Wrestling breakdown: Tim Elliott vs. Joseph Benavidez | UFC Betting Sites

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Learn about D2 All-American Tim Elliot’s unorthodox techniques through analysis of his one-round scrap with Joseph Benavidez.

In other “Wrestling for MMA” and wrestling breakdown articles, I’ve typically looked at fighters who have patterned systems that link their striking, wrestling and grappling.

One wrestler who is much more difficult to label and profile in any concise way is Kansas JUCO champion and two-time Division 2 All-American Tim Elliott. Elliott’s game is certainly not process-oriented, so to call what he does a system is a stretch, perhaps it’s more of a philosophy. Elliott focuses on functional success, coming up with his own, extremely unorthodox methods for enforcing wrestling in MMA. Physically and stylistically they have little in common, but it’s more or less how Ben Askren approached the sport.

Herky-Jerky

In his late career Elliott has attempted to apply a more rounded strategy, but for most of the time we’ve known him, his janky striking has really only served as a way to work into the next wrestling situation.

His two main modes of operation are swarming and awkward outfighting. It’s hard to spot familiar trends when Elliott is keeping distance – he’ll often shift between stances while throwing his rear hand, skip into teeps, lean over, get into a side-on stance and toss out side and back kicks, his main goal is likely just to confuse, putting him in situations where he can burst into an advantageous position with erratic timing.

Elliott’s swarming is much easier to understand, he presses forward and throws ugly straights in combination to close distance, typically dropping to a leg as soon as the window is there.

While there is nuance and depth to Elliott’s wrestling and grappling, his transitional game is mostly reliant on being strong, big for the weight, and enthusiastic. It’s no surprise that a very physical game is losing efficacy as Elliott ages, so let’s look back at one of his stronger performances against Joseph Benavidez.

Tim Elliott vs. Joseph Benavidez (UFC 172)

Elliott came out hot, spamming said ugly one-twos from the closed stance matchup until Benavidez had to circle instead of backpedaling. Once Elliott was close enough, he dropped to the head-outside single and straightened out the leg. He proceeded to “run the pipe”, taking a step to the side of the attacked leg and bowing as he pivoted, using his free hand to guide Benavidez down from the collar tie.

CLIP: Tim Elliott runs the pipe on a single, Benavidez counters with the elevator

The downside of shooting head-outside is increased vulnerability to guillotines and other grips on the head. In Wrestling for MMA: Joseph Benavidez, and this Makovsky-Benavidez breakdown, we saw Joe B’s tendency to use a guillotine grip to control the head. As we’ve seen him do in so many other fights, Benavidez used an underhook on the other side while elevating Elliott with butterfly hooks.

Elliott was intensely focused on stacking and escaping the grip with posture alone, but that excess space allowed Benavidez to sit up underneath Elliott and work back to his base.

Eager to start wrestling again, Elliott first attempted just crashing into Benavidez, straightforward. However, Benavidez easily took small steps back and countered the winging reaches, backing off the larger grappler. Over and over, Elliott lowered his head and ran straight into Benavidez, bouncing to enter from slightly different angles each time. It was a strategy that cashed in on Elliott’s durability, but eventually Elliott timed his charge with Benavidez’s entry, and he got his hands on the Team Alpha Male product.

Turning to avoid the leading kick from Benavidez, Elliott entered hips first, side-on, catching an underhook on that side as he crashed in. The awkward collision left Benavidez stepping back into a narrow, square stance off the kick, while Elliott had his hips in the center, along with that deep underhook.

Stepping across Benavidez with his lead leg, Elliott lowered his level and used the underhook to pull Benavidez forward and over his hips, which worked with the lead leg to block Benavidez’s path.

CLIP: Tim Elliott tosses Joseph Benavidez from the underhook

Elliott definitely could have lowered his level more, or stood narrow with a proper triangle step to make the throw entirely about the hips, but with his positioning and the strength off the tie-up, this was a serviceable underhook hip toss.

Benavidez has proven time and time again to be an expert of escaping back control, rear standing, and bottom turtle, but Elliott’s unique approach proved to be more effective than most.

As Benavidez bellied down, Elliott worked from the standard referee’s position and put in the half nelson, pressuring hard to keep Benavidez from standing. Perhaps hoping to run the half, Elliott stepped around to the right, Benavidez reactively reached for the leg to attack a single. Elliott responded quickly, circling off to the other side, stepping clear over Benavidez’s left arm while continuing to control the other side under the armpit.

CLIP: Tim Elliott transitions from the half-nelson to the crucifix

Elliott had just set up a crucifix position by threatening with a more traditional folkstyle ride. Elliott used a figure four on the far arm and kept the single underhook and cross-wrist ride on the near arm, trapping Benavidez while giving him one free arm to strike with.

As they rolled through different variations of the position, Joseph Benavidez kept his head up over Elliott’s hips. It was the only thing that stopped Elliott from achieving a full mounted crucifix, a potential finishing position. Ultimately, it was Benavidez’s use of the cage, walking along the wall to crunch up and wiggle his arm free, that led to his escape to guard.

While I said Elliott doesn’t quite have a process, he does demonstrate self-awareness in his game mid-fight. First, he feinted entries with footwork alone and backed off, drawing Benavidez after him. He was setting up and baiting motion from his opponent. Elliott faked in then backed off again, and after so many upper body entries, Elliott caught Benavidez by surprise when he planted and explosively changed levels on a high shot, relying almost entirely on the drive, shooting across the body with the side of his head on Benavidez’s chest. It was more or less a knee tap.

CLIP: Tim Elliott draws Joseph Benavidez onto the double leg/knee tap entry

It was crude, but it worked, and Elliott was able to smash down with an underhook to capitalize after knocking Benavidez off his feet.

Modifying attacks after setting familiar patterns was clearly effective for Elliott, but predictability would soon be his downfall. Controlling from referee’s with a half, Elliott once again looked to circle to the other side and step over the far arm.

As he felt Elliott’s weight leave that near side, Benavidez rolled across his shoulder on that side and got his back to the mat. Caught with no base mid-transition, Elliott fell off to the side, giving Benavidez space to turn back in and cover in north-south.

Elliott scrambled to get to his knees and work up from front headlock, but he was vulnerable in the transition, and Benavidez got a hold of his neck.

CLIP: Joseph Benavidez counters the crucifix attempt and cinches up a top-side guillotine for the finish

Step by step, Benavidez worked the top-side guillotine, eventually trapping both arms of Elliott with a high step over from side control, forcing him to tap with his feet.

Stay tuned for more wrestling breakdowns!

This was a standalone case study of wrestling in MMA. There may not be broader conclusions to arrive at, it was simply a demonstration of how one fighter uses his wrestling skill-set in MMA, why it works for him, and where he falls short. As always, it was also a showcase of the mat wrestling and adaptability of Joseph Benavidez.

Expect more single fight breakdowns in the future! Please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments.