For a fight card with so many last-minute replacements due to injury, you’d be hard-pressed to find a lot of fans complaining after UFC 153 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – which ended up being one of the most action-packed MMA events of 2012.
To put the evening into perspective, seven of the 12 bouts ended in finishes – four by submission. This came as no surprise as the card was littered with some of the most accomplished BJJ practitioners plying their trade in MMA today. While black belts such as MMA legend Anderson Silva, fast-rising light heavyweight Glover Texeira and TUF Brazil winner Rony Jason let their knees and fists do the talking, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu featured prominently and reminded everyone that it is an essential art to master for any MMA fighter today that holds world-class aspirations.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira came into his fight with Dave Herman with many doubting what he had left to offer in the UFC. His opponent, a big, strong and hard-hitting wrestler has been bold in the past in stirring the pot regarding BJJ, saying this back in 2010:
“I mean even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while, but Jiu-Jitsu is pretty much a waste of time. However, if I were to teach self defense to a girl I would teach her Jiu-Jitsu because jits is pretty much how a smaller or weaker person might be able to trick you into losing. So for self defense for girls I think it’s great.”

Prior to his fight with Minotauro, Herman stood by his beliefs:
“He's (Nogueira) won 20 fights by submission - but we all know BJJ doesn't work," Herman said.  "It's useless. Wrestling means you don't need to worry about jiu-jitsu. I've never lost by submission and I am not worried about it at all.”
For someone who displayed some impressive submission defense in the fight before eventually succumbing to Nogueira by arm bar, it’s doubtful that Herman really believes his own rhetoric. Perhaps it was just his version of smack talk. Either way, the 36-year-old Nogueira showed that he’s still not too old to take a younger, stronger heavyweight to school. Nogueira took Herman down from the clinch in Round 2 and latched onto his opponent’s arm. Herman did well to roll the right way but when he failed to step over, Nogueira strengthened his grip and forced the tap out.

Once Herman is able to digest the loss, he should purchase a copy of Demian Maia’s DVD series “The Science of Jiu Jitsu I & II”. The 2007 ADCC champion showed us that he is still a relevant force to be reckoned with in MMA after winning his second straight fight as a welterweight in under three minutes.

For a while Maia invested a lot of time and training into improving his striking and bringing it to a competitive level for MMA. However, it was great to see Maia return to his BJJ roots against a very explosive and dangerous young talent as Rick Story. Maia gave Story no room to breathe from the fight’s very first whistle. He pushed Story against the fence and worked diligently until he had had his younger opponent where he needed him – on the mat. From there he was able to exploit his massive grappling advantage over the accomplished wrestler, taking his back and working patiently for the rear-naked choke. Story showed good defense for a short while by keeping his chin tucked in. Sensing this, Maia adjusted his hold to a neck crank and applied a gruesome amount of pressure giving Story no way out. The win gives Maia a great case for another top 10 opponent and it would be interesting to see him square off against another strong grappler such as Jake Shields.

Although his roots lie in wrestling and submission grappling, Phil Davis is giving plenty of 205-pounders reason to be weary of his grappling ability. After securing what seemed like a tight arm-triangle choke in his bout with Wagner Prado, the Team Lloyd Irvin pupil scrambled and caught his opponent in a perfectly timed and executed Anaconda Choke, just as Prado was escaping and getting ready to stand up. The speed and efficiency that Davis showed in locking up the choke on a moving target was a thing of beauty.

The earliest submission of the night was provided by 2008 World Cup Champion, Alliance BJJ’s Sergio Moraes. Moraes was locked in a tough battle with fellow Brazilian Renee Forte. He had to weather a powerful uppercut by Forte in the second round, and his stand-up is definitely still a work in progress. In the final round he was able to take Forte down and get his back. While Forte stood up, Moraes locked on tight with a body triangle. Forte tried to lean forward and shake his opponent off, but Moraes was having none of it and secured the rear-naked choke for the victory.