🥋 How To Dominate A Whole Fight With One Grip

Reinier De Ridder completely robbed Bo Nickal of all the hype he had. Today we’re going to analyze how RDR made Nickal look like a fish out of water with one simple grip.

In the Premium Notebook we’re going to go deep in the weeds of MMA leg locking to explain how Cory Sandhagen shredded Deiveson Figueiredo’s knee.

Now let’s get into it.

The UFC returned to Iowa this weekend. They decided to bring their most credentialed wrestler on the roster to try and build his stardom. Bo Nickal was set up to run over ONE Championship’s former title holder Reinier De Ridder (RDR). No one told RDR though.

RDR is a lanky judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. Before he came to the UFC he made his name in ONE Championship by capturing their 205 and 225 titles. He later lost both of them to the Russian tank Anatoly Malykhin. And before leaving the promotion he took on Andre Galvao and Tye Ruotolo in submission grappling matches.

If you don’t follow jiujitsu, both Galvao and Tye have world championships from major jiujitsu events. They’re phenomenal specialists that not many can score on, let alone beat.

Thanks to these ill timed losses, RDR was being treated like damaged goods coming into the UFC. The label conveniently ignores that those 4 losses were the only he has suffered since becoming a professional fighter. And the losses to Galvao and Tye weren’t even in his sport!

The point is, RDR might look kind of goofy but he’s vicious. A veteran with an 80% finishing rate that is completely unintimidated by his opponent’s skills and reputation. And he showed that by going straight at Nickal to initiate the clinch.

Nickal ended up on top in the clip above but that’s not the important takeaway. There are two important elements of control in the clinch that determined Nickal’s fate in this fight.

1. RDR’s head is driving into Nickal’s face to stand him up straight

2. RDR’s right arm is over hooking Nickal’s left and reaching all the way through to grab Nickal’s right

The combination of these two elements leaves Nickal’s right side open for RDR’s left hand and knee.

This grip is extremely powerful in both grappling and MMA. You can strike like RDR was and you can set up huge takedowns because you’re controlling both of your opponent’s shoulders with one arm. I’ll include a link below so you can get some more ideas about what to do from this position.

When Nickal got RDR to the floor he wasn’t able to do anything with it.

Something is really really wrong with Nickal’s decision making here. There is zero reason to sit back for a guillotine when you have a front head lock in MMA. None.

You can try to finish chokes from the front head lock while staying on top. If your opponent defends those they give up their back or sit to guard and you can start hitting them. I’ll include a link in the notes so you can see what I’m talking about.

After round 1 was over Nickal found himself in a really tough spot. He didn’t have the striking to keep RDR off of him, he was getting smacked in the clinch, and he wasn’t able to do anything to RDR when he took him down.

About a minute into the second round RDR was still getting in Nickal’s face. Nickal was responding, but he wasn’t able to score anything meaningful.

Seconds after this sequence above RDR put Nickal out of his misery.

I’m not one of the people saying all hope is lost for Nickal. He’s a 3 time NCAA Wrestling Champion and a U23 World Champion. He’s a special athlete.

I do think it’s time to pump the breaks on Nickal’s ascension so he can develop his game more. Plus, I’m kicking myself for putting this write-up below on Nickal in last week’s Premium Notebook instead of releasing it for more people to read.

I stand by this. Nickal needs to update how he enters and finishes wrestling exchanges if he is ever going to have a chance at challenging for a title. I still thought he would squeak out a win over RDR, but I am happy to be proven wrong there.

RDR had a brilliant performance with a clear, direct game plan and an answer for everything Nickal tried to respond with. He’s already been a champion in another organization and now he’s finished all three of his UFC opponents. I think the UFC should fast track him to the top of the division.

Before we get out of here I want to look at the main event from the UFC’s return to Iowa to explain why modern leg locking attacks are uniquely valuable for MMA.