The UFC appear to have finally bought into the idea or using pit walls in order to keep competitors from going out of bounds in grappling matches, as they have just revealed the brand new bowl structure being used for the inaugural season of UFC BJJ. It’s a completely new direction for the promotion, as they have previously stuck to the more traditional method of simply using an open matted area and relying on referees to keep the action contained. Although this has been the norm for decades at this point, there has been a huge push recently for new ways of achieving that goal.
It’s not surprising too, because the action stops any time that competitors go out of bounds and excessive breaks can cause the match to slow down. It’s also become a tactic for many elite competitors to intentionally roll or spin out of bounds in order to escape the threat of a submission or takedown. It’s this problem that led ADCC to decide that they should allow the action to continue off the matted area, but that presents it’s own issues with competitor safety. Although the old MMA promotion YAMMA actually used a pit during their brief existence, it’s otherwise been ignored in grappling sports.
Then came Karate Combat, who already used angled pit walls for their striking matches. They decided to start branching out with grappling matches at their events under the Pit Submission Series brand, and they were a resounding success. They produced plenty of crazy submission finishes and interesting exchanges using the angled walls, including Craig Jones landing a flying triangle choke off the wall in their second event. Jones was open about enjoying his time competing for the promotion but he clearly loved the pit concept as well, as he used a slightly longer version of the same structure for the inaugural Craig Jones Invitational.
The UFC have clearly been paying attention to that growing support for the use of the pit in grappling matches with this recent preview of their bowl. They’ve put their own twist on things by using an eight-sided shape similar to their patented octagon, but the angled walls must have been a response to recent developments in the sport. It will obviously be a welcome change and it should allow the elite grapplers competing at UFC BJJ 1 the ability to attack more freely. Without the fear of going out of bounds, fans have already seen that competitors are able to really open up offensively.
