I’ve always been curious about this position. I don’t see it much in MMA or BJJ, but I can see how it would be really valuable in a self-defense situation.
Is there any advantage knee-on belly gives in either MMA or BJJ that isn’t done better by other positions?
Can anyone recommend some fights where knee-on belly played a big role? I’d love to see what people can do with it.
Seems like i only see it when a fighter is rocked on the ground
Anderson vs The Chris 1 maybe
Seems like a relic of the old school.
In the gi it can be pretty useful with the back of the collar grip, but only against beginners.
Shields held Hendo in it for a bit I believe.
It’s very hard to control in no gi. You mostly see it when the bottom guy is exhausted
I guess it’s used mostly to rack up points…
If you have Side Control and your (much stronger/ larger) opponent is able to push up against you and is starting to lift your weight off of him, going to KoB makes perfect sense as a way to take his leverage away.
That’s makes perfect sense! Thank you! I feel a lot of modern jiu-jitsu teaching would improve if they taught how certain positions evolved (and why) instead of just teaching the position. I actually learn a lot from old BJJ DVDs for this reason.
it’s a great tool if you know how to use it
edit
If you’re looking for future video ideas, I’d love to see one on this!
In the days when BJJ was considered a self defense art as taught by the Gracie’s, points were awarded for obtaining fight ending positions if strikes were introduced to the scenario. KOB was and is dominant position for top control, raining down strikes or setting up submissions. A Brazilian competitor at the highest level tapped another BB who said he’d never tap to such a position. I use it all the time not to punish but control and transition to other positions and sub set ups.
In the early 2000’s top heavy weight competitor “Marcio “pe de pano” Cruz tapped another BB in a major tournament who said he “told (himself) he’d never tap to a KOB” until he felt Cruz’s immense pin point pressure and ability to keep the position over him (while he made a human pretzel out of him, it seems).
That’s amazing! I remember pe de Pano surfing on that guy who wouldn’t come out of turtle.
KOB would be much more effective with punches, elbows (especially 12-6 downward elbows) and knees pn the ground. sometimes positions may be weaker without strikes on the ground.
For example, competitors scoff at top mount in sub-only competitions and options seem limited when competitor are close to the same skill. introduce punches, and its a different story
I find gi collar chokes easier to get from knee on belly.
I use it pretty much every time I roll. It’s a great position as your opponent doesn’t really have many good choices. I also used it in both Phuckles VS drunk guy one and Phuckles VS drunk guy two. Both times it allowed me to maintain top position until I was able to move to mount. I also used it to get up and away safely after beating their faces in with my fists.
I think the true intent of knee on belly is to use it to incapacitate skinny TKD and Kung Fu nerds who agree to roll for the first time while also letting them see your smiling face. Then you use your fake Brazilian accent to ask them “do you feel da pressure my fren, you do feel my pressure”.
In that same vein I often switch from side control to scarf holding versus the bigger/stronger opponent and from scarf holding switch to knee on belly. This way you can do knee on belly holding their near arm tightly: potentially setting up arm bar and/or making transition to mount easier. I think I learned this from Carlson.
Knee of belly on one side also makes it pretty easy to transition to knee on belly on the other side to side mount. Against bigger/stronger folks, keep moving around
