Of course you guys know I'm always thinking of interesting things(to me anyways) to talk about. As always, I was thinking about MMA and in particular how judges view certain positions. Of course, if a guy executes a takedown and obtains top position, that's considered a more dominant position than the fighter being on the bottom. After all, the fighter that executed the takedown imposed his will on his opponent and got the takedown right? So I thought about Demian Maia and how he likes to pull guard on his opponents to bring them into his realm of out of this world BJJ. So I pose the question:
If fighter A pulls guard on fighter B, shouldn't that be looked at as a takedown?
The fighter that pulls guard is dictating where the fight takes place even though he/she ends up on the bottom. Of course, we rarely see opponents actively looking to pull guard in MMA nowadays with Maia being one of the exceptions. In Maia's case, being on the bottom could be considered a dominant position considering his BJJ prowess. It's just like when a wrestler executes a takedown ending up in top position. That's the position where he can implement the most damage. Again, Maia is an exception to the rule but his guard is dangerous just like a wrestler with top position.
I think most judges tend to look at pulling guard in a negative light. Is this something MMA judges need to take into consideration, am I just talking out of the side of my neck?
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