First Things First
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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.
What’s the worst place to be stuck for fighters and fans? Back control. It should be a position that yields submissions and strikes a plenty but it has become a spot for stalling. Not in the fight we’re going to look at today.
If you want to see one of the coolest forgotten MMA fights or struggle with getting stuck in back control this is the article for you.
What's In Today's Letter?
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
The now defunct MMA promotion Strikeforce promoted a fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Brett Rogers in 2009. Most people only remember Fedor launching Rogers’s head into the stands with a right hand. I remember that event for promoting one of the coolest displays of grappling ever in an MMA fight.
Jake Shields fought Jason “Mayhem” Miller on the undercard for Strikeforce’s Middleweight title.
You’re probably familiar with both of these men’s out of cage careers. Mayhem as the host of MTV’s Bully Beat Down and Shields as professional doomscroller and conspiracy theorist. He might have transcended the title to become a conspiracy scholar at this point.
You might not be familiar with the fact that combined these men have 26 submissions on their record.
Both Shields and Miller have some of the most fluid fun grappling you could hope to study. It’s fundamental Brazilian jiu-jitsu layered on top of American wrestling, perfected for MMA.
Shields is more of a straight forward wrestler and pressure passer while Mayhem fought more funky. Much of their fight centered around who could get to the back.
Shields has a single leg. He tries to run the pipe but Mayhem is propped up by the fence. Mayhem pushes Shields’s head down and manages to sit the corner. Now his knee is free from Shield’s hands. Mayhem pulls Shields into back control as he inserts hooks.
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Mayhem nearly locked up a fight finishing rear naked choke before this round ended. See, Mayhem was the larger man and he mostly used his size to slam Shields.
Mayhem gets a body lock. Then he shucks to the back to run Shields around. He tries to lift Shields, hops towards back control, and jumps off so he can suplex Shields straight to side control.
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Shields was more focused on pressure passing and slowly squeezing Mayhem into worse and worse positions.
Shields has Mayhem pressed against the fence. He has Mayhem’s near leg trapped while he punches his gut and reaches for the far wrist. Shields finally gets the wrist and uses it to pull Mayhem underneath him so he can take Mayhem’s back.
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Ultimately Shields was able to stay ahead of Mayhem for the majority of the fight and kept getting behind him.
Shields is stack passing Mayhem. Mayhem turtles as Shields gets around his guard. Shields sits to a hip, hooks Mayhem’s near leg, and slides his bottom knee to become a hook. Shields tries a banana splits before starting to look for a twister.
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
And Shields converted most of his passing into full back control.
Shields has side control. Mayhem turns in to sit up like he’s going to go to octopus guard. Shields mounts him. Mayhem keeps squirming to side control. Mayhem is still sitting and turning for head height when Shields gets a claw grip before wrist riding to get back control again.
Jake Shields - Jason "Mayhem" Miller
But then when Shields would get back control in open space Mayhem would just launch out of it with an escape I’ve never seen anywhere else.
Shields is attacking a rear naked choke. Mayhem turns out of it and gets his hands inside. Shields opens his hands to punch and ends up with double under hooks. Mayhem tries to spin out. Shields loses back control before running up to insert one hook in turtle. Mayhem forward rolls out of it and ends up standing.
Jake Shields - Jason “Mayhem” Miller
In all my years of teaching and training I’ve never seen this anywhere else. And I can honestly say I wouldn’t teach this because you have a high likelihood of spiking your opponent and hurting their neck. Or maybe even paralyzing them. Who knows?
Former fighter and Strikeforce announcer Frank Shamrock called this escape the “monkey roll” and I want to talk about why it worked so well.
The Monkey Roll
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