What martial arts does Bryce Mitchell use?
Bryce Mitchell is an MMA fighter who made his name in the UFC. Known as ‘thug nasty’, Mitchell won over fans with his impressive fighting skills, alongside his honest personality and country charm. Regardless of his charisma or style, the fact remains that Mitchell is a highly skilled martial artist and technical fighter.
Raised in Arkansas, Mitchell splits his time between training MMA and farming. That’s right, he literally lives on a huge farm and even built a home gym on his land which means he can train MMA whenever he wants. Best known for his grappling skills, Bryce Mitchell quickly earned the reputation as a solid grappler whilst climbing the UFC ladder. However, he is also known for his striking which means that he’s a true mixed martial artist in every sense of the word. Read on to learn what martial arts he specializes in.
Table of Contents
Bryce Mitchell knows the following martial arts
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
When it comes to submission grappling, Bryce Mitchell is not to be messed with. Whilst he may have a baby face, he certainly isn’t soft when it comes to making people tap. This isn’t surprising, considering he earned his BJJ black belt during his 20s. Furthermore, he won his first 8 professional MMA fights by way of submission. These victories were claimed by a mixture of rear naked chokes, armbars, and triangle submissions.
Interestingly, Mitchell’s first submission in the UFC was the twister spine lock. He was the second person in UFC history to pull off this move which is considered pretty rare and unusual. However, it’s not just flashy submissions that make Mitchell’s ground game so impressive. Unlike many MMA fighters, you can see that he clearly knows his stuff on the floor and is very comfortable.
In terms of control and calm, he will very rarely lose good positions or foolishly chase submissions that aren’t there. As the saying goes, there are black belts and there are black belts. It turns out that Mitchell is the latter and is superb when it comes to BJJ.
Wrestling
Another key part of Bryce Mitchell’s skill set is his wrestling. Whilst it’s nice to be a black belt in BJJ, it’s pretty useless if you don’t know takedowns which are what lead to ground fighting. Basically, Mitchell is a skilled wrestler and has wrestled for most of his life. In high school he was a state championship wrestler in Arkansas and a very good one to boot.
In the cage, you can witness his wrestling ability, as he’s often keen on taking his fights to the ground. This usually comes in the way of the double leg takedown that is his best wrestling move. Of course, he’s well versed in other techniques but if he gets hold of your hips then you’re in trouble.
If all goes to plan, then Mitchell will take his opponent down by wrestling and then use crushing top pressure to open up submissions or ground and pound strikes. Defensively, Mitchell is incredibly skilled a wrestling too and is very tough to take down. Here, his positioning is very strong and his timing sharp, to avoid getting put in bad positions whilst grappling or striking.
Kickboxing
Although Bryce Mitchell is primarily seen as a grappler, it’s also true that he’s a good striker too. Remember, this isn’t early MMA in the 90s where you could get by with one skill set. Instead, it’s the modern era where top fighters are expected to be very well rounded. This is the case for Mitchell who also trains kickboxing too.
This is a nice compliment for his grappling as it means he’s also comfortable whilst standing. Let’s say he can’t take the fight to the ground, he can still throw punches and kicks effectively. According to MMA great GSP, he would combine Karate with takedowns which chained the two together. Mitchell sometimes uses his kickboxing to set up takedowns which are equally as clever and effective. Even though Mitchell isn’t at his best whilst striking, he’s still better than most fighters in this area which is telling.
Nunchuks
Moving towards traditional martial arts, Bryce Mitchell also dabbles in Nunchuks. These originated Okinawan Kobudo which is where many iconic martial arts weapons also came from. Obviously, you can’t use weapons in MMA but this doesn’t stop him from using them. If you watch his videos, he’s actually pretty skilled when it comes to Nunchuks and can cause damage. It’s one thing having a top MMA fighter unarmed, but with weapons involved is even more dangerous!
Conclusion
Arguably, Bryce Mitchell is most comfortable whilst grappling his opponents. He’s a black belt in BJJ and although wrestling doesn’t have belts, he’d also be a black belt in wrestling if they existed. Elsewhere, he’s also a competent striker which means he can fight on his feet as well. These skills combine to make him a very difficult puzzle. Perhaps the best way of beating him would be standing and avoiding grappling or the floor.
This is easier said than done and still wouldn’t guarantee victory, but would possibly be the best route to victory. It should also be mentioned that as Mitchell is a country boy, he also possesses country strength. If you believe in this sort of thing, some people claim that country folk are stronger than those in the city due to generations of hard physical labor. This only adds to his toughness whilst fighting.
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