2017 Chael Sonnen Presents Submission Underground 6

What Can We Expect When Jake Shields And Gilbert Burns Grapple?

It’s just over one week until Jake Shields will be facing off with Gilbert Burns in the main event of Submission Underground 6.

Nov 25, 2017 by FloGrappling

What Can We Expect When Jake Shields And Gilbert Burns Grapple?

It’s just over one week until Jake Shields will be facing off with Gilbert Burns in the main event of Submission Underground 6.

SUG founder Chael Sonnen pitted the two MMA fighters (and expert grapplers) against each other to make the all-star match-up. Both are SUG veterans, with Shields holding a win over the notorious Dillon Danis and Durinho a win over the scrapper John Combs.

What can we expect from this match? Durinho and Shields are both excellent grapplers, although markedly different in style and approach.

Now based in Florida, Durinho came up training alongside top black belts in Brazil from the Atos and Zenith teams. Shields, on the other hand, is a Cesar Gracie black belt who trained extensively with the Diaz brothers before relocating to New York to work with John Danaher and his elite squad of no-gi grapplers.

We’ve already seen the results of Shields’ training with Danaher, Garry Tonon, Gordon Ryan and the like. Shields submitted Lyoto Machida in 2016 with a heelhook in a grappling superfight, a technique straight out of the DDS playbook.

Durinho fell foul to one of these very techniques when he faced off with Garry Tonon in a grappling superfight in late 2016. It’s no stretch of the imagination that he will have brushed up on these attacks following this loss.

If there is an advantage in any one range, you might say that Shields’ wrestling pedigree is better than that of Burns, but don’t count out the athletic and well-prepared Brazilian. His MMA career means he’s worked just as hard on his feet, and he’s definitely savvy to the game.

Submission Underground matches are submission-only and use OT rules, so if there is no decisive winner by the end of regulation period then they will battle from set positions such as the armlock or back control. Both men won their previous SUG matches in this manner, with Shields beating Danis via fastest escape time, while Burns submitted John Combs with a rear naked choke.

Watch Jake Shields vs Gilbert Burns live or on demand on FloGrappling on December 3.