Breakdown Of Luiz Panza’s Victory @ BJJ Pro LA

Just about a month ago at the annual BJJ Pro LA tournament, Luiz Panza took home yet another championship win, adding another title to his collection. In his path to the title, he won his division by finishing all of his opponents. But in the finals, his match with Manny Diaz was especially impressive. While he and many had a great match, Panza was the one to be the most dominant. Let’s take a look at the match, and break down how Luiz was able to take this victory.

Aggressive from the start

From the start of the match, Luiz took the reins. When the match started, he immediately grabbed Manny and jumped guard. He didn’t idly and passively pull guard, but aggressively jumped guard on his opponent which would set the tone for the rest of the championship bout between two talented black belts.

Great guard retention

Luiz is a great guard player. While he does love to play from the 50/50 guard, he does have an underrated closed guard. And in addition to that, he has awesome guard retention. Manny kept trying to pass his guard at all costs, but simply could not do it. Luiz was able to always retain, even at times, inverting and getting sweeps as he retained.

Controlling the lapel

At about halfway through the match, Panza was able to grab and then control Manny’s lapel. This was an important factor. He maintained a hook with his leg, similar to a De La Riva hook, but used the bottom of the lapel. This slowed the pace down considerably. It allowed Luiz to be able to stop his opponent’s guard passing, and allowed him to set up more techniques.

Going for the foot lock

As Manny tried to stand up and pass guard, Panza was able to again invert and go for the foot lock. He was patient. Luiz maintained a tight grip on his opponent’s pants and kept going after the foot lock in a calm, controlled manner. At no point did he abandon that attack and went after it until he got complete control and was able to finish Manny with a straight foot lock in the belly down style.

One can learn a lot from watching Luiz Panza compete. His style is very technical, and his foot lock attacks are interesting because you simply do not see as many leg attacks in gi as you do in no gi. He also has released some great instructional DVD’s.

Click here to see Hidden BJJ Secrets by Luiz Panza!