Breaking Down William Tackett's Masterful Performance at UFC: BJJ 2
Mixing pressure and loose passing, getting chest to chest and presenting submission dilemmas.
William Tackett faced Kyle Chambers in the last UFC: BJJ event. This match was a rematch, with their first meeting ending in Kyle submitting William Tackett.
Coming into this match, I was really excited to see William perform, because in his last outing he submitted Achilles Rocha pretty easily — but Chambers is a totally different challenge. Kyle wouldn’t try to wrestle or out-scramble Tackett; instead, he would try to leg lock him. So I was curious to see William’s approach to this match.
William did not disappoint, putting on a masterclass and submitting Chambers with an RNC — a move that, at this point, is a trademark for the Tackett family.
Let’s dive into his performance and see what we can learn.
Long Step Pass Attempt into Bodylock Passing
William is in Kyle’s half guard — or so it seems — but in reality, it’s more of a pseudo half guard because of Tackett’s foot positioning. As you can see here, William is using his outside shin to pin Kyle’s bottom leg to the mat, leaving his inside leg free and giving him a path to pass to the outside.
From that position, William uses his right arm to weave through Chambers’ knee shield and grabs Kyle’s top wrist with his left hand, then passes it to the right arm, which is in the weave. That’s something I didn’t realize at first because it’s very subtle — but it allows Tackett to have control over both the lower and upper body with just one arm, freeing his other arm to advance in the pass. It also removes the top arm, which is usually the main frame in half guard — acting as a cross-shoulder post — giving Tackett a clear path to get chest-to-chest.
William takes a reverse collar tie with his left arm, which has the effect oo making it difficult for Chambers to move his head away — something he needs to do to readjust his body and stay facing Tackett if he moves to an angle to his left.
With this interesting setup, William finally tries a long step pass (made possible in the first place by the shin pin on Kyle’s bottom leg).
That being said, the reverse collar tie is kind of weak, and Chambers manages to move his head away, killing the angle Tackett just created with the long step — and also bringing his right knee in front.
However, by doing this, he gives Tackett waist exposure, which William capitalizes on by letting go of the weave and wrist grip to take a tight waist, then connect his hands into a bodylock.
When doing bodylock passing, usually you want a long arm and to have the lock on the side, rather than centered on the back. William, in this case, uses his right arm as the long arm and locks on the left side. From here, Tackett can pass to either side, but most of the time, the pass starts on the side of the lock — so he’ll try to pass to his left.
Kyle has a butterfly hook with his right leg, and his left leg is on the outside. From here, William’s goal is to shelf Chambers’ right leg to his own right hip to initiate the pass. To achieve that, he first slides his left knee to the middle. Then, he sprawls his right leg to break the butterfly hook before circling it back and successfully shelving the leg.
Once there, Tackett simply steps over the knee and completes the guard pass — showing from the very start that Chambers’ guard won’t be a major threat.
Outside Passing into Chest To Chest Half Guard
Right after Chambers recovers guard, William starts using outside passing.
He first addresses Kyle’s hands, which is always the number one step when dealing with a seated open guard — that way, the bottom player can’t use them to connect to your legs or upper body.
William moves slightly to his left as a feint, and then explosively moves to his right while placing one hand on Kyle’s right hip (pinning it to the ground) and the other on the left knee — entering a camping position.
Chambers does a great job retaining guard by doing a half inversion, using his right leg to push off the mat and generate the force needed to face Tackett and get his bottom leg in at shin level. To maintain an outside camping position, you usually want the bottom leg shelved on your outside hip — so Kyle breaks that condition.
The issue is that, by doing this, even though you cancel the outside camping, you allow your opponent to drop into chest-to-chest half guard — which is exactly what happens. William connects his hands around both legs to keep them in place, and then drops into chest-to-chest half guard, as I mentioned.
I wrote an article a few weeks ago exactly on this topic — I recommend checking it out if you want to go deeper into outside camping and how to use it to gas out your opponent, pass, or force to chest-to-chest half guard.
Katagatame and RNC Dilemmas
After fighting for upper-body control, Tackett finally gets a strong crossface. Ideally, he would like to have a far-side underhook in this case, but Chambers has the inside elbow position.
William adjusts his crossface by grabbing Kyle’s far armpit, which allows him to apply insane shoulder pressure. In response, Kyle reacts by bringing his far elbow out and in front of Tackett to frame and release the pressure. That’s exactly the reaction William was looking for — it allows him to push the elbow up and across, and take that inside space with his head instead of an underhook.
The idea here is to put something behind the elbow — doesn’t matter what it is — so the head has the same effect as an underhook. The upside, of course, is that from here, Tackett can go immediately for a katagatame finish.
Kyle gets desperate, knowing what’s coming, and lets go of William’s trapped leg. William uses to try to step into the mount and finish the choke, so Chambers turns belly-down. William stays on top, now chest-to-back, and immediately puts two hooks in, taking the back. He then switches from katagatame to an RNC and finishes the match, getting his revenge with a dominant performance.
So…
William Tackett is one of my favorite grapplers to watch because he has the scrambling ability of someone like his brother Andrew Tackett or the Ruotolo brothers, while also being extremely methodical, like Gordon Ryan. He’s the full package — and he showed that in this match against Kyle Chambers.
I’m really excited to watch him face some of the best middleweights in the world next, especially because this division is on fire right now with Roberto Jimenez killing it and Mica Galvão making the transition from welterweight.
There’s a lot going on in jiu-jitsu right now. In the last two weeks we had PGF (which is still going on), WNO, BJJ Stars, and now UFC: BJJ. I’m really excited to keep studying those matches and share my thoughts with you.
Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Hopefully this post is helpful and enjoyable.
Have a great day!
Legit! So many great matches that night!