In the second part here let's analyze a match from Tye Ruotolo and take a look at his skills. I've linked and time stamped the parts I'm talking about so you can easily follow along.
Tye Ruotolo VS Nicky Ryan
Match starts at 3:12
Nicky starts out by sitting to guard and quickly trying to engage Tye, while Tye tries to back away and make space.
3:36 - Tye pins Nicky's right leg to the ground with his hand and then stomps on it. Nicky tries to grab it and pull it off, but if you've ever experienced leg pin passing, you know it isn't that easy to just pull off, so Nicky gives up after a few seconds. Nicky tries to hold Tye's arm to get control of the situation, but Tye quickly passes to north south position and when Nicky tries to re-guard he moves to side control with a cradle. Tye then goes for a toe hold, but this causes him to lose the position.
3:58 - Tye settles into what looks like headquarters position from top and then jumps for a rolling guillotine. It was never tight, but this is an example his relentless pace and fearlessness. Afterwards Nicky tries to entangle Tye's right leg, but Tye quickly inverts and goes for a berimbolo, but misses. Tye shows great defense, by pointing his toes and freeing his knee line as he is rolling. Afterwards Tye continues to pressure into Nicky's guard with multiple passing attempts.
5:40 - This is a great example of Tye's passing combinations. He goes 0 to 100 with a knee cut pass out of no where, then when Nicky brings his knees in to defend and he shucks them away. Nicky has great guard retention however and manages to turn his body to put Tye in front of him. Tye is relentless and by turning with his feet in the air Nicky gave Tye the opportunity to try a double under/stack pass. Tye does a few unorthodox things here. At first he starts a pass similar to a under-over pass by holding Nicky's left leg. Next he folds Nicky's left leg under his right and then bear hugs both legs together. Leandro Lo did something similar to Keenan Cornelius to pass his guard, which you can see HERE or watch the Lachlan Giles breakdown HERE. Nicky does a great job defending this however I think this is where Tye's pace and pressure started wearing Nicky out.
6:53 -After a brief respite Tye goes back at him with a move that is half knee slice and half leg drag. A knee drag? A leg slice? Once thing of note here is Tye's left leg. When most people go against DDS members they use their right knee to knee slice though the half butterfly guard. This is a huge mistake and Gordon Ryan has caught many high level competitors doing this. He holds their left leg and then snakes his own left leg behind their right leg. This turns the butterfly half guard into the saddle, cross ashi, 4/11, or whatever you want to call it. Tye doesn't fall for this and instead moves his left leg away and keeps Nicky's left leg pinned with his hand.
7:12 - Tye goes back to pinning Nicky leg and then goes for an estima lock. It isn't a very powerful attempt, but it might score with the judges. Meanwhile Nicky is starting to show visible signs of fatigue. After the estima lock Tye switches sides and goes for a lazy leg drag that might have worked if he committed more.
7:34 - Tye goes back to that leg slice/knee drag position again. Nicky tries to control the inside leg and pull Tye into the false reap position. Tye puts his right hand on Nicky's face to push away and the uses his other hand to pull Nicky's right foot towards him. This is actually very smart. Nicky needs that right foot to come under Tye's right foot if he wants to end into the saddle. By controlling it Tye shuts down the position and turns it into a weird "double leg over" ashi garmi and then attacks an ankle lock that isn't particularly tight.
8:51 - Nicky pulls Tye into his butterfly guard and tries to bait him into knee slicing through it by lying on his side. Tye doesn't take the bait by using his hand to remove Nicky's right butterfly hook, standing and eventually pinning Nicky's leg to the floor. However Nicky gets a good grip and manages to pull Tye's leg off. It seems like this is will lead to certain doom for Tye, but he manages to escape. At first this seemed like just luck, but watch it again. Tye's right arm is inside Nicky's left leg blocking it. As Nicky pulls Tye's leg inside, Tye puts his right leg inside Nicky's legs using the space made by his right arm. Although Nicky is controlling Tye's left leg, Tye controls the inside space and Nicky can't isolate his leg, which prevents leg locks.
9:10 - This is great work by Nicky following Tye up and attempting to wrestle him down. Nicky lifts him a bit, but Tye keeps his balance. Nicky goes to try again and Tye Granby rolls out and then dives on a kneebar/heelhook/toehold. Nicky quickly inserts the other leg and stops it immediately. Tye gives up on this leg lock quickly and takes the top position.
10:31 - Nicky grabs Tye's right leg and seems desperate to pull him into something. Tye steps on Nicky's right leg with his other foot and controls Nicky's left leg with his hands. This position seems extremely unstable for Tye, and it is, however Nicky can't capitalize on it because Tye has stopped Nicky's hips from moving. Tye floats down into a double kneecut pass, and then proceeds to apply the pressure. At this point I think Nicky has expended too much energy defending and doesn't have the strength to put more of a fight.
11:47 - After Nicky's escape Tye goes back to the leg pin passing. He grabs Nicky's other leg and goes for the estima lock again. Once again it wasn't super threatening, but Nicky is forced to roll to defend it. Once he does Tye pounces on him and does and body lock folding pass. Tye then uses some beautiful leg work to move around to the backside and pass Nicky's guard.
13:42 - Tye gets a bit sloppy and Nicky grabs hit leg and almost gets him in the saddle. Tye does the running man escape and point his toes. Tye first tries to run, but Nicky has a great technique and it isn't easy to slip away from him. Tye makes the smart decision to comeback into Nicky since his knee is free. Once he sits on Nicky's leg it makes it almost impossible for Nicky to regain the knee-line. Eventually Tye goes for an ankle lock to get which causes the position to unravel.
14:19 - Tye makes a mistake and tries to pin Nicky's leg, but then leans his weight back. This takes the pressure off his pinning leg and allows Nicky to easily remove it. As Nicky goes for the leg entanglement, Tye rolls and inverts. This is actually very smart. When both people are inverted it is very difficult to get your hips close to someone, which is needed for a leg entanglement. From there Tye just continually pins Nicky's legs and goes for legs locks and passes.
16:08 - Another leg pin and switch, but Tye gets a bit sloppy again and Nicky pulls his leg into a reaping position. Tye immediately defends and pushes the reaping leg out. Nicky switches to outside ashi and knocks Tye down. Unfortunately outside ashi isn't a super strong sweeping position and comes back up. Tye grabs the back of Nicky's head and starts smashing. Nicky does a great job with his left knee to shield himself from the smash. By keeping his left knee perpendicular to Tye's body he can keep part of Tye's weight off of him and stop the smash pass. Unfotunately for Nicky, Tye realizes this and starts pushing Nicky's knee to the side with his right hand and then his head. He goes little by little and eventually Tye's armpit slides over Nicky's knee. Now Nicky has no defense and gets smashed.
18:25 -Tye hits that double knee slide pass again.
You can see from this match how Tye handles good leg lockers and can keep up a furious pace for over 15 min. I don't think this is an indication of Nicky having bad cardio as much as it is Tye having amazing cardio and not giving opponents time to breath. Tye was able to frustrate Nicky and only gave him 2 chances for offense in 15 min, which is impressive. Tye controlled the tempo of the match as he does in most of his fights and doesn't let his opponents get started. Tye was ready for everything Nicky had ready for him and even when Nicky tried to change things up by wrestling he was able to thwart him and win. Craig however has different setups from many of the other DDS members and will be much bigger the Tye. Who do you think will take this match?
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