The Grapplezilla Podcast

The Khamzat Chimaev vs Dricus Du Plessis fight at UFC 319 was one of the biggest MMA Fights of the year.

The fight was a very one sided fight but had many many lessons to learn for both Khamzat and Dricus as well as the MMA community and in this video, I discuss what I think the main mistakes Dricus made are as well as I touch on something that Khamzat could add into his grappling game.

So sit back, enjoy and let me know what you think and share your thoughts in the comments.

On this episode of the Grapplezilla podcast, I had the pleasure of having Enrique Matute as a guest.

Enrique is a great Sambo and Judo practitioner as well as has one of the most solid grappling backgrounds a martial artist can have.

Enrique Matute has been consistently training in martial arts since 13 years old. His first two martial arts were Judo and Freestyle wrestling.

After a few years of some modest success at competing Enrique wanted to try something new. He began his journey in BJJ and...

On this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, I had the pleasure of having Liav Ben Shalom as a guest on this episode..

Liav is an excellent coach with kids and his methodologies produce results when coaching kids.

He has over 15 years experience in guiding and coaching children, youth and adults as well as Liav has been practicing martial arts since 2004.

Liav holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, has a very good striking and self defense background and currently runs the Akachi Academy in Tel Aviv Israel.

He also holds an...

🎙️ Grapplezilla Podcast Ep.33 | Tariel Abbasov: Combat Sambo World Champion and MMA Fighter 🥋💪Join us for an explosive episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast as we sit down with Tariel Abbasov, a powerhouse in MMA and Combat Sambo World Champion! 🥊 Tariel shares his journey from the mats to the cage, diving into his training, mindset, and thoughts on combat sports. From Sambo's technical mastery to MMA's raw intensity, this convo is packed with insights for fighters and fans alike! 🔥In this gripping episode, Tariel opens up about the challenges he faced breaking into the competitive world of Combat Sambo, including the sacrifices and di...

Are you having a hard time at BJJ class? Feeling like quitting going to Jiu-Jitsu? Here we discuss some strategies for common reasons people want to stop practicing Jiu-Jitsu and many of these can really help you deal with tough times in BJJ.Have a listen and hopefully this video motivates you to keep on training and get through the tough times you are going through in Jiu-Jitsu.If you enjoyed this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, we invite you to subscribe to our podcast for more great BJJ, Grappling and Wrestling content uploaded regularly.Until next time….Grab, Th...

There is one common theme around all grappling arts which is to achieve a good grip as getting a good grip can open up an opponent to a huge amount of techniques and without a good grip there are only a small number of techniques possible and generally they are low percentage in success.Arguably the most effective grip and position to work off is the underhook, both in wrestling and in ground grappling arts like BJJ and Catch Wrestling, the underhooks opens an incredible amount of attacking opportunities. Many competitive matches are won or lost on attaining a...

Everton “Alemao” De Goes Vieira is a Top Level Wrestling Coach who specializes in teaching Wrestling for MMA and BJJ.

Coach Alemao has had many fighters compete in top tier MMA organizations such as the UFC, Jungle Fight and LFA as well as he has an amazing and intelligent approach in how he teaches MMA fighters how to Wrestle.

So sit back, relax and enjoy this awesome Grapplezilla podcast episode as this one was a really entertaining and informative one and shows a great insight into the Brazilian Wrestling for...

MMA is an extremely dynamic sport which has been heavily influenced by Brazilian jiu-jitsu. That doesn't mean that if you practice the art of BJJ that you’ll be successful in the MMA cage as most BJJ practitioners are not learning the art with MMA as their main focus, in fact most Jiujiteiros practice for self defence and sport BJJ purposes. A totally different approach is needed to succeed in the cage at the highest levels and with certain fine tuning of your BJJ engine, you will be a totally different animal when entering the cage and a force to...

On the episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, I had the pleasure of having Tyson LaRone as a guest.

Tyson, is a BJJ Blackbelt and a tier 1 Strength and Conditioning Coach who runs Ironside Martial Arts in St.Albert, Canada.

An absolute encyclopedia of information, Tyson shares his martial arts background, his views on Jiu-Jitsu, Self Defense and Strength and Conditioning for Grapplers.

You do NOT want to miss this episode as it’s really informative and Tyson shares some great knowledge about Martial Arts an...

Andreas Achniotis Perales is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo Blackbelt who is the owner of Palestra Jiu Jitsu in Nicosia, Cyprus. 

I had the pleasure of having Andreas on our latest episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast and it’s a great episode that is eye opening into the world of BJJ in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

On top of running a world class BJJ school, Andreas is the founder of the “BJJ and Beach Camp” which is a week long camp in Cyprus where Jiujiteros and Grapplers come to train, meet each other, enjoy the Cyp...

I had the pleasure of having Eduardo Walmory who is no doubt the most interesting Grappler I’ve had the pleasure of speaking within a long time.

Eduardo is a BJJ Blackbelt and an Expert Catch Wrestler who resides in Brazil and has a training school called the “Centro de Estudos de Jiu Jitsu e Catch Wrestling”.

Having an insane amount of experience in both arts as well as being the cousin of Rodrigo Artilheiro, Eduardo shares his incredibly intelligent viewpoint on Catch Wrestling, BJJ, MMA and more.

This is one episode you do NOT...

One of our best episodes yet, I had the pleasure of having Brian Roig of PCI Jiujitsu who is one of the most interesting grapplers and martial artists in the world.

Brian is the owner and founder of PCI Jiujitsu as well as the Level Up Grappling Podcast. He is a top tier Catch Wrestling Coach as well as a 3rd degree Blackbelt in BJJ under Chris Haueter.

Brian is also has blackbelts in Luta Livre, Judo, Hapkido and an extremely deep background in Kickboxing, Pankration and SAW (Submission Arts Wrestling).Brian drops some serious...

This episode of the Grapplezilla is a short memorial for Calen Paine, the martial arts instructor who had the biggest impact on me, a mentor of mine and a very close friend. Calen Paine passed away and this is just some memories of him, training with him and a final goodbye. Miss you Calen, you really impacted me more than anyone and you were one of a kind. #calenpaine #wisewarriorgym #edmontonmartialarts #edmontonselfdefense #calenpaineedmonton #martialartsedmonton #dougdobish #dougdobishedmonton

On the episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, we speak to Roy Newman who is a 3rd degree BJJ Blackbelt and runs Pitbull BJJ in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Roy has a great BJJ pedigree, he has fought many times in MMA and is a top level BJJ coach.
Here’s his interesting story and we are sure you will love this episode!

If you enjoyed this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, we invite you to subscribe to our podcast for more great BJJ, Grappling, MMA and Wrestling content uploaded regularly!

You can check out Ro...

Senegalese Wrestling: The Power, Tradition, and Spirit of West Africa's Iconic Grappling Style! 🇸🇳💪

Discover the rich history, culture, and intense competition of Senegalese Wrestling (Laamb), West Africa's Grappling Style!

This ancient combat tradition, deeply rooted in the Senegalese culture, combines raw strength, athleticism, and spirituality. Beyond just physical prowess, Senegalese wrestling is a celebration of heritage, involving rituals and passion to honour both the wrestlers and the spirits believed to influence victory.

In this podcasts, we deep dive into everything you wanted to know about Laa...

On this episode of the Grapplezilla Podcast, I get the opportunity to speak to Andy Campbell who is the owner of Martial Mindset and an absolutely class act!

Martial Mindset is a great Instagram, page dedicated to Martial Arts  as well as has presence on YouTube, X and TikTok.

We go over many topics such as Andy’s martial arts background as well as a lot on the Martial Arts scene in Scotland as Andy is born and bred there.

This one is a fun...

One of the most knowledgeable Strength and Conditioning coaches in the world, Morgan Flaherty has an immense amount of knowledge in Sport’s Science as well as Morgan also has a World Class Wrestling Background, having Wrestled for the US National Greco Roman Team.

Morgan is the founder of Mogo Training, a Tier 1 training system that is excellent for all types of athletes and especially for Wrestlers, Grapplers and MMA Fighters.

Currently Morgan is the Strength and Conditioning coach for the Chinese National Wrestling team including the Freestyle Wrestling Team, Greco Roman Wrestling Team and Wo...

Watch any major Wrestling competition and you will notice many Wrestlers who switched from other countries national teams to represent a new nation. A great example of this was the fact that many of the Wrestlers that competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics were naturalized citizens and many of them were from Russia and the US. We go over the pros and cons of this issue as it does have an effect on International Wrestling, we cover all the major issues and present our viewpoint on the subject. So sit back, relax and enjoy Grapplezilla’s Breakdown on Wrestlers Wrestling fo...

It's been 56 Years that the US Men's Olympic Freestyle Wrestling Team has gotten at least one Gold Medal in each Olympics yet at the 2024 Paris Olympics, the US Men's Olympic Freestyle Wresting Team failed to bring a Gold Home. Here we cover the reasons why and trust us, we dive into the issue. We also speak about the Future of US Wrestling at the Olympics and Internationally as well as we give a thorough breakdown into each Wrestler's performance. Is this the End of US Men's Wrestling winning Gold at the Olympics???

Well, watch, listen and enjoy...

Isaac Knable is the founder of Invicta Wrestling Academy as well as the founder of both footworktrainer.com and the Stance & Motion App. An extremely accomplished wrestler, Isaac wrestled in the NCAA Division One for Indiana University. On top of being an accomplished wrestler, Isaac is also a world class wrestling coach, coaching young wrestlers at Invicta Wrestling Academy. Isaac is also the founder of the best wrestler footwork app called the stance&motion app as well as is the best authority on wrestling footwork drills and exercises. We had the honour to interview Isaac and find out his...

Chidaoba is one of the most important and interesting Grappling Styles you most likely have never heard of. It has influenced many grappling arts such as Sambo and Judo as well as been the starting point for many Olympic and World Champions in Judo, Wrestling and Sambo. In this episode, we cover all major aspects of Chidoaba and help you understand more about this amazing Folk Wrestling style. If you enjoyed this episode, we invite you to Subscribe to The Grapplezilla's Podcast for more great Grappling and Wrestling content.

Rodrigo Artilheiro is one of the most interesting and complete Grapplers on the planet. Rodrigo has competed at the highest levels in Judo, BJJ and Greco Roman Wrestling as well as is one of the best Krav Maga, Self Defense and Combative instructors in the World.

Rodrigo also has a deep history of coaching top MMA fighters like CroCop as well as being a coach on the Ultimate Fighter TV Show.

On top of his amazing Grappling and Martial Art accolades, Rodrigo Artilheiro is also one of the best...

Wrestling is one of the most important things you can add to your BJJ as we see most modern BJJ and Submission Grappling champions adding wrestling to their BJJ to dominate the competition. In fact after the last ADCC in 2022, it is apparent that the next evolution of BJJ will be the addition of wrestling into Jiu-Jitsu. Wrestling gives so many extra tools to make a person's BJJ so much more effective and dangerous. There are many different reasons to add wrestling to jiu-jitsu but here are the 3 main reasons and they are not the usual technique only reasons...

Shuai Jiao: The Ancient Chinese Martial Art of Wrestling Welcome to our Grapplezilla's dive into Shuai Jiao, one of the oldest and most revered forms of Chinese martial arts and an absolutely great Grappling style! Shuai Jiao, also known as Chinese wrestling, boasts a rich history that spans thousands of years. It is renowned for its powerful throwing techniques, dynamic footwork, and practical self-defense applications. In this episode, we explore everything you need to know about Shuai Jiao, tracing its roots back to ancient China where it was used by warriors and practiced by emperors. You'll learn about the...

Do you want to get better at Takedowns? In this episode we explain some great methods to start improving your takedowns regardless of if you are a Freestyle Wrestler, Greco Roman Wrestler, MMA Fighter, Submission Grappler or BJJ Practitioner. Often the difference between being good at takedowns and great at takedowns is by understanding the drills, tactics and exercises needed to get to the next level. We cover many different aspects of takedown training that you should add to your training regimen if you want to get better at taking your opponent down. If you liked this episode, we...

Freestyle heavyweight wrestling is full of power and strength and a lot of times it is a case of the stronger wrestler dominating a weaker wrestler. Once in a while there is a Heavyweight wrestler who not only is strong as a bear but highly technical as well. Geno Petriashvili is a Georgian elite level Freestyle wrestler competing at the heavyweight division who is strong, technical, resilient, fast and agile. He has always given his best in competition and is a nightmare for opponents with his highly technical freestyle wrestling skills and heart of a lion. Here's everything you...

One of the most underlooked aspects of adding wrestling for MMA and BJJ is the use of Par Terre (Wrestling Groundwork) as when adding wrestling to their fighting skills, most MMA and BJJ fighters only focus on learning the takedowns and takedown defenses of wrestling and not the groundwork. Learning Par Terre has amazing benefits for both MMA and BJJ practitioners as adding Par Terre helps link the wrestling they learn to the scramble and top position dominance. In this episode, we explain why you should add wrestling Par Terre to your BJJ and MMA skills as doing so...

Dagestan, a small Russian republic of 3.1 million people produces the very best wrestlers in the world. Dagestani Wrestlers have won a tremendous amount of Olympic Wrestling Medals and World Wrestling Championships with their effective style of wrestling. What makes Dagestani wrestling so Effective and why over decades and decades do Dagestani wrestlers still dominate the wrestling world?

In this episode we discuss the reasons why Dagestani wrestling developed to be so effective. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Why is Dagestani Wrestling So Effective? (0:31) Dagestan's Location & History (01:25) A Tough Neighborhood (02:44) What Makes Dagestani Wrestling so Good? (08:12) Notable Dagestani Wrestling Heroes We invite...

One of the absolute best Grappling arts an MMA Fighter can train in is Greco-Roman Wrestling. There have been many dominant Wrestlers in modern MMA and many of the best fighters of all time have come from a Greco Roman Wrestling background. In this Grapplezilla Greco Roman Wrestling for MMA podcast breakdown we discuss several reasons why Greco Roman Wrestling can be high effective for MMA. We cover Greco Roman Wrestling Fitness, Greco Roman Wrestling Technique, The Greco Clinch vs Muay Thai Clinch for MMA, the current MMA point system and how it benefits Greco Roman Wrestlers as well...

Adding Wrestling to your Self Defense training is one of the best things you could do as a martial artist. There are so many reasons, many of which will surprise you, that you should consider adding Wrestling Training to your Self Defense training. In no way is this episode about Wrestling being the best self defense system, we even cover why it has flaws when it comes to self defense but this video is for those of you who want to know why adding wrestling can be beneficial to your self defense abilities. Regardless if you train Krav Maga...

We had the pleasure of having Tom Billinge from WarYoga for our very first Grapplezilla Podcast.

Tom is the founder of WarYoga and gives a real inside look into the world of WarYoga, everything from his thoughts on the health benefits of WarYoga, the benefits of WarYoga exercises for grappling arts and a deep dive into the WarYoga philosophy. Hope you guys enjoy listening to this episode as much as we had making it and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to let us know in the comments.

Bokh is a national sport in Mongolia. Also known as Mongolian Wrestling, Bokh has been practiced for hundreds and hundreds of years since the time of the great Genghis Khan. A truly powerful and amazing Mongolian folk wrestling style, Bokh has been influential in the Mongolian character and has even been highly influential to Mongolian Judo, Mongolian Freestyle and Greco-Roman Wrestling as well as Mongolian’s success wishing Japanese Sumo. Here is everything you wanted to know about Bokh, a truly amazing grappling style that we at Grapplezilla truly admire. CHAPTERS (00:00) Bokh Mongolian Wrestling (00:06) What is Bokh? (01:26) What is Bo...

Sambo has been one of the most dominant martial arts in MMA and there is a good reason why. There are so many dominant Sambo fighters in MMA’s history that have won the biggest MMA competitions in the world such as the UFC, Pride and more.

Such fighters as Khabib Nurmagomedov, Islam Makhachev and Fedor Emelianenko have effectively used Sambo to not only win MMA championships but change the way we look at MMA in general. Here are the reasons Why Sambo is Great for MMA and why Sambo is truly a formidable combat martial art. TI...

Many BJJ practitioners are now learning how to wrestle in order to gain an extra edge on the mats. Wrestling Pressure and The Wrestling Pocket is the absolute most important thing that is overlooked when learning wrestling for BJJ. In this episode of the Grapplezilla podcast we talk about how Wrestling’s Pressure & The Wrestling Pocket for BJJ are pivotal to understand and master if you want to properly add wrestling to BJJ. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (00:05) Wrestling’s Pressure & The Wrestling Pocket for BJJ (02:17) What is Wrestling Pressure? (06:02) What is The Wrestling Pocket? (10:03) How to Train Wrestling Pressure? (12:22) Buchecha's Success Addi...

Brazil is a superpower when it comes to modern grappling arts due to the explosion of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu around the world. Yet there is another grappling art that comes from the jungles of Brazil that is a very effective grappling method known as Luta Livre. Luta Livre is not as well known as BJJ but there still are many famous MMA fighters who practice or came from a Luta Livre background such as Marco Ruas, Jose Aldo, Darren Till, Renato Sobral, Alexandre Franca Noguira, Gesias Calvacante and more. Luta Livre shares many similar characteristics to BJJ, both come from...

There is no doubt that Russian wrestlers are among the best if not the best wrestlers on the planet.

Having an incredible wrestling history with the greatest number of Olympic medals being won by Russians, the question arises of...Why are The Russians So Great at Wrestling? Russian wrestling differs from the western wrestling systems in many ways, this is not to say it is a better system, but it is a system that constantly produces world class champions.

In this episode we cover several reasons why Russians have been so dominant in Wrestling, so...