2024: Operation Omoplata

"There's a Trick with a Knife I'm Learning to Do": Mount Triangle Edition

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Blagoi Ivanov: MMA Submission Hero of the Week

My appreciation of jiu-jitsu in mixed martial arts is without question. The same is true for my affection for the Russian grappling art of sambo.

So it is with double-joy that side control congratulates our latest Submission Hero of the Week: Blagoi Ivanov, who finished Lavar Johnson by keylock in the first round of Bellator's heavyweight semi-finals.

Check out this interview with the so-called "Fedor Killer" here.

If Youth is Wasted on the Young ...

... does the faixa azul sometimes feel wasted on blue belts?

Results for the Proving Ground's first qualifier for the 2014 season are in. Congratulations to everyone who participated. As far as I'm concerned, from the moment you step on the mat to compete, you're a winner.

That said, I'll admit to being more than a little bummed out that more people didn't come out for the event. I have no idea what the promoters are feeling about the turnout or how it compares to last year's. But while I've come to expect little participation beyond purple belt, it was shocking to see a single blue belt division that consisted of three different weight classes.

Take it from someone who's been there: there is no better time to compete than when you are a blue belt. When you're a white belt, everything is just a panic. By the time you get to purple, as Fabio Gurgel famously pointed out, it's starting to become clear who the academy superstars are. And if you are not among their number, then this is when the idea of keeping track of your competition record will start to become much less appealing.

Grandmaster Helio allegedly preferred to wear his blue belt rather than his black belt when training. He had his reasons. But when I think about those most pure moments of my jiu-jitsu upbringing - especially where competition and competition training was concerned - nothing comes close to my years at blue.

When He Hollers ... A Look at the Palhares Heel Hook

Ever since they turned vale tudo into mixed martial arts, I've lamented that there is no jiu-jitsu-grappling analogue to the massive advantage of gloved hands for strikers. If there is one thing that favors striking over jiu-jitsu in MMA, this is it.

There was one way of restoring at least some balance. And no one made the case better than Frank Mir, whose tap or snap attitude - a talk walked in brutal submission victories over Pete Williams, Tim Sylvia, and the legendary Minotaro Nogueira - made jiu-jitsu scary again. You punch my face. I snap your arm. You kick my head. I pop your knee.

You can see this in the beauty of Royce Gracie's performances in the vale tudo-era UFC. The armlocks on DeLucia, Kimo, and Hackney. Those submissions weren't "just getting caught" as so many have dismissively referred to submission losses in MMA in the past few years.  Those armlocks were for keeps.

Which brings me to Palhares. The heel hook is the ultimate tap or snap technique. Worse than a two-step snake or a poison that paralyzes before it kills, the heel hook is capable of destroying almost before it hurts. In the hands of naive defender, the results can be inadvertently disastrous. In the hands of an aggressive (to say nothing of overly-aggressive) attacker, the results can be just as ruinous.

I've seen armlocks and kneebars held longer than Palhares' heel hook while referees tugged mistakenly at the most hyperextended part of the trapped limb as they called a stop to a fight. And to put it bluntly, the last person in the universe who should be convinced of the success of a submission hold should be the one applying it - at least when it comes to mixed martial arts.

In a world in which tapping to a submission is really no big deal, but tapping to strikes is a character deficit of the highest martial order, I'll admit to being willing to give a victorious grappler a second to untangle himself - and for the opponent to learn to concede (and concede quickly) even if as much out of fear of the submission as the submission itself. This isn't amateur sport jiu-jitsu. This is how they've decided to change vale tudo into MMA. I urge jiu-jitsu fighters to adjust accordingly.

And if you aren't ready forgive Palhares' heel hook or Babalu's choke, maybe wondering what the world would have been like with Vitor Belfort regaining the UFC Light Heavyweight belt will help.

"I've always had great respect for Jon Jones and know he is a great champion. When I felt his arm snap, I decreased the pressure, and he got out. Simple as that. During the bout, he managed to work his elbows well (from the top), but I was never afraid. But he was very good in the fight."

To Thine Self Be True