📝 Front Head Lock Finesse

The UFC is back and their first card went weird. Lots of sloppy striking, some cool new ideas to play around with, and Paddy finally found an old man who could stand up to his oafish onslaught.

This card was a G I A N T event for the UFC. It was the first fight on Paramount+ and the company was finally taking the prospect they poured so much into out of their bubble wrap.

The card ended with a wild sloppy brawl to the thrill of Dana White. At the post fight press conference he claimed that Paramount said the card “exceeded expectations beyond belief” … “they’re saying it exceeded expectations by double”.

Since drafting this article the UFC’s release claims the event reached "five million streaming views and reached over seven million households in the U.S. and Latin America."

Good news for the future of streaming MMA.

The bad news came from almost everything else that happened.

Alex Perez and Deiveson Figueiredo missed weight.
Kayla Harrison injured her neck before fight week even started.
Cameron Smotherman face planted after weighing in and couldn’t fight.
Alexander Hernandez’s fight against Michael Johnson was cancelled at the last minute.

Dana White confirmed that Hernandez - Johnson was pulled after getting flagged for irregular betting activity and “The FBI is already deep into this thing”. Yikes.

If you ignore all of these elements you are left with an important piece of the event that seems to be an afterthought for many of the UFC’s executives. The fights.

When all was said and done, audience members were screaming that Paddy Pimblett versus Justin Gaethje could be the Fight Of The Year. You certainly can’t say there wasn’t action.

Both men landed more than 50% of their strikes with a combined 370 in total. Gaethje himself had two knockdowns.

But the knockdowns themselves weren’t what stood out to me. What I loved from this fight was the creative ways Gaethje used a front head lock.

This sequence itself is probably the most trainable from the whole fight.

Gaethje punching into the front head lock is equal parts him and Paddy.

Paddy avoids punches by running and ducking. That running means he puts himself on the cage. And when that happens he is stuck ducking even more dramatically. This time into Gaethje’s front head lock!

When Paddy did try to get the fight to the ground he was instantly shutdown. Gaethje even showed more classic wrestling control to nullify any chance of a scramble.

Cradles are excellent control positions. Wrestlers use them for pins so they’ve kind of been ignored by Brazilian jiu-jitsu players.

I’ll link a video below that explains how to integrate cradles into a jiujitsu game.

Gaethje also used the front head lock as a counter to Paddy’s attempts at wrestling up to initiate grappling exchanges after he was dropped.

Near the end of the second round Gaethje used Pimblett’s attempts to get back to the feet to run him into an exquisite strike.

This is what the highest levels of MMA are all about. Integrating disparate martial arts skills and systems to create a unique fighting style.

Punching into takedowns. Striking into submissions. Pushing your opponent so they push back and you pull them into a knee. Or a throw. Or a punch or a kick or an elbow.

That creative problem solving is what I love about this sport and it’s why I’ll never be able to scratch my itch. But today I feel as though I’ve overstayed my welcome in MMA.

I’ve stuck around long enough to hear myself turning into a curmudgeon.

Paddy and Gaethje “went to war” according to everyone with a mouth. But war is long and gross and messy.

Paddy and Gaethje had no tactical battles traversing different terrains and testing strategies for their 25 minute fight. They ran face first at one another for the whole contest. They threw a lot of punches. And they spilled a lot of blood.

Don’t get me wrong. The fight was entertaining. I just can’t watch that fight after ending 2025 with Merab Dvalishivili rematching Petr Yan and think they’re in the same discussion.

In last week’s article we highlighted Paddy’s inability to enforce his submission grappling and cover his face. He stands straight up with his chin ahead of his toes throwing everything into every strike and runs away at the slightest sight of his opponent returning fire. He often gets pushed around shooting takedowns and throws himself off balance with his own strikes. Ain’t shit changed.

Paddy is tough as nails. I’m amazed he made it to the final bell and could still speak. But building a game around outlasting opponents is not a way to win at the highest level of combat sports.

Paddy showed no new ability to get the fight where he wanted it, and was left hoping his chin could tire Gaethje’s staph infected fists.

Go look at the picture at the top of this article. You see that bump on Gaethje’s neck? Can you really see that, not think it’s staph, and not believe it impacted Gaethje’s gas tank?

Paddy has built a UFC run on the backs of elite fighters past their prime. His two most important wins remain Tony Ferguson on a 6 fight losing streak and Michael Chandler on a 3 fight losing streak.

We need to see the guy fight someone, anyone, near his age and skill level to see what he is made of other than a hard chin.

Even if the UFC’s new masters at Paramount don’t care, I still want to see the sport elevate men and women who can do something other than try to bash square pegs through round holes for 25 minutes.

Before we get out of here today I want to touch on a wrestling focused finish that anyone can incorporate from the position Gaethje took in this fight.

The front head lock provides plenty of attack options. You can threaten guillotines, d’arces, anacondas, and other chokes. You can even use the threat of these chokes to take the back.

If you want to get better at attacking from this position the best active fighter to study is “Fluffy” Hernandez.

Here is an older article on Fluffy. You can also read a study on Fluffy’s fence fighting here.

There is one choke that seems to fit in better for wrestlers than many others.

This choke is effectively a short anaconda. It can be tricky to pull off if you only squeeze the neck. Focus on pulling your primary elbow up while driving your head in on the other side to reliably close both carotid arteries and put people out.

The best part about this submission is that you don’t lose anything by going for it. You don’t even have to open your hands.

I’m particularly focused on front head lock chokes right now because we’re working on them in my classes this week.

Last week I started putting notes, lesson plans, and flow charts for the classes I teach on the Help Desk. I’m building a technique library on the Help Desk, so these new lesson plans are short instructions on how to tie techniques together.

This week we’re focusing on how to attack submissions from a front head lock.