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.
One of the weirdest UFC records was set this weekend. Heavyweight Valter Walker beat a third person in a row by heel hook. We’re going to analyze Walker’s heel hooks, explain why they worked, and briefly touch on why leg locks still have a long way to go in MMA.
Before we get started I want to shout out this week’s sponsor Choju.
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Now let’s get into it.
What's In Today's Letter?
VALTER WALKER’S WEIRD FINISHES
Why His Heel Hooks Are Working
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 three fight winning streak. All are heel hooks in the first round and each one has come faster than the previous.
Before we look at Walker’s wins, let’s make sure we’re on the same page. Heel hooks hold the end of the foot, but the submission actually damages the knee.
Hall’s right leg is wrapped over his opponent’s left and stapled to the far hip. This stops Slioa’s hips from rising indefinitely and limits rotation of the thigh
Hall has trapped Slioa’s toes in his arm pit so he can lift the heel and move Slioa’s shin in the opposite direction of his thigh
The two conditions above ☝️ force the connective tissue in Slioa’s knee to tear
Hall’s hips extend through the side of Slioa’s knee to damage it
Now let’s look at Walker’s most recent heel hook win.
Walker has a back body lock. He steps between Nzechukwu’s legs and sits down into 5050. Then he elevates his hips to expose Nzechukwu’s heel and rip it to the ceiling. Nzechukwu screams in submission.
Valter Walker - Kennedy Nzechukwu
Before Walker took out Nzechukwu, he ripped apart Don’tale Mayes’s knee.
Walker is trying to pass guard when he says, “Fuck it I’ll try a leg lock.” Walker drops back to collect Mayes’s toes in his arm pit. Mayes tries to roll and runs into the fence. Walker is able to hold the outside heel hook, raise his hips, and lock his feet in outside ashi. Mayes is forced to tap.
Valter Walker - Don'tale Mayes
And here is the submission that started this weird streak.
Walker is trying to pass. Walker pins Tafa’s right leg with his left shin before falling back on Tafa’s left leg. Walker catches Tafa’s toes in his arm pit and starts to crank on Tafa’s leg. Tafa rolls. Midway to the cage Tafa taps out.
Valter Walker - Junior Tafa
If you do Brazilian jiu-jitsu or have watched any high level grappling recently you’re not going to confuse Walker’s submissions for the most technical heel hooks. But I do think there is one important takeaway from Walker’s wins. The fence.
In Walker’s two most recent submission wins he attacked the heel hook next to the cage. This limited his opponents’ ability to raise their hips, rotate, and escape. Even in Walker’s win against Tafa the two were rolling towards the cage which would have ended Tafa’s ability to defend and counter.
But even with Walker’s cage craft, his mechanics still leave a lot to be desired.
WHY LEG LOCKS ARE OVERPOWERED
MMA Fighters Aren’t Using Them Correctly
The past ~ 12 years in martial arts have been marked by a leg locking revolution in competitive grappling. John Danaher and his students pioneered a submission system based on getting your legs inside of your opponent’s from below, locking your legs around their hips and thighs, and then ripping knees to shreds.
The most important part of that system is that is based on attacking your opponent’s legs from beneath them.
Ryan’s right leg is inside Jimenez’s. He raises his hips up to attack a variation of a kani basami, aka leg scissor. When he sits back to his butt, Ryan now has control of both of Jimenez’s legs so he can come on top at his leisure.
Gordon Ryan - Roberto Jimenez
This can’t be overstated. By attacking leg locks from beneath your opponent you have completely flipped submission grappling on its head.
With the modern heel hook game, you can sit down, manage distance with your legs, and end fights before the person on top even gets to engage. Or you can use the threat of the submissions to get on top like Ryan did above and Mike Davis does below.
Davis uses half butterfly to elevate Ziam. Then he throws his left leg past Ziam’s right for what’s called a reap. Ziam turns and falls to his butt. Davis tries to continue attacking the leg lock before coming on top.
Mike Davis - Fares Ziam
As a Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, I’m ecstatic to see more people ending fights with heel hooks.
As an MMA fan, I know that Walker is flirting with danger. Dropping back on leg locks sacrifices position, can get you hurt, and can give away entire fights.
Gane is trying to pass Ngannou’s guard. Gane hops up into a squat and sits back to try a leg lock. He has no control of Ngannou’s thighs and hips so Ngannou just powers Gane’s loose ashi garami until he’s smashing Gane in side control. Gane would lose the decision a few minutes after this fight.
Francis Ngannou - Cyril Gane
So, what’s the takeaway here?
Top position is over powered in MMA. You can punch, wear people out, and steal time. Sacrificing that for a prayer of a submission win is inadvisable.
Conversely, if you find yourself on bottom, you can’t afford not to learn modern leg locking. When done correctly, it allows you to mitigate damage, off balance your opponent, and potentially end the fight early. And if you want to read more about leg locking done well in MMA, you can reference this section of my Charles Oliveira study on the Help Desk.
HELP DESK UPDATES:
More Leg Locking And Fence Fighting
Lately I’ve been studying a lot of cage wrestling. This week I updated the Fence Fighting guide to include sections on Randy Couture and Fluffy Hernandez.
If you want to learn why Randy Couture was so good at trips and why Fluffy has the best striking cycle against the fence in MMA today check out the updates to the Fence Fighting guide.
To access the Help Desk you’ll need to upgrade your subscription here. It only costs $5 per month and you get:
Detailed analysis of specific techniques, athletes, and themes
A searchable technique library with gifs and explanations
New content added every week
LINKS, INSTRUCTIONALS, AND MORE MATCHES TO STUDY:
What Are We Talking About Today?
If you want to see my favorite leg lock ever in MMA click here.
Click here if you want to understand a simple leg lock drill that can everyone can use to maintain distance and off balance opponents.
THE MOST IMPORTANT NEWS (you might have missed)
Yesterday Craig Jones announced that B-Team as we know it will end. I’m just surprised it took so long.
Craig is barely in Austin around his gym. Attaching your name to a combat sports gym/brand that you’re barely around is just asking for trouble. You can listen to Craig explain everything in a long interview here.BKFC gave us a huge announcement last week. They will now be giving certain fighters equity in their business. Perhaps more interesting is how part owner Conor McGregor announced it.
Considering their unique rules and compensation structure BKFC might turn into a genuine combat sports alternative to the UFC.Professional grifter Derek Moneyberg was given a black belt from Mikey Musumeci, Gordon Ryan, and others in about 3.5 years.
First off, Derek Moneyberg is not a real person. It’s character created by Dale Buczkowski so he can sell courses on dating, how to make money, and more shit like that. But that’s not why this is a big deal.
Buczkowski’s black belt is a big deal because Brazilian jiu-jitsu has gone above and beyond to preserve its reputation, and efficacy, by forcing people to spar regularly. If we’re just going to give away belts to any rich asshole that can afford to stay away from the unwashed masses that kick newcomers’ asses by paying for privates from elite practitioners, then we’re no better children’s taekwondo. This is not a road we want to go down.
Thanks for reading today. If you enjoyed this piece and want to read more about the top techniques, principles, and stories from the world of fighting upgrade to the Help Desk! The Help Desk has:
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New content added every week
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