Toreando Pass

Last updated: June 12, 2026

What is the toreando pass?

The toreando pass, also called the bullfighter pass or toreada, is one of the most common ways to get past an opponent’s open guard in BJJ. The guard is the position where the bottom grappler uses their legs to keep the top grappler away, and passing it means clearing those legs to reach a controlling position, such as side control.

To do that, the passer grabs the opponent’s legs, usually at the pants near the knees in the gi or with a cupping grip on the shins in no-gi, pins or redirects them to one side, and steps around to the other. The legs go one way, the passer goes the other. That misdirection is the entire idea.

You will hear commentators call it the toreando, the toreada, or the bullfighter pass during grappling broadcasts and MMA ground exchanges. All three names refer to the same technique. According to BJJ Heroes, toreando is the Portuguese word for the act of bullfighting, specifically the jink a matador makes to avoid a charging bull, and the English name “bullfighter pass” appeared later as BJJ spread to the United States.

Where the name comes from

Picture a matador pulling the cape aside as the bull charges through empty space. The passer does the same thing with the opponent’s legs: redirect them one way, slip past on the other side. The visual is so close to bullfighting that the Portuguese name stuck.

The movement itself predates Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. BJJ Heroes notes that footage exists of Tsunetane Oda, a judo groundwork specialist, performing a version of this pass in the early 20th century. Anton Geesink, the first non-Japanese judoka to win Olympic gold, demonstrated a rudimentary toreando in a 1977 instructional book, as documented by Grapplearts.

In sport BJJ, the pass took off during the 1990s, when rule changes by the Brazilian confederation pushed competitors toward standing guard passing. The defining moment came in 1996, when Fabio Gurgel used a toreada to pass the famously flexible open guard of Roberto “Roleta” Magalhaes at the Brazilian Team Nationals, per BJJ Heroes.

How the toreando pass works

The toreando is a speed-based pass. Evolve MMA groups guard passing into two broad styles: pressure passes, which use body weight to slowly crush through the guard, and speed passes, which use angles and quick movement to go around it. The toreando sits firmly in the second camp, though many passers finish it with pressure once they clear the legs.

The concept has three parts. First, the passer establishes grips on the legs to stop them from tracking. Second, they throw or pin the legs toward one side. Third, they move their own body the opposite way before the bottom player can square back up. The pass typically ends in side control or knee on belly, a position where the passer drives a knee into the opponent’s torso.

Under IBJJF rules, completing a guard pass and holding the resulting position for three seconds scores 3 points, a value exceeded only by mount and back control at 4 points each in FloGrappling’s breakdown of the ruleset. That scoring value is a big part of why elite competitors such as Leandro Lo, Andre Galvao, and Rodolfo Vieira built their games around it, and why BJJ Fanatics bills John Danaher’s instructional on it as covering arguably the highest-percentage guard pass in the sport.

Toreando pass vs. leg drag

Viewers often confuse the toreando with the leg drag, since both involve moving the opponent’s legs to one side. They are related but distinct, and modern competitors chain them together constantly.

	Toreando pass	Leg drag
Leg control	Both legs gripped and redirected	One leg pulled across the passer’s hip
Body position	Passer stays at range, circles around	Passer closes distance, pins the leg to their hip
Speed vs control	Faster, more movement-based	Slower, more positional
Common finish	Side control or knee on belly	Side control or back take

The simplest way to tell them apart on a broadcast: in a toreando, the passer is steering both legs from the outside while staying mobile. In a leg drag, one of the opponent’s legs is trapped across the passer’s body, and the action slows down into a pin. According to BJJ Heroes, the leg drag emerged in the 1990s as an alternative to the toreando and was later refined by the Mendes brothers, so the two passes share a family tree.

Common variations

Grapplearts founder Stephan Kesting breaks the toreando into five main variations, and his classification is widely referenced. In broad strokes, the differences come down to where the passer grips and where they end up.

Variation	Defining feature	Typical finish
Old school	Grips at the ankles, legs thrown aside	Knee on belly
Legs to floor	Pants grips below the knees, legs pinned down	Side control via shoulder pressure
Push and pull	One hand pushes a leg down, the other steers the hip	Side control
Steering wheel	Knees turned like a wheel when the opponent balls up	North-south position
Hand on hip	One grip moves from the shin to the hip	Side control

The old school version is the one most students learn first and the one drilled in warm-ups around the world, though Kesting notes that elite competitors have largely moved on to the later variations because high-level guard players defend the basic ankle grips too easily.

The toreando in MMA

The pass shows up in MMA for a practical reason: controlling a downed opponent’s legs makes it much harder for them to upkick, as Kesting points out, and the passer’s free movement pairs naturally with punches from the top. Fighters with strong grappling pedigrees use toreando-style leg redirections to get past an opponent’s open guard along the fence and settle into ground-and-pound positions. Without a gi to grip, the MMA version relies on cupping the shins or knees rather than holding fabric.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the toreando pass work in no-gi?

Yes. The grips change from pant material to cupping grips on the shins or behind the knees, but the redirect-and-circle concept stays the same in both rulesets.

How do grapplers defend the toreando?

The standard answers are grip fighting (stripping the passer’s hands off the legs), sitting up the moment the feet are pinned to the mat, and framing on the passer’s arms to recover guard.

Who is known for the toreando pass?

BJJ Heroes lists Leandro Lo, Andre Galvao, Rodolfo Vieira, Guilherme Mendes, Fernando Terere, and Leonardo Vieira among the sport’s best toreando passers. Lo’s version is probably the most studied in modern competition footage.

How many points is a toreando pass worth?

The toreando itself carries no special value; it scores as a guard pass. Under IBJJF rules, that means 3 points once the passer stabilizes the position for three seconds.

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Sources

1. BJJ Heroes. “Toreando Guard Pass.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://www.bjjheroes.com/techniques/toreada-guard-pass
2. Grapplearts (Stephan Kesting). “The 5 Main Variations of the Toreando Guard Pass.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://www.grapplearts.com/the-5-main-variations-of-the-toreando-guard-pass/
3. Evolve MMA. “What Is The Toreando Pass In BJJ.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://evolve-mma.com/blog/what-is-the-toreando-pass-in-bjj/
4. BJJ Fanatics. “The Toreando Pass.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://bjjfanatics.com/blogs/news/the-toreando-pass
5. FloGrappling. “How Does The 2025 IBJJF Point System Work?” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://www.flograppling.com/articles/13493486-how-does-the-2025-ibjjf-point-system-work
6. BJJ Heroes. “Leg Drag Guard Pass.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://www.bjjheroes.com/techniques/the-leg-drag-guard-pass
7. BJJ Fanatics. “Master the Move: Toreando Guard Pass by John Danaher.” Accessed June 12, 2026.
   https://bjjfanatics.com/products/master-the-move-toreando-guard-pass-by-john-danaher

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