Erberth Santos is a bad, bad dude... World Pro champion, European champion, Brazilian Pro National champion, winner of the Tokyo Grand Slam, and #4 on our 2015 list of Top 25 Black Belts Under 25. Santos is an intense competitor who uses a gnarly blend of judo and jiu-jitsu to ragdoll his opponents.

Hovering at around 94kg (207lb), Santos fights both at heavyweight and super heavyweight, but the results are often the same; he grabs hold of his adversary, launches them into the air and drops them on their head.

Santos' judo is not pretty, but it's sure as hell effective. We took a look at six recent black belt matches from this year to breakdown his main attacks.

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Face, Meet Mat -- Mat, Face

The classical drop seoi nage will see an opponent propelled forward and flipped over so that their shoulders land cleanly on the mat. Erberth doesn't care about that. Erberth's seoi nage is ugly as hell. He literally aims to bounce his opponents' heads off the mat. Go to your back and give up the two points, or risk getting KO'd; the choice is yours.

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Feints and Trickery

One thing to know about Santos' style of judo is that he attacks with both left or right leg forward, whereas most judo practitioners only use one stance. However, Santos' hybrid game employs different sequences of attacks depending on which foot is forward.

When right leg forward, Santos uses a high collar grip to go for traditional attacks such as the harai goshi (his money move). In the gif below you can see him twitching the leg; the opponent knows something is coming, and he starts getting nervous up in fear of an impending attack, be it a footsweep or otherwise. This is exactly what Erberth wants, as it gives him the space to enter and take out his opponent.



If opponents are wise to the harai goshi and don't move their feet Erberth will drag them down in a sacrifice throw. He gets under his guy and uses his hook to elevate them, using the momentum of the pulling motion to carry them over with the sweep.



Here's the same throw but done as a direct entry. No need for feints this time.

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Baiting The Single Leg

A disadvantage of the upright judo stance is that opponents have an easy time grabbing the single leg. Erberth's got insane balance and great single leg defense, but he will often bait the single leg in an effort to get in close for his attacks.

In this gif we see Santos literally give his opponent the leg. He's looking for the harai goshi but switches to a trip. He uses a grip on the pants to turn his opponent onto the blocked leg. This move is more muscle than finesse, but you can't argue with results.

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If In Doubt, Just Dump Them On Their Head

In situations where technique isn't enough, power saves the day. Here we see Erberth attack for a te guruma-style throw. Instead of running the pipe or attacking the far leg like a wrestler might, Santos elects to do what he does best -- smash them into the ground.




Want to see Erberth Santos in action? Take a look at our extensive video library of his matches!