Last night dealt a bitter blow to fans of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as BJJ black belt Ryan was knocked out in the first round by Ilia Topuria. This KO happened towards the end of round one at UFC 264. Here, he seemingly passed Halls guard by hovering over him in a north south position and landed hammer fists. By the time Hall had recovered to an open guard, Topuria had landed a couple more. Then, as Hall tried to turtle to escape, Topuria landed a few more which saw the fight ended.
During this fight, it seemed that Hall mixed up his strategy compared to usual. Gone were the Taekwondo kicks to the body and head, and instead he almost completely focused on Jiu Jitsu and imanari roll entries.
For the most part, Topuria refused to engage, before eventually timing his hammer fist perfectly which lead to victory. Does this mean Hall and BJJ don’t work in MMA? Certainly not. His record is still an impressive 8-2. As for Topuria, he moves up to 11-0 which is insanely impressive and hints that many fighters may have struggled to beat him due to having a superior, well-rounded MMA game.
