How to fight super-athletes and win (even when you're out of shape)

In the year 2000, back when I was a brown belt, we had a visitor come to Rickson's gym. This visitor was a 2x world-champion, in his division and the absolute division. He was only 25 years old, in his athletic prime, and had just got back from winning Pan-Ams in Hawaii. 

Rickson, on the other hand, was 40 years old and hadn't done any training in 9 months because of a groin injury. On this particular night, Rickson taught the class and at the end of the class, I noticed out of the corner of my eye this young 2x world champion visitor asked Rickson to roll. 

At first, I didn't think Rickson was going to do it because he was injured and hadn't trained in 9 months. But amazingly, I saw them starting to move around and sure enough, it was on. I immediately told my training partner, "Hey, I'm done."

Within 60 seconds, all 40 of us in class stopped everything we were doing, cleared the mats and were completely focused on this clash of titans. It was all eyes on them. What happened next was astounding. 

After about 4 minutes, Rickson caught this young challenger in an armbar from the guard. But it only took another 3 minutes for Rickson to tap him again. 

I couldn't see clearly what happened for Rickson to get that second tap, and when I asked him how he did it, he said this young world champion had tapped to pressure alone. Rickson explained he knew this guy was young and was going to come at him hard, so his best shot, given his condition being injured and all, was to make this guy carry his weight with every move. 

That night changed everything for me.

I realized there was a tool available to everyone, no matter what condition you're in, to have a real chance in a fight with someone who is far superior athletically. Because no matter how great an athlete anyone is, when they get tired, their skill starts to count for less and less. 

In fact, I even wrote about this in a past blog, called "How the BIGGEST Boxing Match of all time was WON using Jiu-Jitsu". Conor McGregor, one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet when he's fresh, was worn down round by round when he fought Floyd Mayweather Jr., who made his priority staying safe until he saw McGregor start to gas. 

In a Jiu-Jitsu context, we don't have to wait entire rounds to wear someone down. If you know how to use your weight properly, it can happen in less than a minute or even seconds. 

But I've actually learned a lot about weight distribution since that night back in 2000, and it's truly amazing how many opportunities there are to make someone carry your weight from the top and bottom positions. Once you know what to look for, it's practically everywhere. 

And on January 28, 2022, I'll be releasing a Mind Blown Seminar called "Understanding Weight Distribution" that will be the most complete seminar I've ever taught on the subject. If you'd like to learn how to use weight distribution so no matter what position you're in, you make your opponent pay a price much greater than they were ever willing to for every move they make, then you should know I made it my mission to record the most important footage you will ever see on weight distribution in this Mind Blown Seminar.