Watch Garry Tonon give Kron Gracie an absolute run for his money in this all-time great ADCC matchup. My apologies for the amateurish video material–use the second video to see Garry Tonon's armbar escape.
Garry Tonon's Armbar escape:
BJJ Notes from Garry Tonon vs Kron Gracie:
[1:35] Kron's Closed Guard to Backtake. Kron Gracie uses over-under “Homie Control” to shuck garry's left arm across his body on the underhook side. This allows Kron to reach around for a lat grip. The main lesson here is this: If you can maintain a strong clinch, there are a lot of takedown and back take opportunities when your opponent stands up to escape closed guard. You can voluntarily open your guard and use your strong clinch for any variety of standing attacks.
[4:30] Kron's Armbar. Kron Gracie uses a giftwrap to set up the armbar. ANy armbar from mount requires the bottom opponent's torso to face away from the arm you want to attack. The giftwrap is a great way to set this up.
[second video] Garry's Armbar Escape. Make no mistake–Garry Tonon likely took significant damage from that exchange. But this was not pure toughness. He knew that as long as he had the freedom to move he could continue on a path toward escape before any full lockout and break of the joint would occur. Notice that he's active with his left hand to fight and peel Kron Gracie's legs. Go ahead and practice fully extended armbar escape with a training partner you trust.
[5:50] Garry Tonon's Guard Pass to Truck Entry.
- Garry's double-under stack pass. This worked so well because he didn't put so much effort into picking up Kron Gracies hips or stacking, as much as he used explosive leg action to throw Kron's hips sideways and force Kron to roll over his shoulder.
- Garry's Truck Entry. Garry's main points of control from turtle were a cradle grip with his hands connects through the crotchal region as shown, and his left foot stomping Kron's calf to make space for the twister hook.
[8:05] Kron's Back Escape.
- Kron's Body Triangle Defense. Kron Gracie always turns his torso to face the lock side of Garry Tonon's body triangle. Albeit difficult, this is where there's freedom to weaken and open up the body triangle
- [7:46] Kron's 2-on-1 Wrist Control. This is a great tactic to defend the choke and misalign the your torsoes for an escape. Get a 2-on-1 grip on the wrist of the choking arm (the over side) and transfer it to the opposite side of your head.
- [7:50] Kron's Rolling “Dark Haven” Back Escape. Kron Gracie Rolls to the choking arm side for a Dark Haven escape (vs Safe Haven escape to the non-choking arm side). Kron times the roll as soon as Garry opens the body triangle for a hip lock,
[8:55] Kron's Knee Slice guard pass. Kron Gracie is is desperation mode here. He knows the fastest path to a submission will be a choke from the back. So He puts on the pressure ultimately landing a loose kneecut pass. It's lose because he doesn't have a far side underhook to start. Therefore he uses a front head lock cradle control by reaching over Garry's head with this right arm to secure the pass and force a turtle. The rest y0ouc an watch for yourself.
Rematch. This was Garry's breakout performance before he'd won so many EBI and super fight matches. I hope these two all-time great grapplers rematch before it's all said and done.
In the meantime, go ahead and visit their academies if you happen to live in the SoCal or New Jersey areas:
