Vitor Belfort: Anatomy of an armbar

Vitor Belfort came close and almost broke Jones’ arm during their fight. Let’s examine how Vitor almost shocked the world:




Gif via GIPHY. Copyright: UFC

 

In photo number 1, you can see Vitor’s left foot was resting against the cage. Jon had a single neck tie and Vitor also had a tie controlling Jones’ posture. Jon tried to take it off by grabbing Vitor’s right hand by the wrist and puling it towards his hips thus giving Vitor the momentum to underhook Jones’ right leg. The underhook combined with the foot pressing against the cage gave Vitor momentum to mobilize his hips, cut the corner and get a pretty tight armbar. 

This was an almost successful attempt and Vitor later pulled guard in an effort to replicate it. For his efforts Jones rewarded him by slicing his face with elbows.

My original post:  https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2017/7/20/15956234/defeating-the-goat-how-to-beat-jon-jones-part-2-mma-ufc-214-daniel-cormier