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.
The weirdest streak in MMA got weirder this weekend. We’re going to look why this recent win is actually a step in the right direction and add another name to the long list of exciting French prospects that are taking over MMA.
In the premium section of today’s article we’re looking at Khabib 2.0: Light Heavyweight Edition. Before we get started with all of that I have a huge announcement.
I wrote a book! It’s called The Jiujitsu Gym Operations Manual and you can pre-order the kindle version here!
The Jiujitsu Gym Operations Manual helps you get ahead of the most common issues gym owners face before they become problems. It's the culmination of a life on the mats and a career spent consulting small business owners.
I wrote this book to explain and simplify everything you need to get off the ground and build the training environment of your dreams, especially if you've never owned a business or ran a gym. The Jiujitsu Gym Operations Manual will teach you how to:
Build a brand
Open your doors with cash coming in
Communicate clearly with anyone anywhere
Organize classes and develop a holistic curriculum
This is a step by step guide on how to turn your jiujitsu passion into a career.
Click the image below if you’re ready to read it.
Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
The Weirdest Streak In MMA Slides On
If you thought Johnny Walker was weird wait until you learn about his brother.
They’ve both been to a decision 5 times and they have an equal height of 6’6. But Johnny’s brother Valter fights one division up and has managed to secure 5 leg locks in a row! Here is the most recent one from Saturday.
Walker is playing half guard. He gets an under hook and uses it to elevate Petersen. Now he has space to throw his leg over and attack an outside heel hook. Petersen correctly pushes the foot down and rolls to free his knee. Walker drops his shin into Petersen’s knee pit and sits up for a calf slicer.
Valter Walker - Thomas Petersen
As strange as it might seem, this leg lock is an improvement in my book.
Walker’s previous leg locks came from him sitting back while passing or pulling into the submission. And, yes, he pulled guard to get here, but using leg locks to attack from bottom, get on top, or at least get up is a fundamental portion of modern grappling.
The weirdest thing about this streak is every single one of Walker’s leg locks has been in the UFC. He only has one other submission on his record and it was a rear naked choke 6 years ago!
Walker’s half guard entry was actually pretty close enough to one of my preferred ways to enter leg attacks.
Glick is playing butterfly half guard. He hits a modified knee lever by elevating Placido with his hands and butterfly hook while his right foot plants on the mat and points away from Placido. This gives him the space needed to throw his right leg up and over Placido’s left so Glick can attack leg locks.
Bryan Glick Demonstration With Placido Santos
Walker’s success serves as a reminder that if you entangle your opponent’s legs correctly, you take away their balance.
If you take away their balance, they can’t reliably damage you.
If they can’t reliably damage you, you improve your position.
More importantly the win reinforces the point that just because the META moves on from certain athletes and their games does not mean that their techniques stop working. If anything, those ignored techniques become more effective because, as they get rarer, less fighters learn to deal with them.
And you don’t have to take my word for it. Read Din Thomas’s words below.
Now let’s move on to another fighter who impressed me this weekend.
French Fighters Continue To Take Over
Ismael Bonfim fought on the prelims of this past Abu Dhabi card. He was matched up with undefeated French Fighter, Axel Sola.
Bonfim hasn’t been as successful as his brother, but he’s only lost to good up and comers like Chris Padilla and Nazim Sadykhov, and the French contender Benoit Saint-Denis. Plus, Bonfim holds black belts in Luta Livre and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Bonfim is generally a tough time for anyone and Sola blew him out in a single round.
Sola spreads his base and tries a kimura to stop Bonfim’s takedown. He drops Bonfim with elbows to the side of his head. Sola spins to Bonfim’s side to keep punching. Bonfim back rolls and uses a butterfly hook to elevate Sola. Sola stays over Bonfim, gets a head and arm, and falls to the side like he’s trying a Schultz choke or anaconda choke. He bails on it to stand over Bonfim and punch him.
Axel Sola - Ismael Bonfim
Once Sola took the momentum he never gave it back. He held Bonfim beneath him, punished him with punches and elbows, and stopped the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt’s arm bar attempt. Then Sola found the finish attacking turtle.
Watch Sola’s hand fighting here.
Sola stands over Bonfim. Sola passes Bonfim’s left wrist to his right hand. Sola now has an open lane to punch with his left. Bonfim falls to his side. Sola locks up another head and arm control. This time he attacks with a d’arce. He tilts Bonfim onto his side before falling onto his left shoulder to secure the finish.
Axel Sola - Ismael Bonfim
You can add Sola’s name to the growing list of talented French fighters in the UFC. Benoit Saint-Denis, Fares Ziam, Cyril Gane, Manon Fiorot, Nassourdine Imavov, and the recently signed Salahdine Parnasse.
You hear a lot of belly aching about MMA dying. I don’t really see it that way. I just think the sport has globalized and moved out of America’s hands. And it’s not limited to a European takeover.
Look at Tapology’s rankings. There is no division in the sport where 1 country has more than 2 fighters in the top 5+champion. Welterweight in particular has fighters from Russia, Brazil, Ecuador, the United States, Ireland, and Nigeria. It’s cool to see how far the sport has come.
Let’s touch on a prospect from the sport’s hottest region before we get out of here today.
Prospect Preview: Light Heavyweight’s Khabib
Recently I started previewing prospects for paying subscribers.Last week I wrote an article about Bantamweight’s best prospect, Asaf Choporuv.
He’s 24 years old, 10-0 as a professional with 9 finishes, and 34-1 as an amateur. Plus he trains with one of the most dynamic kickboxers of all time, Chingiz Allazov.
Choporuv extended his record to 11-1 with a finish on Thursday. I slowed it down so you can notice how his footwork changes throughout this exchange.
Choporuv is orthodox. Mclaren throws a body kick. Choporuv back steps to southpaw to avoid it. Now Choporuv is southpaw. Choporuv steps back to orthodox and skips out to avoid Mclaren's body shot. Back in orthodox. Choporuv knocks McLaren out with right hook as he back steps to southpaw.
Asaf Choporuv - Reece McLaren
Crazy to see this power from a 135er! He’s ready for a bigger promotion.
This week’s Prospect Preview focuses on a larger fighter with a name and style reminiscent of the retired legend he trains with.
Khabib Nabiev is an undefeated light heavyweight from Dagestan who has finished 10 of his 12 professional fights with overwhelming grappling. Take a look at his last win.
Nabiev is in top half. He drops two elbows. The camera shows Sami’s face again and he’s a faucet. Pouring blood. Nabiev slides over to mount and the referee stops it before Sami bleeds out.
You really aren’t seeing fight altering ground and pound like this right now.
Khabib Nabiev - Ahmed Sami
Normally it would be considered borderline sacrilegious to compare a grappler to the great Khabib Nurmagomedov. But this light heavyweight Khabib actually has a comparable game and he trains with their team. I’m excited to see him, Usman Nurmagomedov, and Amru Magomedov all fight this Friday.
If you want to read this week’s Prospect Preview on Khabib Nabiev you need to upgrade to a Premium Subscription. You can click here to do so.
A Premium Subscription come with:
Access To The Full Archive
Special Premium Only Articles
Extra Sections In Every Article
A Premium Subscription only costs $5 per month, you can cancel whenever you want, and it’s the best way to support these articles so I can keep writing them for you. Click here to start a free trial today.
Lots Of Leg Lockers And Their Resources To Study
If you want to study the UFC’s original scary leg locker read this article on Rousimar Palhares.
You can click here to study Bryan Glick’s half butterfly knee lever. There are plenty of knee lever leg entries on YouTube. I just like the way Glick breaks everything down.
This article is a full leg lock catalog. Must read if you want to understand leg locks.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
Amazon Prime will now broadcast FloSports programming. This comes on the heels of Flo’s announcement that they’re partnering with ONE to share athletes for bigger and bigger events. Hopefully this helps them compete against UFC BJJ.
French MMA star Saladhine Parnasse will debut at UFC Paris against Dan Hooker. Originally the UFC lowballed Parnasse so he took a fight with Netflix. You have to assume that the UFC didn’t like where that was headed so they decided to pay him what he’s worth. This is why MMA is better with more promoters. We get more viewing options and fighters make more money. Everyone wins.
Red Fury MMA announced that Charles Oliveira will rematch Arman Tsarukyan for a BMF title. You have to imagine the winner fights Justin Gaethje for the title next year.
Do you want to build your body like the best grapplers? Click here to access East Austin Strength Training.
East Austin Strength Training is a live strength & conditioning protocol developed by Dr. Sean McEachern. Dr. Sean is responsible for building some of the best bodies in jiujitsu, like ADCC Silver Medalist, Jay Rod, CJI 2 winner, Chris Wojcik, and many more. His program will make you more athletic, reduce your risk of injury, and ensure you’re not overtraining so you can stay on the mats.
Don’t wait. Click on the link below so you can get get stronger with us today.
