FIRST THINGS FIRST
Welcome to Open Note Grappling.
Every Tuesday morning I send out a breakdown of the best combat sports action. In less than 10 minutes you'll learn how the top fighters win and anything else fighters, martial artists, and fight fans need to know.
Hey y’all,
I’m back from a week long vacation to Ireland. I’m still fighting off jet lag, but the fights we were treated to were surprisingly fun. We got 3 different prospects involved in 3 very different rear naked chokes so we’re going to analyze what worked (and what didn’t). Then, in the Premium Notebook, we’re going to do a deep dive on one of those prospects’s unique clinch striking and back attacks.
But before we get started with that I want to thank this week’s sponsor, Huel! I was actually drinking Huel while walking all over Ireland last week. It tastes great and I had tons of energy for my whole trip.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
HOW TO BEAT SOMEONE UP WITH A BODY TRIANGLE
Gabe Green Survives To Slip In A Rear Naked Choke
The UFC went back to the APEX this past weekend with a handful of highly regarded prospects. In the main event, Ecuadorian Michael Morales knocked out Gilbert Burns in the first round. Before the 25 year old made his gigantic career leap, 3 more new potential UFC stars entered the cage. Weirdly, all of their fights ended with rear naked chokes.
Headlining the ESPN+ portion of the card was Gabe Green and 24 year old Brazilian stud Matheus Camilo. In the second round, Camilo looked to be running away with it.
Camilo has put Green on the fence. Green tries an uchi mata to make space but Camilo holds Green’s hips in place so the throw attempt backfires. Camilo hooks Green’s near foot and drags him down before briefly looking at an arm triangle. Camilo settles into half guard.
Gabe Green - Matheus Camilo
Going into this fight Green had never been submitted in his entire career. His crafty defense came in handy as he squirmed into a better position to escape. But just before Green could escape, Camilo showed us why he’s such a highly regarded prospect.
Green turns to his side to get up to an elbow. Then he slides out to get to octopus guard. Camilo keeps moving his chest over Green’s to flatten him out. Green starts digging an under hook to go out the back door but Camilo just steps into a triangle choke.
Gabe Green - Matheus Camilo
From bad to worse to awful, now we end on what the fuck?!
Green picks Camilo up and slams him to the floor. This can often make the choke tighter. Not here. Green is able to slide back out of the choke and Camilo is not able to take an angle for the arm bar. Camilo tries to roll away to get up but Green slides onto his back.
Gabe Green - Matheus Camilo
Green would put his hooks in and lock a body triangle. Camilo struggled as much as he could with the veteran on his back before getting softened up with some cool body punching.
Camilo does a good job separating his back from Green’s chest but he’s unable to turn his hips in the body triangle. Green holds Camilo’s wrist and uses the space to hammer fist Camilo’s ribs. Then he just pulls Green back and slams his left arm over Camilo’s chin for the rear naked choke.
Gabe Green - Matheus Camilo
This was an awesome come from behind victory from Green here. But if you had taken a look at their records beforehand you might have been able to predict this one.
Going into this fight, most of Green’s wins were submissions. Conversely, all of Camilo’s losses were submissions. Numbers don’t lie.
Earlier in the night, a different UFC newcomer made good on his first fight in the big show.
HOW TO PUT YOUR WEIGHT DOWN IN BACK CONTROL
Yadier Del Valle Shows Us The Importance Of Double Under Hooks
Yadier Del Valle is a 28 year old fighting out of Gracie Barra Houston. Sometimes, Gracie Barra is looked at like the McDonald’s of Brazilian jiu-jitsu because it’s the largest franchise in the world.
Not Gracie Barra Houston. Their Texas network has Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitors winning on the international stage.
Yadier del Valle used this grappling to end Cooper Matthews’s quickly.
Matthews is trying to wrestle up while del Valle taps his head. Matthews rolls to his belly. Del Valle floats over Matthews’s hips and throws his hooks in. Then he punches and extends his hips to flatten Matthews out. Cooper’s hands are stuck under him so del Valle can easily punch a fight ending choke in.
Yadier del Valle - Cooper Matthews
This acrobatic display forces us to ask one question. Why didn’t del Valle slip off the back as he teleported into place?
Because del Valle hopped onto Matthews’s back, his head is really high. Normally this means Matthews can shake him off the top.
Del Valle has double under hooks. From this angle you can only see his right under hook.
Here you can notice Del Valle’s hands locked to keep himself glued to Matthews’s back.
Del Valle is undefeated, in his prime, and training with world class coaching. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in the UFC.
At the beginning of the night, Korea’s next MMA star passed the Flyweight prospect test.
HITTING THE BODY TO TAKE THE BACK:
Hyun Sung Park Makes It Look Easy
The second fight of the night had Hyun Sung Park fighting Carlos Hernandez. I don’t know what’s going on but Hernandez has been matched up with four of Asia’s coolest flyweight prospects in his last four fights. Before Park, Hernandez fought Tatsuro Taira, Rei Tsuruya, and Nyamjargal Tumendemberel. But this fight with Park was quick work for the Korean standout.
Park throws a 1-2 and steps off line to drill Hernandez with a left hook to the body. Then he puts some knees behind it and easily digs to double under hooks. Now Park can shuck Hernandez by to get behind him. Park lifts Hernandez and throws a hook in on the way down to get to his back.
Hyun Sung Park - Carlos Hernandez
The next few seconds looked effortless for Park. Watch how he used his punches to get open lanes to choke Hernandez.
Park postures up on the back to throw big punche. Hernandez tries to roll. Park keeps a body triangle and rolls with Hernandez until his neck lands on Park’s left arm. Now Park just has to distract Hernandez with punches until he can lock his hands and get his win.
Hyun Sung Park - Carlos Hernandez
There’s an important lesson here. If your arm is on your opponent’s neck, don’t move it. And if you can use turning movements to drop your opponent’s neck into your choking arm that’ll remove much of the difficulty of hand fighting.
Park is a fighter I’ve wanted to study more closely for a while. I’ve seen his name in the news a few times, saw he’s undefeated, but never had a good reason to look at some of his older fights. Until today.
Next in the Premium Notebook we’re going to look at some more of Park’s smooth skills to see what we can steal from the next Korean MMA star.
If you want to study new ways to wrestle to the back and hand fight for rear naked chokes, upgrade to the Premium Notebook. It’s only $5 a month and you can try a week for free if you click here.
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
Hand Fighting Details And More Fights From Hyun Sung Park
There are tons of videos on rear naked choke mechanics we could watch. Since we talked about hand fighting a lot today I thought this video would be helpful to share.
You can watch Hyun Sung Park’s previous two fights for free:
And here is the fight he won to get into the UFC
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
MMA Draw is uncovering one of the wildest stories of the year. The UFC’s Russian investors are angling for UFC events to return to the country, most likely to improve their image in the world. Click here to read more.
Speaking of Russian fighters, Khamzat Chimaev has another fight signed. He’s taking on Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 319 for the middleweight title.
CJI 2 is right around the corner and the teams are forming. B-Team used their wildcard pick to add Victor Hugo to their team. Click here to listen to more of the CJI 2 announcements from Craig Jones himself.
Thanks for reading today. If you enjoyed this piece and want to read more about the top techniques, principles, and stories from the world of fighting upgrade to the Premium Notebook. The Premium Notebook gets you:
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If you upgrade you’d make my day. I’ll definitely tell my fiancé about it. We don’t really have too much to talk about anymore so you could literally save our marriage. Or at least our dinner conversations.
So yeah, click here to save a marriage.
