From the start Boetsch wanted to wrestle, (and as a former D1 wrestler, I don’t blame him for trying to lean on those skill here) and, less than 30 seconds in, he caught a lazy lead front kick from Rockhold to initiate a head outside single leg; it was the beginning of the end for him. Rockhold immediately sat the corner, HARD (emphasis Ed Gallo’s), and butt dragged simultaneously. When Boetsch attempted a front roll, Rockhold rolled with him and they ended up in a standard shot and sprawl position. That’s when things got really bad for ol’ Tim.

With Rockhold being in a typically weak position, with Boetsch holding a single leg against his shallow sprawl with no underhooks, Rockhold allowed Boetsch to drag his leg in and immediately sat down on his side to lock up an inverted triangle.

Boetsch knew he was in deep trouble as Rockhold started squaring his hips up on top of Boetsch’s shoulder line and began pulling at his feet to break his base. Note that Rockhold was continuously pressuring his hips down to attempt to flatten Boetsch out, which would have tightened that triangle up and elicited a tap.

So Boetsch stayed crunched up and held onto that left leg for dear life. To get Boetsch to open up, Rockhold began elbowing every open spot on the body he could find, and it worked. Boetsch eventually was able to get Rockhold to the fence, but it did not help him one bit. At this point, Boetsch was reaching far back doing whatever he could to try and stop the strikes from Rockhold, who was able to take advantage.

Rockhold immediately secured the arm and allowed Boetsch to turn slightly in the triangle to give Rockhold a better angle to attack the arm. With Boetsch on his side, Rockhold continued to put pressure on the head and neck by extending his hips, thus never allowing him to focus fully on defending his arm. At 3:16 Rockhold fully committed to the kimura, wrenching the arm upwards.

Sidebar: When attempting the kimura from the top, make sure that you bring your chest close to the arm before trying to wrench it. This gives more leverage to the attacker rather than being postured and just pulling with your arms. Anyway, back to the fight.

One thing we can say about Boetsch is that he’s powerful, and despite Rockhold being strong himself, he was unable to free the arm and this gave Boetsch enough space to get his back to the mat, the correct response on his part. With Boetsch’s back flat on the mat and Rockhold pretty far past the center line of Boetsch’s body, he knew he is not in the ideal spot to continue controlling him; indeed Boetsch immediately begins to bridge and work his trapped arm in to create something resembling a frame and relieve the triangle pressure to escape.

To counter this, Rockhold released the triangle briefly and extending them with locked ankles, allowing Boetsch to try and extend his arm, hoping there would be space to slip his elbow through. Rockhold was waiting for this, re-locking his triangle, with the slight change being the position now was deeper in his armpit rather than on the triceps, a much tighter position for control. The other important distinction is the direction of Rockhold’s left knee. Before re-applying the triangle, his knee was pointed up at the ceiling, which would not allow him to “sit” on Boetsch effectively. After switching, his knee was pointed more towards the mat, which let him release the kimura to push himself back into a postured state while simultaneously pinning Boetsch’s arm as well, preventing Boetsch from crunching it into his body like on the first kimura attempt.

With a secure position of control, Rockhold re-applies the kimura and cranks Boetsch’s arm for the tap.

vs. Michael Bisping: UFN 55 - Winner by Submission Rd 2 - Guillotine Choke