Fighter On Fighter! Breaking Down ‘Gamer!’

Submission ace, Mateusz Gamrot, will battle standout wrestler, Arman Tsarukyan, this Saturday (June 25, 2022) at UFC Vegas 57 inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s taken just four fights inside the Octagon to establish “Gamer” as really damn good. The former KSW kingpin has already broken into the rankings, an accomplishment that has taken great Lightweights many years. Gamrot basically accomplished that milestone in 2021 alone, winning a trio of fights via stoppage to announce himself as a contender. At 31 years of age, Gamrot is in his prime, and he’s being thrown to one of the least-desired opponents in the division. Indeed, Tsarukyan is young, insanely talented and only getting better; however, he’s the type of opponent Gamrot has to be able to deal with right now if “Gamer” has a shot at becoming champion.

Let’s take a closer look at his skill set:

Striking

Gamrot is widely regarded as a ground specialist, which is not at all inaccurate based on his preferred style of fighting. At the same time, the man has seven knockouts wins to his five submission wins, so clearly the Polish fighter can punch!

The general theme of this entire breakdown is going to be slickness. Everything Gamrot does is smooth and fluid. He doesn’t power his way through exchanges on the feet or on the ground. Instead, he outmaneuvers his opponents.

On the feet, Gamrot is a movement and feints oriented striker. He’s very rarely standing his ground and trading shots. Rather, “Gamer” is comfortable from both stances, circling often, and trying to draw out offense from his opponents with feints and false starts. It’s not dramatic Dominick Cruz-style movement, but Gamrot stays a difficult enough target that he’s often able to draw his opponents into his takedowns.

As for his actual stand up, Gamrot does excellent work with the concept of touch, pull, return. In other words, Gamrot initiates a striking exchange, avoids the counter, then lands his own counter after his opponent comes up short. Typically, Gamrot’s initial land is a single jab, lead hook, or 1-2. If he’s fighting open stance (meaning Gamrot and his opponent are in opposite stances), Gamrot will switch it up and poke his opponent with a lead cross straight down the middle. Gamrot’s best lead combination is likely the 1-2 from Orthodox (GIF). After landing this combo, he’ll frequently roll his head, which can be a great setup for the takedown.

Regardless, Gamrot’s movement flows really well after the initial touch. As he withdraws from range, he’s able to read his opponent. Sometimes, they won’t fire back, and that’s okay. Other times, it works perfectly, and Gamrot is able to plant a hard cross on the chin when they come up short.

Another element of Gamrot’s distance game is active kicks. He’ll target the lead leg, mid-section, and head with round kicks, and he’ll go up the middle with a snap as well. As he shifts stances, Gamrot does nice work of consistently kicking into the open side, occasionally even hiding his kick behind a straight first.

Wrestling

Gamrot is one of the most unique wrestlers I’ve ever gotten to write about in my near decade of handling this column.

First and foremost: the ankle pick (GIF). Who is picking ankles in MMA at a high-level? Nobody really, not since Kazushi Sakuraba. It requires extraordinary timing to dive down at the ankle from kickboxing distance, when there’s no previous physical connection to the other professional athlete in the cage. The bright side of this shot is that it’s pretty unlikely to be caught with a knee or uppercut in the process — Gamrot is too low for that to happen!

At the same time, this type of shot would consistently land most fighters in absolutely terrible position. If mistimed, it plants the shooting fighter on his hands and knees beneath a fighter who can punch, kick, or knee as they try to stand back up. It could also give up top position if the other fighter is willing to grapple.

Fortunately, Gamrot is so damn good with his transitional wrestling that he’s willing to take that risk, because he’ll instantly latch onto the leg even in a less than perfect shot. See below:

Gamrot goes for an ankle pick, but his opponent limp legs out. He maintains control of the leg, attempts to dump again, then transitions to the double when his opponent maintains his balance. Note how well he cuts angles with every shot attempt!

A big part of Gamrot’s wrestling game involves latching into one leg and then finishing from there. Even off the ankle pick, Gamrot can wind up on a more classic single leg shot, and he’s a master of finishing that position. Let’s talk about a few of the classic finishes that Gamrot utilizes and why he’s so effective from a position where wrestling usually stalls out in MMA.

First and foremost, the golden rule of shooting in MMA is to never stop moving. Often, fighters shoot super quick and successfully connect with their opponent’s hips. Then, there’s a brief moment where the action pauses before they continue their transitions. By that point, the other fighter is defending, and it’s too late. This is true of all shots, but it’s especially important for the single leg.

Gamrot never stops moving. As soon as he’s attached to the leg, he’s instantly trying to run the pipe. He fully commits to the finish, willing to put himself in the crackdown position on the ground. The crackdown is not a great spot in MMA: the defending fighter has submission options, strikes, and back takes while the man shooting has his head buried into the floor. Gamrot avoids all that potential negativity by either cartwheeling over his opponent’s guard immediately or elevating the leg he just used to dump his foe to the mat.

Gamrot runs the pipe on a single into a nearly grounded crackdown scramble, then elevates the leg as Norman Parke tries to stand

Gamrot has lots of options if his opponent resists the initial dump and keeps his feet. For example, he can switch off to the double leg with an athletic lift, using that moment of off-balance to shift his hands. That’s reasonably common for MMA, but Gamrot does it well.

Less common is Gamrot’s ability to hike up the single leg takedown. In collegiate wrestling, this is extremely common, but wrestlers wear shoes! In MMA, it’s largely impossibly to cling to a punching opponent’s sweaty foot — Jose Aldo made an entire career of beating the s—t out people for trying to hold onto his limp leg.

Somehow, Gamrot manages. Against Jeremy Stephens, Gamrot elevated the leg to his hip, keeping a tight guillotine-esque grip on the ankle. From there, he twisted his own body, forcing Stephens’ knee to internally rotate. Fun fact: many, many MMA fighters have pretty poor hip mobility, particularly with internal rotation, as a result of wear-and-tear. For MMA athletes like myself who struggle with internal hip rotation, this type of takedown finish sucks and is largely impossible to resist. Jeremy Stephens, veteran of 17 years and 50 pro fights, unsurprisingly seems to feel the same, as he tipped over to his belly immediately (GIF).

The final element of Gamrot’s wrestling skill is his ability to disappear towards the back. Often, Gamrot is met with a sprawl when he shoots — that’s Wrestling 101. If timed correctly, good wrestlers can cut an angle exactly as their opponent attempts to drop their weight onto them via the sprawl. If done correctly, the sprawling fighter sprawls on nothing, resulting in an effortless back take.

It doesn’t always work out that cleanly, of course. Sometimes, Gamrot gets sprawled on. He shoots often, and it happens. Even then, Gamrot is slick to sneak around towards the back, using arm drags and duck-unders to escape out from underneath his opponent.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

A jiu-jitsu black belt, Gamrot has found great success in the ADCC European Championship competitions. Inside the cage, however, Gamrot doesn’t actually land submissions all that often, tapping just a pair of opponents in the last five years.

In one of his KSW Lightweight title defenses vs. Grzegorz Szulakowski, Gamrot showed the brutality of the crucifix position. In the fourth round, his opponent was definitely feeling Gamrot’s wrestling onslaught and looking a bit tired. Gamrot took advantage by trapping an arm in side control with his legs.

Now in a battle of two arms vs. one, Gamrot could occupy his opponent’s defending arm with his right arm while hammering away with his left. Whenever Szulakowski tried to protect his face with the free arm, Gamrot would attack the Americana or straight armbar that opened up as a result. It took a couple tries, but Gamrot finished the Americana after really battering his foe.

Against Jeremy Stephens, Gamrot brilliantly countered a Stephens’ kimura attempt. Stephens started to attack the arm from half guard, but Gamrot quickly passed. Stephens wasn’t quick enough to let get of the figure-four, and suddenly it was a Rorschach moment. Stephens didn’t have Gamrot’s arm, Gamrot had his! Stepping around the head, Gamrot did not fall back on the armbar a la Matt Hughes vs. GSP.

Instead, he secured north-south by sitting on Stephens’ head, allowing him to adjust to the full kimura grip. It didn’t take long afterward to wrench the arm behind Stephens’ back and force the tap (GIF).

Conclusion

Gamrot is an ultra smooth fighter who capitalizes on his athleticism and quickness with a deft hand. In this match up, he faces a more athletic foe who doesn’t quite have his technical polish, but it remains to be seen if he can makes those small details count.

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Andrew Richardson, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu brown belt, is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, California. In addition to learning alongside world-class talent, Andrew has scouted opponents and developed winning strategies for several of the sport’s most elite fighters.

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