Today I am going to review the first video in a series of six from Mario Sperry’s original Vale Tudo (MMA) series. Though this series is pretty old at this point, it is one of the first places I learned some grappling technique and strategy from. Mario Sperry is a legend from the grappling world and had a pretty solid MMA career as well (even though he was older). He trained several MMA legends, including the Nogueira Brothers and Ricardo Arona.
This first video is actually the weakest in the series, not because it’s full of terrible information, it’s just dated at this point. It’s focus is on securing the takedown. While some of the strategies used in this video would never be used in today’s MMA world, it still has some good pointers and offers a few worthwhile techniques. Again, this first video is the only one that doesn’t hold up that well over time, the rest of the series is better.
While some of it is dated, Mario Sperry does offer some great advice that will help anyone secure some takedowns. Tips like putting your opponents back into a wall, cage, car, etc., so he can’t sprawl back, and using punches to set up your takedowns are still very worthwhile. This video also ends with a segment on escaping from a standing guillotine (still one of my favorite escapes).
I wouldn’t recommend buying this video by itself, but as part of the series of six videos in the the Vale Tudo series, it’s okay to have. I’d give this video 2 out of 5 stars.
