📝 3 Keys To Umar Nurmagomedov's Game

Before UFC 321’s disastrous main event, Umar Nurmagomedov put on a grappling clinic against Mario Bautista. Today we’re going to take a closer look at how he stayed ahead of Bautista the whole fight.

Now let’s get into it.

Umar Nurmagomedov dropped his first professional loss to Merab Dvalishvili earlier this year. That loss left him on the sidelines until he was booked against Mario Bautista this weekend.

Bautista was an interesting challenge for Umar because he has a good modern MMA game and hardly makes errors. He punches straight, gives the appropriate amount of pressure on and off the cage, and he has the gas tank to go for an entire fight. With recent wins over Jose Aldo and Patchy Mix, it looked like Bautista was ready to take the leap into contention.

Then Umar got his offense going and we were all reminded of why everyone thinks he is the heir apparent to Merab’s throne.

Umar gave us 15 minutes of a modern grappling masterclass that deserves a rewatch. Here were the 3 keys to his success.

1) Back Body Lock

Like many experienced MMA grapplers, much of Umar’s wrestling is designed to get him to a body lock. From there, he sags on his opponents until he can run them into the ground.

In the second round, Umar showed us why his game is much more than just pace and pressure. Check out this beautiful trip from the back body lock and Umar’s follow-up attacks.

Turning and kicking out of takedown attempts is in no way incorrect. And Bautista implemented the technique well. But, against faster opponents who are trying to get to the back body lock, like Umar was, turning and kicking out of takedown attempts only gives opponents what they want.

In the third round, Umar took a page from Flyweight Champion Alexandre Pantoja’s book with this excellent mat return using a crab hook from the back body lock.

This takedown brings us to the next key to Umar’s success in this fight.

2) Passing & Pressure

When Umar did get Bautista to the floor, he used smooth and elegant guard passing to wear on Bautista.

I mean, look at this body lock pass below. This is textbook modern no gi grappling.

Did you notice how Umar’s head shifted from side to side across Bautista as he navigated past the guard? Beautiful. No notes.

Much of Umar’s win hinged on what happened after Bautista felt the Dagestani’s pressure.

3) Back Mount:

In modern MMA almost no one uses a classic Brazilian jiu-jitsu guard to off balance, sweep, and get up. Instead, they turn over to turtle to stand. This can be effective, and, it can give your opponent easy back takes when they anticipate your turtling.

Generally, the near hook is much, much easier to put in first. And after you do, you can simply sag forward into back takes. Above, it looks like Umar putting in the far hook first freezes Bautista’s hips mid back take, making it that much easier to pull him backwards into the position. Slick.

In the first round Umar showed one of the coolest breakdowns I can remember.

Look at Bautista’s face at the end of this sequence. Even he was impressed.

While this fight turned into a highlight reel for Umar’s grappling, Bautista was never out of the contest.

In some ways, Mario Bautista was the perfect opponent to showcase Umar Nurmagomedov because of how game he was. Sure, Umar was always a step ahead, but Bautista kept scrambling and fighting for spots to do damage.

Bautista began the second round by dropping Umar.

Later in the second round, Bautista escaped Umar’s back control and reversed his wrestling.

Bautista even almost ended the fight in the first minute of the fight.

Okay I gotta be honest here. This toe hold was tight but it was not at the right angle to finish any savvy grappler.

Why? Bautista’s forearm was nowhere near parallel to Umar’s foot. Look at what I mean below.

In the top picture notice two things:

Now look the bottom picture:

There are a few cues you can remember when you’re attacking toe holds. You want your support forearm as low as possible on the leg. This will make your support forearm parallel with your opponent’s foot.

There should be two actions happening. You should be pushing your opponent’s toes as your support forearm pulls and lifts up to you.

If you abide by these rules your toe holds will improve instantly. The first time I switched to prioritizing a parallel forearm I accidentally popped my training partner’s ankle within seconds of adjusting.

Before Bautista missed his chance at a submission, there actually was a leg lock finish earlier in the night.

Valter Walker is the UFC’s latest too weird to believe character. He’s the brother of light heavyweight knockout machine, Johnny Walker, and he’s on a four fight finishing streak.

After dropping a decision in his first UFC fight, Walker has heel hooked four heavyweights in a row. Here is his latest one.

I’m not going to pretend this is a heel hook with good mechanics. I mean, he finished the submission with open legs. But weird streaks and signature finishing moves are peak MMA.

I love this ridiculous run and I hope it continues until Walker gets a title fight.

We got pretty far into the weeds here on leg locks. If you want to learn more about leg locks, understand the naming and positions, and study interesting leg lockers check out my article on the Help Desk.

I just updated it to include a (growing) section on interesting leg lockers to watch and why you should study them.