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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 UFC’s return to Houston gave us a surprising amount of knockouts. The most interesting ones were built off of body work. Today we’re going to look at how they happened and what role clinching played in them.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
MMA’s most controversial man got an uncharacteristically violent finish this weekend. Sean Strickland stopped the surging Anthony “Fluffy” Hernandez.
Like almost every other fan of fighting I picked Fluffy to win. His game exemplifies the best parts of MMA unlike any other athlete competing. After Strickland’s press conference performance the world wanted Fluffy to win. But everyone with eyes knew Fluffy’s weakness.
Even after writing this I still didn’t think Strickland had the pop to pull it off. The only finish he claimed from the previous five years was off of an exhausted Abusupiyan Magomedov.
So, how did Strickland manage to set up this finish over the top 5 ranked Fluffy?
CHECKING HANDS AND CREATING CRASHES
How Sean Strickland Ended Fluffy’s Winning Streak
The finish is as much Strickland’s as it’s Fluffy’s. Much of the fight ending power came from Fluffy’s forward momentum.
Strickland jabs and catches Fluffy’s crash. They break and Strickland starts checking Fluffy’s hands. Strickland avoids Fluffy’s hook and pulls him into a hard knee. Fluffy doubles over in pain. Strickland chases Fluffy to the fence to flurry. Fluffy falls down and Strickland gets his stoppage.
Sean Strickland - Anthony Hernandez
Let’s break that up a bit to get a better look at where the finish came from.
Strickland’s left arm shields his body while his right checks Fluffy’s lead hand
Strickland has ducked away from Fluffy’s left hook
Strickland’s right checks Fluffy’s lead arm and his left arm turns to a collar tie
Strickland pulls Fluffy into the fight ending knee
This was a gorgeous counter. It looked like the strike spontaneously emerged from Strickland’s attention to defense.
Strickland spent the whole fight jabbing, circling, and poking front kicks up the middle like he usually does. His hand placement gave him inside controls whenever Fluffy started to chase.
Fluffy lands an inside leg kick. Strickland slides away and pokes a left front kick up the middle before going back to reaching to play patty cake. Fluffy decides to shoot but Strickland’s hands are already inside pushing Fluffy’s arms back. He stays inside, Fluffy doesn’t score, and the tone of the fight was set.
Sean Strickland - Anthony Hernandez
See how Strickland’s hands were inside ready to intercept Fluffy’s charges? Simple, crafty, and recreatable. It’s both rare and impressive to see defense yield such resounding success in a sport that is as offensive as MMA is these days.
Two fights before Strickland stopped Hernandez we got another knockout built off of body work.
EXPLOITING THE GAPS
Melky Costa Outsmarts Dan Ige
Melquizael Costa became the UFC’S most interesting Featherweight last year. After going 1-2 in his first year in the UFC, Costa has run up 6 wins in a row. That streak includes submissions, knockouts, and some really cool judo.
Costa’s back is on the cage. Erosa’s hips are far away so he has room for knees. Erosa throws a left knee. Costa steps in to pull Erosa over his left leg for something close to a sasae. Erosa falls and Costa is shrugging him off to push him away. Costa sneaks a hard left straight through Erosa’s hands as he circles off the cage.
Melquizael Costa - Julia Erosa
This weekend Costa came back with more slick cage judo to steal the initiative from Dan Ige.
Ige is pushing Costa into the cage. Costa steps past Ige’s leg to reap and pull him for an ashi guruma. Ige pops up into Costa’s front head lock. Costa drills a knee in before getting put on the cage. Ige starts stomping on Costa’s feet. Costa turns off the cage with an under hook before sneaking in his own knee.
Melquizael Costa - Dan Ige
The two men spent another minute interlocked on the cage. They battled for head and hand position while Costa was able to find room for more knees.
After they broke Costa started to stab Ige with long kicks. There he picked up an important read.
The men are matched in an open stance meaning their opposite legs are forward. Costa stomps a right side kick in to Ige’s hip. Ige crunches down and reaches for it before following up with a right. Costa swings his own left over Ige’s hand as he retreats to the cage.
Melquizael Costa - Dan Ige
Notice above that Ige’s rear hand was held tight to his temple while his lead hand bobbed up and down actively. Ige would also crunch down and reach for body kicks when he saw them. Now Costa only had to get Ige to reach for a body shot that wasn’t coming.
Costa jumps into a left knee that doesn’t land. Ige blocks Costa’s left high kick. Costa throws a right side kick. Ige chases it back with a right hook. Ige stalks Costa. His left hand is low. Costa jumps and spins into a left kick past where Ige’s hand should have been. Costa jumps on him to seal the finish.
Melquizael Costa - Dan Ige
Costa has become must watch TV. The way he blends muay Thai and judo to damage people at all angles is unlike anyone else I can think of.
HELP DESK UPDATES:
2026’s ADCC Rookie Report Gets A New Country
The second ADCC European Trials ended about a week ago. That means we have new men representing new countries for the most prestigious event in submission grappling.
Today I want to introduce you to Turkey’s Yigit Hanay.
Turkey is a wrestling power house. 61% of their total medals have come from wrestling. And you’d probably assume that success spills over to submission grappling.
Not exactly.
I can not find a record of any Turkish man competing at the ADCC World Championships. That changes this year with Hanay.
Hanay is a 25 year old Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt. He started training judo as a kid and won several local Istanbul championships before earning a judo black belt.
Hanay switched his focus to Brazilian jiu-jitsu and submission grappling at 16. Since then he has won the IBJJF No Gi European and World Championships at brown belt. This weekend he became the first Turkish man to qualify for the ADCC World Championships.
Hanay drags Aliev to wrestle up. Aliev squares up to lift Hanay’s right leg. Hanay falls off to the side to wrestle up from de la riva. Hanay holds onto Aliev’s leg as they scramble before geting over Aliev’s head. He turtles to stand but Hanay is already sitting to take his back. They reset in the center. Aliev tries to pull Hanay’s hooks off. Hanay gets a face crank finish.
Yigit Hanay - Azamaet Aliev
If you want to study professional grappling’s best and brightest newcomers before they change the sport upgrade your subscription to use the the Help Desk. After you do you can check out Yigit Hanay’s game and the rest of the ADCC Rookie Report.
The Help Desk also comes with:
A grappling technique library
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Besides engaging with the sponsors at these articles, using the Help Desk is the best way to support the newsletter so I can keep writing regular articles for you. Plus it only costs $5 and you can cancel whenever you want.
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
More From Melquizael Costa
With the UFC’s new Paramount deal they’ve started uploading fight highlights much quicker to YouTube.
You can also click here to see his last fight against Morgan Charriere
If you want to learn more about the throw Costa hit Dan Ige with watch this
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
Ronda Rousey is going to fight Gina Carano. I’m sure you didn’t miss that. But this is a ginormous deal for more than just the weirdness of the fight. Carano - Rousey is going to be Netflix’s first MMA fight ever and it will be promoted by Jake Paul’s MVP Promotions. I don’t know what this means long term but I can’t help but think both Paul and Netflix will be getting closer and closer to MMA over the next decade.
The ADCC World Championships increased their total prize pool. Notably the Absolute division and Super Fight winner both get $50,000.
Joshua Van will fight Tatsuro Taira at UFC 327 in Miami during April. No word on the rest of the card yet.
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