Jones vs Ruotolo PT.3 (Craig Match breakdown)

 In this 3rd and final part I'll go over 2 Craig Jones matches. I decided to do 2 for Craig Jones because his matches end so quickly. Lets get to the first match

Craig Jones VS Roberto Jimenez

In this match Craig faced Roberto Jimenez who has a similar high paced aggressive style as Tye Ruotolo. 

0:18 - Craig pulls guard and angles himself so he'll get half guard lying on his left side. Craig often does this and I believe it is strategic because many passers aren't as good good to their right side. Roberto tries to pressure into Craig's knee shield in response. Craig pulls in further and then Roberto moves back to avoid this. This gives Craig the chance to invert and attack Roberto's right leg. 

0:23 - Roberto knows what's coming and removes Craig's right leg and dives for the back. This was a good idea, but Craig's back is too far away and Roberto tries to jump around him instead of over him to keep his leg from being entangled. I might have had more success if he just tried to keep his knee line free and jump directly over him. I don't blame him for being extra careful though. Craig manages to trap his right leg anyway and Roberto rolls. Roberto manages to get his other knee behind Craig's legs and removes his leg from danger.

1:18 - Craig gets into butterfly guard and Roberto tries to smash it which leads to Craig putting him back into knee shield half guard. Craig quickly switches back and forth between butterfly guard, half butterfly guard and knee shield and then does a quick snap down to catch Roberto's head, but fails. Craig is throwing out a lot of different looks in rapid succession which I think rattled Roberto a bit, so he backed off to regain control of the match. 

1:40 - Roberto goes down again to apply pressure, but as he's doing this Craig is holding his hand. For some reason they entangled their fingers while standing and Roberto didn't try to free his hand as they hit the floor. Big mistake. Craig keeps ahold of Roberto's hand and uses his other to armdrag him. In response Roberto jumps up and raises his posture to avoid the back take. Craig takes his right leg and puts it into Roberto's armpit. He then does something like a scissor sweep from halfguard. This isn't an ideal sweep because the person can base out on their hands and prevent the sweep, which Roberto does. This is what Craig wants him to do however and he inverts while Roberto is off balance and his hands are occupied. 

1:49 - Here Craig might have underestimated Roberto or perhaps gotten too greedy. Craig is lying down and tries to separate Roberto's legs, but he isn't in a great control position. Roberto takes advantage of this and uses his right arm and hips to inch up toward Craig and put all his weight on him. Craig is focused on separating the legs and doesn't notice his back is getting flattened to the mat. Once he realizes he needs to invert it is too late and he has to release the leg entanglement so he doesn't get his guard passed. Once Roberto gets the crossface on him he knows its over, he releases the saddle and switches his hips to return to butterfly guard. 

2:00 - They return to the knee shield position again and this time Craig goes for a shaolin sweep. Roberto bases once again and Craig rotates under him and grabs Roberto's right leg again. He is now in a kneebar style position and he is lying on the wrong side. Generally you want to have the leg you're attacking on the bottom, not the top as seen here. When the leg is on the bottom they can come up and pressure into you and possible smash pass/leg drag you, which is what Roberto tried only seconds earlier. Craig is ready for him though. Before Roberto can remove his bottom leg and stand up Craig rotates over Roberto's right leg, pulls his own knee out slightly to get the saddle position, controls Roberto's left leg with his hands and then inverts. By controlling Roberto's left leg he prevents Roberto from standing or rotating out of the position. By inverting he stops the smash, which is what Roberto did previously. 

2:17 - As you can see here Craig now has the Roberto's leg on bottom and Roberto has no base. From this position Roberto can't move and is basically stuck. Roberto also makes a terrible mistake here. He triangles his legs, but does it the wrong way. Instead of hiding his right heel he leaves it completely exposed. Not only that, but his left leg is being triangle so he can't move. Roberto can't hide his heel, rotate, stand or push Craig's hips. He has almost no defense from here and once Craig realized this blunder he immediately heel hooks him.

This match was quick and at first glance it just seems like Craig was just much better at leglocks, but IMO it was more than that. This was a good illustration of Craig's fight IQ and how he can eventually eat through people's defenses. Roberto's plan was to use back takes and smash passes to counter Craig's leg locks. After almost getting smashed Craig figured this out and adjusted his technique. The next time Roberto wasn't able to smash him and once that line of defense was breached Roberto didn't have much more resistance. 

Craig Jones VS Jake Shields

Match starts at 3:23

3:28 - Craig pulls into knee shield half guard and Jake starts to apply pressure from the top. Jake goes for the underhook and Craig counters by framing Jake's face and then underhooking his opposite arm. I believe he was going for the arm saddle position, but can't get it, so he just removes Jake's arm from his neck.

3:44 - You can see here that Craig keeps his foot pointed do to make it harder for Jake to stand or move his leg laterally.

3:46 - Craig uses his left hand to stop Jake's crossface and his right hand to stop Jake's forward pressure with his head. This creates space for Craig to start inverting under Jake's arms. Jake is trying to stop this by putting pressure down, but because Craig has Jake's armpit framed he can't apply his weight properly. This is very similar to what Roberto did, but Jake decides to hold onto Craig's right leg. 

3:51 - Jake insists on holding Craig's leg, so Craig instead focuses on knocking Jake over since his base is compromised. Craig comes out on top and sits on Jake and from this position it is hard for Jake to continue to control Craig's right leg. Jake body locks Craig from behind and crosses his feet. This might seem like a good idea, but IMO it isn't. This stops the scramble and allows Craig the time to methodically work his way into the leg lock instead of trying to jump on it in transition. 

4:00 - Craig is now in the saddle position and he has Jake on the near side hip with his feet crossed. You can't escape from the saddle from this position, so Jake's only hope is a late stage defense if Craig makes a mistake. Craig pulls on Jake's heel to separate his legs. When the heel doesn't open Jake's legs he switches to the toes and breaks the triangle. As he was doing this he also positioned his body a bit farther from Jakes body to negate hand fighting and bring himself closer to Jake's foot. Quickly there after he gets the heel hook.

This shows how Craig has an answer for almost anything in that position. High pressure grinding into half guard is not only ineffective, but it is also dangerous against Craig. It seems easy "Just don't let him invert", but he is constantly beating opponents with hand fighting from that position and eventually gets to their legs. The fact that he can beat so many people with the same position should tell you something. His knee shield half guard is a death trap. On the other hand Tye generally doesn't attempt to pass this way and he is very good about keeping his opponents on their toes. Craig might have to pull out a new trick for this match. Who do you think will take the match between Craig and Tye?