip free (not mounted) and could escape if he could plant his left leg and shrimp to create space and avoid the mount at least. To prevent this, Rockhold hooked Bispings leg and pulls it out to prevent this possibility from even getting started.
From there, it was tap or nap for Bisping. Rockhold had a tight wrap on the neck, secured mount and used his right hand to posture and arch into the choke, causing much discomfort for Bisping too. Rocked and out of options, Bisping tapped and Rockhold earned his second submission in as many fights, and a 50k POTN bonus to boot.
vs. Lyoto Machida: UFC on Fox 15 - Winner by Submission Rd 2 - Rear Naked Choke
Coming off 2 straight submission wins, over men who had been submitted a total of 1 time in 54 fights prior to Rockhold, he would go on to face another man who’d been submitted only once prior, by Jon Jones, and wouldn’t be submitted again afterwards as well.
Machida was seemingly reborn at Middleweight, coming off a vicious body kick KO of a surging CB Dolloway. Machida was 3-1 at MW, with his lone loss a competitive decision against Chris Weidman for the title. Weidman, with his wrestling pedigree and incredibly dangerous grappling game, was unable to do too much against Machida on the ground, despite getting multiple takedowns in the fight. The odds were quite close, with Luke being a slight favorite, and what we got was an absolute drubbing.
The very first grappling sequence was initiated by a clubbing right from Rockhold, accidentally tripping an off balance Machida from his lunging entry. Machida tries to shoot a takedown from his butt, which Rockhold easily sprawls out of, with the pressure of the sprawl forcing Machida’s head to the mat. Continuing to pressure with his chest, Rockhold switches to a standard front headlock for a brief moment before sitting back for an arm in guillotine. Unable to really secure the choke, Rockhold immediately reverses him to get top control, with Machida trying to close any potential mounting opportunities off by bringing his left knee just under Luke’s hips.
Rockhold’s choke attempt was not the most secure (it’s not under the chin, but rather on the face), and his weight was very far over Machida’s body towards his head. Rockhold abandons the submission attempt and brings his weight back down to cement top control. Machida is able to get both feet under Rockhold’s hips (weak butterfly hooks), who has a very wide base. Machida tries to pull Rockhold’s upper body down to prevent any ground and pound, though that did not last long unfortunately for Machida.
Rockhold begins to punch Machida in the body as tries to work his way toward a single leg x-guard, but that was shut down real fast. Rockhold was able to flatten his hips out and prevent any transition by pinning Machida’s right hip to the mat, killing his ability to utilize his one hook effectively. He then throws a big elbow, which Machida avoids by bringing his hook and hips up, forcing Rockhold to overshoot. However, Rockhold was able to catch himself and use the opportunity to try pass to mount briefly. Machida is able to recover half guard, but he’s now got Rockhold on top with really good control of his upper and lower body, along with some shoulder pressure to boot.
Now, Machida is not helpless here yet, as he continues to work his bottom game to create opportunities to sweep or stand-up. He thinks of going deep half, before switching and trying to come up for the single leg, but there’s nothing for him. Rockhold brings his hips up and sits over Machida’s head, almost like a cradle but with his legs rather than his arms, and lands some brutal elbows to Machida’s side. Finally, Machida is able to get an underhook and recover guard, but he took damage to get there.
Rather than sitting in guard, Rockhold immediately frames and postures to get to a stacked guard to land some shots. Machida tries kicking off the hips but Rockhold shucks his legs off to try and pass. Machida’s back roll achieves nothing and Rockhold gets on the side of Machida who turtles up. Rockhold is unable to get his hooks in, with Machida trying to remain as tight as possible, so he just punches Machida in the head, continuously moving and looking for openings to stick a hook in. Machida attempts to stand, bracing his hands on the mat, but Rockhold keeps his grip tight, and is able to drag him back down to the ground.
Rockhold’s back is against the fence, with his bottom hook in while looking for the second one. Machida is continuously trying to turn his hips towards the mat so he can end up in Rockhold’s guard or create space to stand up (the more likely option). Rockhold used a tight seatbelt, and glued his chest to Machida’s back, to prevent him from being able to rotate his upper body to face him, thus preventing the escape. Machida is stuck here, and just works to block Rockhold’s hook with his hand instead.
Machida may have been content to wait it out, but Rockhold would not give him this opportunity. Rockhold began to shift his hips and weight to get on top of Machida, eventually doing so and posted his right hand to help him balance. Machida attempts a front roll to utilize the new space available to him, but Rockhold rides the momentum and remains on top, postures up, and lands some hard punches again.
Rockhold brings Machida against the fence, smashing his neck against it and stands up, holding Machida’s upper body down and waits, something that many fighters can learn from. Instead of desperately holding onto Machida’s hips, which would give Machida a breather from strikes, give him an opportunity to wall walk, and create frames/posts, he offers Machida a singular escape route. Machida takes it, and kicks off with his legs, turning onto all fours to try and get up. There’s nowhere else to go, and that gives Rockhold the chance to take advantage of the only option he forced Machida to take.
Rockhold has the back again and continues punching to open Machida up. Machida crawls to the fence and works his way to all fours, trying anything to avoid any more grappling exchanges with Rockhold. Rockhold just leans on him, looking to drag him back into hell. Rockhold then gets behind Machida, and kicks his leg out hard, establishing a seatbelt as Machida goes down to his knees again. Finally, Rockhold secures his far side hook. Machida senses the danger and immediately tries to turn into Rockhold, but eats a bunch of hard punches to the face for his trouble. Machida is forced to turn back the other way and Rockhold slides his other hook in.
Machida is desparate now, and tries turning his hips back down again but he’s completely stuck at this point. Rockhold has a modified triangle with his ankles locked around the waist, sitting on his hip and just battering him with huge punches. Machida rolls back to all fours as Rockhold looks to balance, both hooks fully in now, and landing strikes to Machida’s head.
Machida attempts to bump Rockhold off and roll through, but at this point his movements are labored and heavy. Rockhold easily stays with him and maintains control, beginning to work on a Rear Naked Choke. Rockhold feels it’s not in (it wasn’t) and decides to go back to just hitting him. He uses the control he has with his legs to turn Machida’s hips over with that modified body triangle and smashes Machida with a massive elbow before the end of the round.
Round 2
After being shoved to the ground when both miss simultaenous left straights, Rockhold shoves Machida over, similar to the trip in round 1. He pounces as Machida attempts to standup, sliding around to take his back, wrapping a seatbelt up and controlling Machida’s right arm with his leg. He does not have any hooks yet, but that is no issue.
Once he has control, Rockhold switches his hips to face the mat to establish a strong, wide base. Rockhold has Machida’s left arm trapped under him by gripping the wrist with his left hand, and posts his right hand to posture up. At 3:13 left, Rockhold is able to slide his right knee to the mat, pinning Machida’s hip, and throws some shots, trying to get Machida to look away from him to open his neck up. Once he does, Rockhold slides the arm under his neck and begins to use shoulder pressure on top, just crushing Machida downward to pull his left arm even further out of play.
At this point, Machida is doing anything he can to get out, bucking and bridging, as he tries to roll through again. Rockhold again utilizes his modified body triangle, crushing his hips down and forcing Machida to give his back again. By this point, Machida is beaten and done; Rockhold simply slides his left arm under the neck, wraps it up, flattens Machida out, and gets the tap.
By every metric, this was a systematic dismantling of the former Light Heavyweight champion. Machida was thoroughly out-maneuvered on the ground in an incredible display of control, transitional grappling, tactical and strategic brilliance, and vicious ground striking. This performance illustrated that, in addition to his ability to snatch submissions or sprint grapple, Rockhold had the skills and abilities to perform at such a high level in extended exchanges as well.
vs. Chris Weidman: UFC 194 - Winner by TKO Rd 4 - Punches
This fight was a weird one for me. It had some excellent grappling exchanges, but I think many fans feel there was something off about both of these men. Whenever I describe their performances, I use the word “drained”. Because of that, I do not think we saw the best versions of either of them here.
With that being said, there really are some great moments worth looking at in this fight and praising, as both of them displayed their grappling prowess on multiple occasions in this fight. Let’s begin with the first round.
Weidman is pressuring forward and throws a shifting straight right to close the distance. It’s a throwaway punch, and he uses it to land a left hook on Rockhold, who attempts to land a counter right hook over the top. Unfortunately, Weidman is way too close and he is able to smother Rockhold, clinching up with him and trapping Rockhold’s right arm before pushing him against the fence. Because he was able to secure the arm, Weidman is able to bring his arm up to secure the seatbelt grip safely. He then jumps onto Rockhold’s back in his best efforts at a Demian Maia impression.
Rockhold’s defense here was excellent, and shows he was not a purely offensive dynamo. The entire time Weidman was riding his back, he was holding/securing the wrist of the choking arm, never letting Weidman fully control him or threaten the Rear Naked Choke.
At 3:55, after eating some annoying punches from the backpack, Rockhold makes his move. He attempts to use his grips on Weidman’s wrist to pull and rotate simultaneously to try and end up on top in the guard. Weidman, who we’ve already mentioned is a brilliant grappler himself, controlled the far side wrist of Rockhold, crossed his feet on the hip, grabbed a modified seatbelt grip over the wrist as well, and was able to avoid being shucked off. Rockhold wasn’t done though, and he posted to stand up again, adding gravity pulling Weidman down to the equation.
Weidman knew he could not hold this for long and posted his arm on the mat to set up a triangle choke attempt. Weidman posted his right foot on the left hip of Rockhold and began climbing his left foot up, using Rockhold’s elbow as a mid-way point. From here, he brought out his right foot to climb up as well. Rockhold was wise to this, and knew could not turn into Weidman or he’d be stuck in that triangle. Instead, he leaned into the right thigh of Weidman, preventing him from squaring up his hips to lock the triangle on.
Weidman feels this, and with Rockhold fully committing his weight down, he tries to wrap the neck up for a guillotine attempt. Because of how compressed Luke is, there’s no way for him to lock it in, and he abandons it. Weidman posts his right arm to try and get some leverage to re-take Rockhold’s back, but Rockhold was fully aware this would happen and he maintained a strong grip on Weidman’s shin, preventing him from sliding out the leg into a hook (or potentially a body triangle should Weidman have been successful re-taking the back). Rockhold stood up, once again making Weidman fight against gravity in addition to Rockhold’s defenses, and squared his shoulders to Weidman. By this point, Weidman had lost the control with the legs and both of them end up in a standing clinch, with Rockhold pressing Weidman against the fence.
In this sequence, Weidman reverses Rockhold and lands a big elbow before dropping down, getting deep on the hips of Rockhold to score a big takedown pulling his legs out from under him. Rockhold accepted the takedown, not that he had much choice, and locked on a kimura grip to prevent further control and attempts to advance. To free his arm, Weidman posts it away from their bodies, and Rockhold immediately used the space created to start bringing his legs into into play, pushing off Weidman’s legs. While this was happening, Weidman put his right arm across Rockhold’s back, with Rockhold’s across Weidman’s neck.
Rockhold, still gripping the wrist, brought his right shin inside the bicep of Weidman. Once there, he released the wrist, his shin a stand for his grip, and tried to post with his right hand. Weidman pressed his neck and shoulders down to prevent him from creating that post, pushing into Rockhold’s armpit and upper body. However, it doesn’t work and Rockhold does create the post, using it to turn away from Weidman, working up to all fours against the fence. Weidman attempts to get the back again to no avail, and Rockhold is able to get back to a standing clinch position.
Here, we see Weidman score another takedown against the fence, driving through and passing into side control. Rockhold makes a mistake, or at least it looks like one, and secures an arm in guillotine. With Weidman passed the guard, there’s zero danger for him, and one would think the Von Flue is an option, but it isn’t.
With an arm in guillotine, you cannot get the shoulder to the neck to apply the pressure necessary to elicit a tap/put someone out.
Rockhold lifts up his right leg to prevent Weidman from potentially getting to mount or to the other side, and with Weidman’s body against the fence he cannot try to transition to the north/south position either. Rockhold then slides a hook into Weidman’s right leg and locks his ankles to prevent him from being able to try and free himself or create space.
Weidman is aware of this, and starts working to free his leg and create space from the cage. He does get a small amount of space, but not enough to change the position and Rockhold replaces his foot inside the leg as well. Nothing else happens until Herb Dean stands them up, but it was impressive that Rockhold was able to be put in such compromised positions multiple times, yet had an answer that worked for him each time, shutting Weidman’s offense down completely.
In the final grappling sequence of the round, Weidman catches a kick and initiates another takedown attempt. This time, Rockhold snatches an arm in guillotine counter that works as intended. Using his butterfly hook, and the momentum of Weidman’s drive, he rolls him over, but he’s unable to secure top position. Weidman attempts to grab a single leg, which Rockhold sprawls on very briefly, and sits back for the guillotine again. Rockhold is not content on bottom though and again uses his butterfly hook to get back on top, this time establishing good control. Weidman defends well, and is able to get back to a full guard, after which Luke releases the hold.
Round 3
I didn’t want to break this down, I didn’t. It’s sad, disappointing, and hurts as a Weidman fan. For that reason, I cut out the spin kick. From that point onward, there is some good work to break down, or at least just marvel at Rockhold’s ridiculous ability to control other men from top position.
After getting Weidman down, Rockhold gets a hook in, posting his hands and uses the pressure of that hook to get Weidman to his side and latching up a seatbelt grip. After glueing himself to Weidman’s back, he is able to slide the second hook in on the exhausted Weidman. Rockhold locks up a body triangle, but with the locking foot inside of Weidman’s legs rather than outside. He does this in order to make it easier for him to transition to the mount. Rockhold then uses the threat of the choke to turn Weidman to the other side and turning straight into the mount, posting his right elbow for leverage. Weidman tries to push Rockhold’s left leg inside of his own legs to get back to a half guard but he’s just too tired and Rockhold is just too strong, both physically and technically (doesn’t help that Rockhold had his ankles locked either).
Rockhold solidifies his position and lands some of the most brutal ground and pound that did not elicit a stoppage I’ve ever seen. At :49 seconds, the elbow that cuts Weidman open changes everything, as Weidman starts turning and covering up, unwilling at this point to try any escapes, just covering up to block as many strikes as possible. I don’t know why Herb didn’t stop this fight. Weidman was not really defending or trying to escape and he took ungodly punishment for no reason. This was truly the end of the fight, round 4 and everything leading to the finish in it was just a formality.
Round 4
After failing on his first attempt to drag Weidman to the ground, Rockhold gets behind Weidman and drives his hips in, lifting, and rotating him. Weidman attempts to catch himself by posting but it’s too late as Rockhold pulled his hips out and drove through his upper body to get the takedown.
Once he got him down, Rockhold immediately began putting pressure on Weidman’s upper body to flatten him out, rather than just sitting on the hips to hold him. This is something we see Rockhold do consistently, he never just looks to hold you in place and is always looking to cause discomfort in hold positions, creating openings for him to advance or land strikes. It’s what makes him so potent on the ground, the relentless pressure and force he imposes combined with the vicious strikes and submission threat. Rockhold is just that damn good.
Weidman is exhausted, and Rockhold knows it. He pins Weidman against the fence, in a very open half guard, and widens his base, bringing his knee up near Weidman’s head. With Weidman concussed, tired, and the fence blocking, Rockhold knows the deep half guard is not a threat either. Weidman is desperately holding onto Rockhold’s wrist to stop him from throwing strikes. While Rockhold works on freeing it, Weidman actually gets his right knee in against the hip of Rockhold. Weidman pushes off and places his left foot on the hip of Rockhold to prevent him from passing before recovering his guard. Considering how messed up Weidman was, it’s remarkable he was able to do this at all.
Not much happens for a bit, other than a few strikes and some head pressure from Rockhold against the cage. At 2:31 left, Weidman gets a foot on Rockhold’s hips and attempts to create space. He pushes Rockhold away, but it ends up backfiring. Rockhold, as we’ve seen before, is not the type to play the “standing while the guy on the ground tries to kick me” game and immediately shucks Weidman’s legs aside to lands a huge strike, and is now passed Weidman’s guard. Weidman again tries to bring his knee inside and grabs a hold of Rockhold’s wrist. Rockhold posts his right leg wide and brings his left knee in between the legs of Weidman into his midsection, and windshield wipers his foot over, nearly getting mount. Weidman pushes Rockhold’s other leg back into half guard, but it’s no use. Rockhold is able to slide his knee out with ease, with no space for Weidman to shrimp away, and pins his leg to the mat. For all intents and purposes, Weidman is mounted and Rockhold begins to land strikes again, this time finally ending the fight with Dean mercifully stopping it.
vs. David Branch: UFN 116 - Winner by Submission Rd 2 - Punches
With this fight, we come to the end of Rockhold’s UFC win list. After a rough round 1 against Branch’s pressure game, Rockhold finally had enough in round 2, and decided to smash the Renzo Gracie blackbelt, who’d yet to be submitted, on the ground instead. It was a mauling to say the least, and the last great moment of Rockhold’s career to date.
At 2:07 left in the round, Rockhold hits the exact same takedown from the clinch he hit against Weidman. This time, he landed in a much better spot, and had more energy as well. He had a powerful grip on the waist, which pinned Branch’s hips to the mat. Rockhold then brought his right arm up and placed his hand on Branch’s head, pinning his upper body with his shoulder pressure. With Branch completely stuck, Rockhold threw his leg over high, higher than Branch could have likely reached, even if he did react in time, and stepped over into mount.
Branch was not happy, understandably so, and tried to turn away from Rockhold who released the mount to immediately get a hook in and grabbing Branch’s posting wrist with both his hands. This prevented Branch from trying to stand up against the fence. Instead, he turned over to his knees, which is what Rockhold wanted him to do, and Rockhold got his second hook in, flattening him out, and he began raining punches on a prone Branch.
Branch tried to turn back into mount, but Rockhold locked his ankles in that modified body triangle again and just kept battering Branch with punches. Eventually, Branch turned back into the flattened position, covered up, and tried to get back to all fours again to try and shake Rockhold off the top. It….uh…it did not work, at all. Rockhold re-established his control very quickly and just poured on the punishment until Branch did the RIGHT AND CORRECT THING, tapping to strikes.
After watching all this footage and dissecting the brilliance of his grappling game, one has to wonder how Rockhold’s career trajectory could have changed with a bigger emphasis placed by on a conscious effort to apply his grappling skills proactively. I think it’s a huge what if to contemplate personally, and would love to see him re-dedicate himself to improving his wrestling should he decide to continue fighting in the future. We did see him try to employ a wrestling game against Jan, unsuccessfully, but if he takes off time to recover and hone those skills, I still have hope for Rockhold to do some damage.
With all that being said, Rockhold still managed to cement himself, in this writers humble opinion, as one of the single most dangerous top game grapplers in MMA history. His ability to control opponents while dishing out damage, outmaneuvering and submitting them with relative ease is something to behold. I don’t know what the future holds for him, but whether he fights again or not, Rockhold left in his wake a trail of beaten bodies on the ground, and I thank him for it.