As submission only tournaments grow in popularity, audiences in attendance are witnessing the rise of the next generation of grapplers that could take over the UFC.

In November, 1993, eight fighters were assembled to compete in a no holds barred fighting tournament, The Ultimate Fighting Championship, to see who’s martial art style was most effective. The skinny Brazilian that no one thought would win, Royce Gracie, wound up taking the title through submission locks. Through the power of grappling, the unimposing man forced his larger, stronger opponents to submit.

From that day forward Brazilian jiu-jitsu, was all the rage. Every fighter needed to know how to avoid punches from the top, while tiring their opponent out and possibly submitting them in the end. At the very least, every fighter needed to know how to avoid the shifty submission locks, seemingly coming out of thin air. Eventually wrestlers began to incorporate Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and other submission based styles into their training, and the mixed martial arts meta shifted again.

Today someone can’t simply be a wrestler with basic submissions and hope to have large success in the UFC. Today’s fighters need striking and grappling, and occasionally aggression and octagon control, whatever those two are. Alternatively, fighters wishing to grapple need to take notes when watching men like Ryan Hall compete.

Hall made a name for himself in the Brazilian jiu-jitsu competition world for his slick triangles, and heel hooks from the 50/50 position. The 50/50 has been criticized as a stalling position as it has both grapplers entangling one another’s legs, jockeying for positional control. Unlike mixed martial arts, many Brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments disallow reaping of the knee and heel hooking, both common attacks from the 50/50.

Reaping of the knee is a position in which a grappler’s leg snakes around one of their opponent’s legs from the outside, and the foot crosses the body’s midline. When done correctly, the reaper has extensive control of their opponent’s leg.

In the image above we see Hall snake his left leg around his partner’s to initiate a leg reap and set up an inside heel hook, while the right leg pinches from the inside. Hall’s partner rolls, but the reap allows Hall to maintain position until he can use his right leg to block the hip and stop his opponent from rolling out.

This position may seem improbable in mixed martial arts compared to Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but we have already seen fighters figure out ways of entering the position from the ground, and feet. The infamous Masakazu Imanari made a career out of attacking his opposition’s legs. Here he is performing his famous “Imanari roll”, and finishing with an outside heel hook.

While flashy and fantastic in its own right, the roll has often been criticized as a relatively low percentage move. Leg lock naysayers have gone on to say that the techniques themselves are dangerous to initiate because they rely on attackers sacrificing position, leaving them open for punches from the top. The latter criticism is based on of the leg locking technique of old, which saw competitors simply drop back once they believed they had an effective leg entanglement.

Above we see another UFC original, Ken Shamrock, stand, and drop back for a leglock while attempting to secure the limb for submission. Gracie, having none of his limbs controlled, follows the man up, assuming a dominant mount position. This sequence highlights exactly why so many fighters think leg locks are too dangerous: Gracie ends the position in arguably the most dominant ground position to strike from in all of grappling.

While mixed martial artists were largely under-utilizing leg locks, competitive no-gi grapplers were refining and advancing the techniques. Today, leg attacks do not all stem from diving, or falling back on a leg, potentially giving up position.

Combat sports are so fascinating because they put fast, high risk problem solving on display. As the years go on, the questions become more complex, and the answers become that much more nuanced. As grappling styles developed over the years, competitors began to stand up to more effectively move around their opponents, and pass the guard. In turn, those defending on their backs began to attack the legs more. In traditional gi jiu-jitsu, those on their backs would attempt to reverse the position by knocking the standing competitor off-balance, and securing a dominant position on top. In competitions that allow for leg locks, like mixed martial arts and no-gi grappling, standing above an opponent is an open invitation to be leg locked.

In the image above, a grappler is attempting to pass the guard of EBI champion Eddie Cummings. Cummings begins to use his outside leg to reap, while using the inside leg to keep weight off of him, allowing for hip mobility. When the passer fully stands, Cummings briefly secures his opponent’s left ankle before switching to attack the right leg. This time, the inside leg snakes upward and around to the outside while the outside leg pinches, before completing a figure four control position on the standing passer’s right leg. With this dominant control, Cummings attacks an outside heel hook, and wins the match.

This may be where you say, “If that was MMA, the person on top would simply punch him in the face”. You may be right that the person on top has the room to smack his opponent, but when a leg locker attacks a standing opponent’s legs, the opponent is off balanced, and unable to land effective strikes.

Above, legendary guard puller, triangle strangler and heel hooker Paul Sass sets up a heel hook after his opponent attempts to stand over him. Sass’ opponent lands a slapping strike to Sass’s face, and Sass uses a powerful leg reap to turn his opponent away from him. Sass then continues to rotate on the leg while almost going inverted, and eventually turns his opponent over while securing the submission win. To Sass’ credit, he took home a submission victory over the now dangerous contender Michael Johnson, when Sass was still competing in the UFC.

Through a synthesis of the above grappling maneuvers we have a fully dangerous grappling force. If one fighter has a wrestling advantage, they can take the other down to attack their limbs. If a fighter has been taken down, they can use their guard to send an opponent off-balance and set up a leg attack from the bottom. If one fighter lacks the wrestling to take it to the ground, they can sacrifice position, by diving on a leg or pulling guard to attack a leg. The beauty of attacking the legs is that they are almost always a viable target when a fighter chooses to move.

Submission grappling is where we see competitors fluidly flowing through positions while attacking the legs. The previously mentioned Cummings, and his teammates and fellow EBI champions Gordon Ryan and Garry Tonon, are all notorious for flowing through positions while hunting for necks and limbs. Tonon has publicly stated he wants to try mixed martial arts in the future, and his game is a perfect symphony of attacks for various positions. Tonon’s style is perfect to draw in grappling fans, and showcase how powerful a diverse submission seeking style is.

Here is Tonon shooting for a takedown and carwheeling out to maintain top position. Once on top, Tonon begins attacking the closest limb, a leg in this case, to pressure his opponent. Just beautiful stuff.

That sequence is beautiful, and I’m a huge fan of submission-only grappling, but this article is not intended to say submission-only grapplers are going to dominate every fight in the UFC. Think of it like this instead, TJ Dillashaw, Dominick Cruz, and Demetrious Johnson are all so dangerous on the feet because they are constantly flowing through attacks. They are unpredictable and opportunistic, making them dangerous everywhere the fight moves on the feet. The same can be said about holistic grapplers like Tonon and Cummings, and the previously-mentioned Hall.

Hall, Tonon, and Cummings are constantly looking to attack submissions, not necessarily secure positions, making their opponents stay conservative and defensive. They have more weapons at their disposal, making them unpredictable, continuously offensive and a nightmare match-up for nearly everyone. As more similar grapplers make their way to MMA, expect finesse and fireworks while the grappling metagame shifts towards submission seekers, not position players.

Adding leglocks to a mixed martial artists’ repertoire makes them more dangerous because they simply have more ways of attacking. To that point, legs are constantly open for attacking because anytime a fighter moves they are unguarded, even if only for a brief moment. We only touched on a few grapplers and fighters using leglocks to win matches, but if you’re still unconvinced go check out Rousimar Palhares highlights. Stick around Cage Pages for more news and analysis, as we wait for the leglocker invasion.

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