I lost via split decision in the 10 minute title match on the F2W 97 Sacramento card this Friday.

The event was another great show by the fight to win promotions. They bring the party to jiujitsu while featuring over 30 super fights in the evening. It’s an incredible show highlighting the local jiujitsu practitioners!

Tex Johnson comes from New York, New York at Unity jiujitsu academy. His recent win at the east coast adcc trials was a Big Bang that shot him up in the ranks to number 4 in the world. Initially my match was with east coast legend, Tom DeBlass, but the match fell through and Tex was willing to step in. Unlike tournaments, I studied his game quite a bit. Thanks to guys like Tanner Rice in Redding and SF area coach Mike Murrell, I got even more feedback in preparation. Tex has a very exciting leg attack game that is set up with double underhooks from the butterfly guard or uses the closed guard to attack the arms and open up the leg game. In more recent video, I noticed him using his guard retention from pressure passing to set up kimura grips and attack the arm or triangle. I really like his game and learned much from the study.

To better understand his game I played many rounds in practice as though I was trying to play his game. Doing so helps me better understand the subtle nuances of the attacks being set up. As a result, I came up with the type of game plan you saw in our match. (It’s always important for me to stay true to my style, but in these 1v1 sub only type matches you can strategize based on a very specific game.) I didn’t want to trade attacks to the leg, so my plan was to attack the head, to get him to open up the neck, back, and arms. I intentionally avoided a pressure pass type situation because he has incredible strong hips as well as upper body attacks. In our match I was able to engage a few attacks to his head, but played it a little too conservative to open up a continuous stream of attacks. Something to work on for the next opportunity.

In our match I noticed he changed strategy, from sit up guard to standing and trying to lull me into a sturdy tie for him to drop down to a leg. Looking back, I had a few opportunities to turn this situation into a 2 on 1 set up and force the takedown. (Although I don’t know if that would have changed the outcome) doing so might have set up attacking options to the back or arms.

Overall, it was a great experience to get on stage with one of the top ranked competitors starting off 2019. Even turning 35 and coming back from a series of injuries, I was in the game. Personally, I learned a great deal from this experience. Thank you Tex and F2W staff for a great show in Sacramento.