2 Brutal Techniques From Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu

By Matt Bryers, March 15, 2019

Cyborg Is Known World Wide Among Jiu Jitsu Fans For His Unique Style

Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu is a Brazilian born Jiu Jitsu black belt competitor and instructor. Some of his most recent achievements are ADCC Champion in 2013, IBJJF World Masters Champion in 2018, IBJJF World No Gi champ in 2017, Grappling Pro Champion in 2016, and many, many more. His academy, Fight Sports, has produced more than several talented grapplers such as Hunter Edward, Jake Mackenzie and Ricardo Rezende. Cyborg is known world wide amongst jiu jitsu fans for his unique style and his trade mark position, the Tornado Guard.

Bernardo Faria is known for a lot of things - including smashing through people's guard with no respect at all.

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If you have ever seen Roberto compete you know that he uses an incredible amount of pressure to control his opponent’s while flowing around them with an incredible amount of grace for a heavy weight. These two attributes give Roberto a remarkable top game. If you did not already know, Roberto has an excellent instructional series called “Flow: The Top Game” available exclusively on BJJFanatics.com. Roberto is 38 years old and 240 pounds, but he moves effortlessly around his opponents, making him one of the greatest grapplers of his generation. Let’s check out some of the techniques you can find in this series. Here are 2 brutal techniques from Roberto “Cybrog” Abreu.

If there is one thing Cyborg is notorious for it is his high level smash passing, using pressure and grinding away at his opponent, making things as uncomfortable as he can. Cyborg starts off by explaining that the de la riva is a very common position in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu at all levels. Let’s take a look at Cyborg’s de la riva smash pass. Watch the video below and then we will break down the technique. Check it out now!

From De La Riva, Cyborg explains that the first thing you want to be able to control from this position is your posture. You never want your head to be leaning forward for one reason: wherever your head goes your body follows. Whenever you are in this position you want to sit back a little bit to strengthen your base. This will give you an opportunity to break your training partner’s cross collar grip. Using both hands, grab your opponent’s gi sleeve and break his grip out and out away from your body. As soon as you have broken his grip, take your outside hand and control under your training partner’s calf with a gi pant grip. Remember: the cross collar grip controls your posture, and the foot in hip controls your base. Notice that Cyborg’s inside hand goes immediately to establish a cross collar grip. As soon as he has both grips he steps back and outside from his training partner to break his opponent’s contact. This allows him to pass the leg and sit back. In this position you can now pass the knee by pushing it under your arm pit. Now you control your opponent’s body with your legs which allow you to push them to the side. This allows you to pressure pass around your training partner’s de la riva guard.

Knee on Neck Control

I am sure you have heard of knee on belly, but have you heard of knee on neck? It is a brutal way to control your opponent from side control, especially when paired with the knee on belly. Roberto uses this technique to tire his opponent out, and keep them struggling to escape his insane pressure. Watch the video below of Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu demonstrating his knee on neck control and then we will break down his technique. Check it out now!

Cyborg starts this demonstration in side control position. Take note of how he controls his opponent by wrapping his arm behind his neck while gripping the belt or gi at the waist. Cyborg knows how to anticipate his training partner’s reaction whenever he moves. For example, he knows that when he pops up into knee on belly his opponent’s reaction will be to place his hand on the knee. Whenever Cyborg feels his training partner pressure his knee on belly, he slightly opens his arm and slides his knee onto the neck. Right here is the knee on neck choke if you want it. Simply pressure down with your knee and your opponent will tap. Or, you can use it as a transition. In this case, your opponent will be trying to hip escape. You can switch back and forth between knee on neck and knee on belly as he is trying to escape. This will be especially uncomfortable for your training partner as well as tire him out. When you are ready for the submission you should transition back to the neck and then pull your opponent’s head up to really tighten things up.

Roberto Cyborg knows how to make his opponent’s uncomfortable. His use of pressure to control his opponents is unreal. But the other aspect of Roberto’s game is his ability to flow. As you can tell from Cyborg’s demonstration, there are a lot of little details that go into making these techniques really effective. If you love to smash your opponent like a heavy weight then you will love “Flow: The Top Game By Roberto ‘Cyborg’ Abreu.” Keep these principles in mind the next time you are looking for an effective way to smash your opponents. And if you are looking for more from Roberto then check out this brief video in which Roberto discusses “flowing” in jiu jitsu. The most important part of how he is able to is now how he trains his body or his muscles, it’s his mindset! Cyborg has his training centered on how much he can move and flow and exchange position, not on who he beat or who beat him.