This was an interesting match between 2 of the best leg lockers in grappling history as well as a clash between the younger and older generation. However the most interesting thing about this match is that it was between 2 people who love to go for the finish and don't like to stall. If you haven't watched it, just click play below and give it a look. Once you're done check out the breakdown below and click the time stamps to follow along.
Breakdown
The match starts with Mikey sitting down to guard and Imanari standing over him. Mikey lays flat on his back and waits for Imanari to engage, which he does by reaching his hand out. They grasp each others' hands and I imagine the reason is that both were afraid of the other person disengaging after they started an attack. I generally think this isn't a good idea, but I believe both men have experienced opponents running from them once they want to attack and the hand grip will stop that.
00:17 - Imanari comes into Mikey's guard and Mikey starts looking for a K-guard entry on Imanari's right leg. Mikey can't disentangle his left hand quickly(which is why I hate that grip), so he uses his other hand to break the grip and try to get a hold of Imanari's leg. Imanari on the other hand wraps Mikey's right leg and looks to fall back for a leg lock. Imanari falls back and controls both legs which stops Mikey from coming on top. From there he goes into SLX/Ashi garami and tries to secure the position. As he does this Mikey frees his left leg and uses it to go under Imanari's legs and push Imanari's left leg. As he is going this with his foot Mikey uses his hands to remove Imanari's right leg from between his legs.
Mikey has basically disassembled the leg entanglement which gives Mikey the ability to move his leg freely is Imanari attacks and ankle lock or heel hook. There is little to no danger for Mikey now and he can start to work on his counter attacks now.
This match is moving fast, so you might want to rewind some of these exchanges.
00:27 - Imanari tries to use his right hand to remove Mikey's left leg, but you actually can remove the leg from that angle. Imanari then adjusts his grip and throws his right leg over to Mikey's hip so he can try to finish the ankle lock. This was a good idea, but let's look at why it failed.
- Imanari's arm seems to be locked too high on Mikey's shin causing pressure to applied to the shin which is strong instead on the ankle ligaments which are weak.
- Imanari's left leg can't generate power. His left leg looks to be in the butterfly ashi position, but the sole of Mikey's foot is pushing into the back of his knee. This forces a bend in Imanari's leg and thus he can't extend it to generate more power.
- Mikey immediately removes Imanari's right leg and pulls it across his body. Now Imanari can's the power of his legs to finish the ankle lock.
- Look closely at the angle of Mikey's knees and Imanari's knees. Mikey's knees are pointing towards the sky, but Imanari's are horizontal. This is happening because Imanari has a bite on the side of Mikey's shin and isn't controlling the ankle. Any hip power Imanari uses will go into the side of Mikey's shin instead of his ankle/foot, which is much, much harder to break.
- Mikey fights Imanari's hands and loosens his grip.
Of course it is scary to have someone like Imanari attacking your foot, but Mikey positions his body in a way that makes it hard for Imanari to generate power for the ankle lock and shifts the force to an area of his leg that is able to easily withstand force(the side of the shin).
00:42 - Mikey uses his hands to remove Imanari's left leg from between his legs. Now Imanari his no frames and this allows Mikey to come up and put all his weight on his own legs. From this position finishing the ankle lock is almost impossible, but if Imanari off balances him he could go for it again. Mikey quickly dives to his left, and turns his right knee inward. This again keeps Mikey's foot safe and prevents Imanari from getting to correct angle to finish the ankle lock.
You might be thinking "what if Imanari switches to a heel hook?". What Mikey does prevents that as well as stops Imanari from adjusting his hips to follow Mikey.
00:51 - Mikey inserts his left knee inside Imanari's legs under his own leg. This creates a "knee wedge" and a counter force which will help Mikey remove his leg from Imanari's grip. It also spreads Imanari's legs and prevents him from capturing Mikey's knee line, so there is now no danger of a heel hook. Mikey hugs around Imanari's mid section and attempts to use the crab ride to take Imanari's back.
Imanari is persistent however. He readjusts his grip and instead of putting his foot on the hip he throws his right leg over the knee and attempt to push down on the tibular tuberosity(shin). This is actually very smart. By doing this he is stopping the force of his attack from bleeding out through the knee and by increasing the force there he may not need the extra force of his legs and arms. You can actually see Mikey's leg bend a bit when he does this. The ref calls this a catch and I agree, it was a pretty good attack.
Not good enough however. If you look at the angle of Mikey's knees and Imanari's you can see they still aren't lined up and the pressure from Imanari's bridge is going into the side of Mikey's leg, which isn't as effective.
01:08 - Mikey uses his left leg to push off Imanari's left leg and open up space. Mikey grabs Imanari's right leg and goes for an ankle lock of his own. Imanari reaps the leg and tries to finish that way. Mikey's foot looks bent here, but I believe half of what is happening his Mikey pointing his toes to attempt to slip the heel. Mikey has turned his leg with the reap and kept his knee pointed at a different angle from Imanari. Mikey completely ignores Imanari's attempt now and works to get his left leg inside and setup the butterfly ashi position. Mikey then tries to use his right leg to push down in the tibular tuberosity himself. Imanari gives up on his ankle lock and looks to defend.
Mikey's ankle lock looks very close, but I believe Imanari used and interesting and unique defense. Imanari uses his left leg, which is reaping to go over Mikey's hip and behind his other foot. I don't know for sure, but I think he is using a variation of a defense I use from 50/50. Imanari is using his leg leg to hook behind Mikey's left elbow and pull it forward while pushing his right leg even deeper into the grip. This stops the pressure on the ankle and moves it to the shin. I call this the bicycle concept, where one leg pulls back while the other pushes forward. This can save you from lots on leg entanglement problems. This gives Imanari the time he needs to go for a counter attack.
01:28 - Imanari peels off Mikey's right leg and because his left leg is already across he is in a pseudo outside sankaku position. From there he can go for an outside heel hook. This is a classic counter and what many people worry about when using butterfly ashi, but don't worry, Mikey shows us how to stop this.
As Imanari pulls Mikey's right leg in for the inside heel hook, look at Mikey's left leg. It is between Imanari's legs pushing away which free's his knee. Mikey is now competely free to rotate and most people would just escape from here and reset the position. Mikey has other plans though. He switches from using his left leg to his left knee, which now becomes a leg drag. He reaches under his body and grabs Imanari's right hip when he inverts, which relives any pressure on his foot or knee. Mikey now uses the bicycle concept and pushes with his left knee, while pulling his right leg to his chest. This causes Imanari to lose his grip and try to hold Mikey's foot anyway he can.
Mikey is looking to take the back from a crab ride position here, but he might have made a mistake by removing his left leg. Mikey resets by uninverting and Imanari goes back to the ankle lock grip on Mikey's left leg.
01:57 - Imanari goes for the ankle lock again, but Mikey removes Imanari's feet from his hip. This allows him to flank around to Imanari's back. Look at Mikey's left leg. He has it folded under him pressing against Imanari's butt. He calls this the shin wedge and here he is using it to do that bicycle concept I talked about previously. His right leg is pulling back to his chest and his left shin is pushing against Imanari's butt. Mikey flanks towards Imanari's back uses his right arm to catch Imanari's trapezius muscle from the front and the left hand to catch it from the back. He has sucessfully flanked to his back, but his foot is still stuck in the ankle lock grip. How did he get it out.
02:02 - This was very slick, smooth and subtle, so don't feel bad if you didn't catch it the first time you watched. Watch Mikey's right heel and knee. As Mikey uses his right hand to reach up to Imanari's shoulder, a small amount of space opens between Imanari's body and his left hand. Mikey pulls his left leg towards his body, opens his knee and pops his heel through the gap. This is like a reverse heel slip. Now it looks like he is an Aoki lock and if he isn't paying attention that could be a problem, but he uses 2 things to save himself. First he has the shin wedge which will help add counter pressure to extract his leg. The most important thing he does however is he quickly turns the other way and closes his knee while turning his heel towards Imanari's elbow. Now his heel is on the outside and there is no ankle lock or Aoki lock threat.
Leg lock defense tangent
I was talking to a training partner about this escape today. To get out of an ankle lock grip you need to turn your leg toward the gap in their grip. Sometimes that gap will be towards their elbow and other times it will be where your opponents body and forearm meet. If the gap is near the elbow close your knee and rotate in. Line your heel up with the gap and pull. Use the bicycle concept and get both legs involved, so you can easily remove your foot from this grip. If your rotate the other way your heel will pop out and it will look like you're putting yourself in an Aoki lock and you are. As I said you should be using the bicycle concept and as soon as your heel comes out, point your toes slightly, retract your leg and use your secondary leg to push them away. The close your secondary leg is to the gap the more effective it will be . They won't be able to finish the Aoki lock if you do this, but if you can't do that do what Mikey did here. Point your toes, slide the sole of your foot on top of your opponent's forearm and close your knee to put your heel in the opposite position. Although you can't see it well I'm 90% sure this is what Mikey did in the clip above.
Imanari now only has a weak grip on the toes, so Mikey uses the bicycle concept and pulls with his hands as well which causes he right leg to shoot out and lands him in side control.
02:08 - As soon as Mikey gets to side control he uses his head against Imanari's left triceps. This seems like a set up for a katagatame/arm triangle choke, but Mikey's arms are in the wrong position for this. I don't think Imanari realized this and tried to defend, but Mikey used it to pass to mount. Imanari keeps his arms tight and doesn't let Mikey separate his arms from his body making offense difficult for Mikey.
02:21 - Mikey decides to get out of the mount and inserts his own leg into the half guard, but places it in an extremely shallow position, which will let him remove it whenever he wants. Mikey then starts looking for various chokes, but Imanari uses his hands to defend and keeps his elbows close so there is no space for Mikey to insert his arms for a choke. However a general heuristic is, when people keep their arms and legs close, they expose their back. Mikey's right arm is already hooked around Imanari's back which will help Mikey lift Imanari after he rolls. To take Imanari's back Mikey needs to get his body past Imanari's left elbow, but because Imanari chose to keep his arms in tight this is easy. Mikey moves his right leg from between Imanari's leg to the far side of Imanari and he jumps quickly to the back.
Back take tangent
Here a very young Gordon Ryan demonstrates the same back take. In the video Gordon shows how to do it when the opponent has their arm up, but in Mikey's case Imanari had his arms in tight which might actually make it easier. Mikey uses his chest to block Imanari's left arm and then does what is shown in the video above. I know it might seem complicated, but it is basically a chair-sit back take the only difference is you're diving into it. If you aren't familiar with the chair-sit back take I suggest you work on that before attempting this.If you're wondering if you can do this even it they are blocking you with the underhook, watch this video of Andre Galvao explaining how you can do this same backtake in that situation.
As you can see this backtake can be done if they keep their arms in, let you have the underhook or get the underhook themselves. It is not only useful, but it also looks cool too. However it only works if they are laying on their side.
02:42 - Mikey switches to the body triangle and tries to control Imanari's hands. Imanari does a good job hand fighting and then starts moving, which causes Mikey to switch the body triangle. Imanari takes this chance to push one of Mikey's legs down and then raise his right leg. Now Mikey only has 1 hook and he can look to escape.
03:09 - Imanari is using his right leg and arm to block Mikey's hook from coming back in. Mikey controls Imanari's right hand with both of his hands, pulls it up and then throws in his hook. At first Imanari tries to remove the hook with his opposite hand, but Mikey threatens the choke and Imanari defends. Imanari's right arm is still being controlled by Mikey's left hand and Mikey pushes it down and then traps it with his right leg. Imanari tries to connect his hands, but from this position is it extremely difficult to escape.
03:25 - Imanari switches between trying to defend the choke and trying to escape. Imanari raises his hand over his head to stop the RNC and Mikey looks like he's contemplating trying the RNC with the arm inside, but doesn't attempt it. As Mikey starts to dig for the RNC again Imanari moves his hand down to defend and at that moment Mikey pushes Imanari's hand down and controls his left arm.
03:46 - Mikey uses his right hand thumb to push down the jawline. This will allow him to get his hand under the chin for the RNC. Imanari turns his head to the left to try to stop this, but Mikey uses his own head to push Imanari's head back and open the neck. Mikey now has the grip he needs with the right hand. At this point the choke is already on, but sometimes you need more power. Mikey puts his chin over his right hand so there is no space for Imanari to grip his right hand and pull it off. Then Mikey uses his left hand to go behind Imanari's head and finish the choke. Notice how Mikey inserts his left hand under his chin, so Imanari can't find it and remove it. This is very very good technique. After that it just takes a little squeeze and Imanari taps.
What We Can Learn From This Match
I think there are a lot of great lessons we can take away from this match from both men. Imanari showed that you can use leg locks to switch the momentum in a match. He didn't want to deal with Mikey's K-guard, so he just attacked Mikey's other leg and put him on the defensive.
A very important lesson everyone can learn from this match is not to panic when put into leg entanglements and more importantly using your legs and body position to defend instead of your hands. Your hand can be useful when it comes to leg lock defense, but it IMO it really should be your last line of defense instead of your first. When you use body positioning and your legs instead you can counter your opponent's leg locks instead of just stalling them. If you don't want people attacking your legs, the best way to deter them is to punish them severely whenever they try.
The last lesson that I think we can learn from Mikey is taking what your opponent gives you instead of forcing things. He didn't try to force attacks from the mount or side control and instead looked at what Imanari gave him. This made what he did look effortless and easy, but really it was just a result of taking the path or least resistance by attacking areas that Imanari couldn't defend. This is what I aspire to with my own grappling.
Overall
This was a great match and it is always great to see people go at it and actually try to finish each other instead of stall. This was a masterclass in leg lock defense and if you're struggling in that area I'd recommend you study this match thoroughly.
I was also happy to see Mikey get a $50,000 bonus for this match. For a long time BJJ athletes haven't been able to make much money, so it is great to see people get paid properly for all the work they've put in. I also hope this inspires other people to try to finish and put on a good show.
If you're wondering where you can learn about some of these moves I'd recommend Mikey's DVDs. Many of the moves he does are shown in his berimbolo part 3 and leg pummeling instructional. I believe some of it is bermbolo part 4, but I don't have that one, so I'm not sure.
The only thing I was disappointed about was that Mikey didn't stand up, so we couldn't see this Imanari roll counter.
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