Song Yadong Just Beat a Grappler Grappling. Then He Lied About It.

Song Yadong just beat Deiveson Figueiredo—a former UFC flyweight champion, a world-class grappler—via guillotine choke. Then he explained his win like it was an apology.

"Who doesn't know jiu-jitsu?" he said post-fight at UFC Macau. "I just don't want to show it."

This is the boxer's greatest lie: the claim that competence is optional. The thing he just proved he could do—finish an elite grappler on the ground—is simultaneously the thing he insists he doesn't want to be known for. It's not that he can't grapple. It's that grappling, in his mind, is the consolation prize of fighting. Boxing is art. Knockouts are the narrative. Grappling is what? Backup?

That's not how Figueiredo sees it. And the submission record backs him up.

The Setup

UFC Macau (May 30, 2026): Bantamweight bout. Song Yadong (12-1, pressure striker, constant feints and forward momentum) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (39-1-1 overall, former flyweight champ, legitimately one of the best grapplers in combat sports, now moving up to 135). On paper, it's the classic striker vs. grappler matchup. Those usually go one of two ways: either the striker's footwork and distance control keep the grappler at bay, or the grappler closes and imposes their will. Song had been crushing opponents with volume and accuracy. Figueiredo had been winning at the highest level for years.

Song won by submission. Not a decision that favored his boxing. Not a knockout. A choke that worked because he understood positioning, timing, and leverage well enough to finish a world-class grappler on the ground. The kind of win that should reframe how you talk about your own game.

Instead, Song retreated into the familiar narrative: grappling isn't really his thing.

What He Actually Said (and What It Means)

The full quote: "Who doesn't know jiu-jitsu? I just don't want to show it. I would like to knock people out, use my boxing. So if you want grappling, let's grapple."

Decode this: - "Who doesn't know jiu-jitsu?" = Grappling is basic, everyone has it. - "I just don't want to show it" = But I choose not to emphasize it. - "I would like to knock people out" = That's the real fight, the worthy fight. - "So if you want grappling, let's grapple" = Fine, I'll grapple if forced, but it's not the real art.

There's something profoundly insecure in this. Not about his grappling—the submission proves that works. The insecurity is about identity. Song Yadong is a boxer. His brand is pressure and accuracy and volume. Grappling is what happens when boxing fails or when the other guy forces it on you. It's a style that got imposed on him, not one he chose.

The problem: you can't impose a style on someone who beats you at it.

The Irony—Actually Spelled Out

Here's where most people skip to the surface observation and call it a day: "Ha, he said grappling wasn't his thing but he just grappled to win." True, but shallow.

The real irony is deeper. By claiming grappling "isn't his thing," Song is simultaneously doing two contradictory things:

1. Admitting that grapplers are good at grappling. If grappling is basic ("everyone knows it"), why does Figueiredo specialize in it? Why did Song need to import a choke with precise timing to finish him? If it were basic, any striker with a pulse could do what Song did. They can't. Figueiredo is a master at grappling, and it took a striker who actually trained it to beat him.

2. Proving he's good at grappling too. You don't finish an elite competitor at their own game by accident. That's not luck. That's preparation, understanding, and skill executed under the worst possible conditions—defending against a specialist.

Song's framing—"I don't want to show it, but here's me showing it flawlessly, and yes I just beat a world-class grappler with it"—exposes the gap between what elite strikers believe about the sport and what elite grapplers know to be true. Grapplers don't claim "striking isn't my thing" after losing to a boxer. They analyze what went wrong. They respect the opponent's skill. Song's approach is to downgrade grappling because grappling doesn't feel like his identity.

But identities don't matter to the scoreboard. Results do.

This Is Not New

Song isn't the first striker to win on the ground and then minimize the win. The pattern shows up constantly in MMA. Jose Aldo transitioned through boxing to leg kicks to submissions and never claimed any were "not his thing"—he adapted. Anderson Silva was a striker who submitted grapplers regularly and never pretended grappling was incidental. Israel Adesanya has submitted grapplers, has been submitted by grapplers, and acknowledges both as part of the craft.

But there's also the flip side—strikers who DO claim grappling is a backup, a safety net, something they don't specialize in. They're usually the ones who keep running into elite grapplers and getting exposed. Song hasn't been exposed yet (12-1). So his confidence is earned. But his framing is fragile.

Compare this to grapplers entering striking. When a pure grappler like Islam Makhachev moved up and started winning via striking, he didn't say "striking isn't my thing." He said, "I'm developing my striking." When Khabib Nurmagomedov retired undefeated, he acknowledged his weaknesses rather than minimizing them. Grapplers entering striking know they have to prove themselves in a new domain. Strikers entering grappling often act like they're slumming it.

What This Reveals About the Sport

Here's the uncomfortable truth that Song's comment accidentally exposes: elite MMA requires elite grappling, but not all elite grapplers need elite striking.

A pure grappler can win via submission at the highest level. Islam Makhachev almost became champion on wrestling alone. Khabib was unstoppable wrestling. But a pure striker? Song just proved you can't win purely via boxing anymore, not at bantamweight where Figueiredo exists. You need answers on the ground. You need to be able to finish when the opportunity comes.

Song has those answers. He just doesn't want to admit it's part of his game.

The Pattern and the Punchline

This is what happens when you conflate specialization with identity. Song Yadong is a pressure striker. That's real. That's earned. But pressure striking doesn't exclude grappling. Being a specialist in boxing doesn't mean grappling is foreign; it means you've chosen to emphasize one skill over another. The danger is claiming the thing you just proved you're good at is something you "don't want to show."

Because the scoreboard doesn't care about your preferences. Figueiredo is still submitted. Song is still 12-1. And the next grappler he faces will know: this guy doesn't want to grapple, which means he probably hasn't trained the deeper layers. They'll hunt the ground. And if Song keeps winning there while claiming it's not his thing, eventually he'll run into someone who's actually better at it than he is.

The irony isn't that Song grappled to win. The irony is that he's treating excellence like a hobby he can turn on and off. You don't beat a former UFC champ at their specialty by half-assing it. You beat them because you trained it, understood it, and executed it under pressure. That's not "something he doesn't want to show." That's a core part of his game whether he admits it or not.

The scoreboard already did.

This post was generated by AI. Sources are linked below. Follow @bjj-problems on YouTube for the weekly video digest.

Sources

• UFC Macau Post-Fight Interview
• Song Yadong vs Deiveson Figueiredo Fight Results