Xande Ribeiro won’t trade leg locks with Craig Jones
“He’s a black belt in algebra,” says the BJJ legend, who criticizes a generation that only attacks the legs and explains his ADCC game plan
A seven-time world champion and one of the biggest names in ADCC history, Xande Ribeiro worries about a generation of athletes who only know how to attack the legs. In a 2022 interview with VF Comunica, he admitted he would never trade leg locks with Craig Jones and explained how he builds his game plan.
The risk of relying only on leg locks
Asked whether focusing only on leg locks can hurt the new generation, Xande didn’t hesitate. “Totally. Look at the Abu Dhabi trials: the guy tries the leg lock, doesn’t get it, ends up in a bad position and taps. It’s a very good position, but you need other weapons. You need top pressure, you need to use the guard pass as a tool to get to your leg lock. My students have to know how to take down, how to fall and how to use leg locks.”
Why Xande won’t trade leg locks with Craig Jones
“Leg locks are almost an art of their own. It’s like algebra and geometry: it’s all math, but geometry is Jiu-Jitsu and algebra is leg locks. Am I going to trade leg locks with Craig Jones? Never. Not even if he gives me his foot, because he’s a black belt in algebra. In leg locks, I’m a purple belt. A tough purple belt, because I know how to defend. But a black belt will fool me.”
The line carries extra weight because the two have met before. At ADCC 2017 in Espoo, Finland, Xande beat Craig Jones on points in the under-88 kg third-place match, after losing the semifinal to Gordon Ryan by referee decision.
The Pokémon card strategy at ADCC
“Is a guy going to pass my guard? No. Take me down? I don’t think so. So I have to cancel out his chances of beating me and bring it to where I’m a black belt and he isn’t. Like Pokémon cards: I have 10 power here, he has 7 there, so I go there. But I train, because one day I’ll end up in that position. He goes for my foot? I have three, five escapes.”
Is the new generation betting too much on leg locks?
Read more
- Xande Ribeiro says Gordon Ryan never tested himself in gi
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