No leg locks allowed, against a UFC featherweight, and Mikey Musumeci still beat Bryce Mitchell with the legs. Before their UFC BJJ 11 main event the two agreed there would be no leg lock submissions. Mikey won a unanimous decision anyway, and the legs were how he did it.
This post covers the rule Mikey uses against bigger, stronger opponents, why it still worked with half his game taken away, and the free flowchart that maps the whole thing. The details come from the match, the official press conference, and Mikey’s own teaching.
Mikey Musumeci: read the weight (free flowchart) grappleflows.comHalf his game was off the table
Mikey has said plainly why he uses leg locks: they’re how he finishes people who are much stronger than him. A leg lock lets him move around a stronger opponent without spending energy fighting their arms. At UFC BJJ 11 that option was gone. He had a strong MMA fighter on top of him and only the upper body to finish.
Bryce did what you’re supposed to do against Mikey’s upper body. He stayed square, kept his arms tight, and kept his weight back. In the press conference Mikey said that when he felt how strong Bryce’s arms were on the armbar attempts, he knew the match might go the distance.
The rule: read the weight
Mikey’s answer comes from his own teaching. Look at where the top player’s weight is.
- Weight back on the legs, closed up top: go to the legs.
- Weight forward to save the leg: go to the upper body.
He teaches it as one idea rather than a list of moves. When you attack the legs, the sweep, the submission, and the back are all threatened at once, and defending one gives you another. Here he is explaining it with Bernardo Faria:
One knee off the floor
Against Bryce, with no finish allowed, the leg had one job: get a knee off the floor. Every time Bryce stepped to pass, Mikey already had the foot. Then he lifted the leg.
The knee on the mat is the top player’s base. Mikey describes the knee up on his body as a wedge: once it’s there, the top player can’t put it back down, and they’re balanced on one leg. In the press conference he compared it to a single or double leg takedown, a way of holding the leg to sweep rather than to submit.
The official upload of the match starts below at the leg lift, about four minutes in. Watch Bryce go over and Mikey come up on top, then keep going for the anaconda.
The other half opens
This is where the rule pays off. To get his leg back, Bryce had to bring his weight forward, and forward is the signal to go to the upper body. In Mikey’s words from the press conference, he swept, got an underhook, came up, and got to the anaconda. Bryce said afterwards that the anaconda in the first round was the tightest submission he was in all night.
Bryce survived it by staying compact and strong in the arms, which is why the match went to the scorecards. But the sequence is the lesson: the leg attack forced the weight forward, and the weight forward gave Mikey the upper body he couldn’t get by attacking it directly.
<a class=“inline-cta” href=“https://grappleflows.com/v/mikey-musumeci-read-the-weight-ufc-bjj-11-vs-bryce-mitchell-0e77afd9z?utm_source=blog&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=post-mikey-musumeci-leg-lock-sweeps-ufc-bjj-11&utm_content=inline-cta&ref=blog”
Free flowchart The weight read, the leg sweep, and the upper-body branch, mapped card by card. Open the map →
When the legs are legal
With leg locks back on the table, the same knee off the floor stops being only a sweep. Mikey’s earlier UFC BJJ matches show the finishing version of the branch: a heel hook on Rerisson Gabriel at UFC BJJ 1, the Mikey lock on Keven Carrasco at UFC BJJ 3, and a straight ankle lock on Shay Montague at UFC BJJ 5.
That’s what makes the Mitchell match useful to study. Most of us train under rules where heel hooks are restricted or banned, or with partners we don’t want to hurt. This match shows the leg attack doing its positional job with the submission removed.
The map
On one page: read the weight. Back on the legs, go to the legs and get a knee off the floor. That’s a sweep, or a foot lock when it’s legal. Forward to save the leg, go to the upper body: the underhook and the anaconda. Each defense opens the other side.
Tap a card to read the detail and play the moment it comes from: the match, the press conference, or Mikey’s teaching.
Open the full flowchart on Grapple Flows for a bigger view.
Taking it to the mat
Next time someone bigger is square in your guard with their arms tight, stop fighting the arms. Take a leg, get one knee off the floor, and when they lean forward to get it back, go to the upper body. You can drill it without any leg lock at all: the goal is the sweep, or the reaction that hands you the underhook.
The match: UFC BJJ and UFC FIGHT PASS, “Mikey Musumeci vs Bryce Mitchell | FULL MATCH | UFC BJJ 11”. Press conference: UFC BJJ, “UFC BJJ 11: Post-Match Press Conference”. Other matches: UFC BJJ, “Every Mikey Musumeci BJJ Match” and “UFC BJJ 5: Musumeci vs Montague”. Mikey’s teaching: Bernardo Faria BJJ Fanatics, “How To Get Underneath A Bigger And Stronger Opponent In Jiu Jitsu by Mikey Musumeci”.
Common questions
Were leg locks allowed in Mikey Musumeci vs Bryce Mitchell?
No. Before UFC BJJ 11 the two agreed there would be no leg lock submissions. Mikey could still attack the legs, but only to sweep, not to finish.
Who won Mikey Musumeci vs Bryce Mitchell at UFC BJJ 11?
Mikey Musumeci won by unanimous decision over three five-minute rounds. Bryce Mitchell said afterwards that the tightest submission he was in was a first-round anaconda choke.
What is Mikey Musumeci's rule against bigger, stronger opponents?
Read where the top player's weight is. If their weight is back on their legs and they're closed up top, go to the legs and get one knee off the floor. If they bring their weight forward to save the leg, go to the upper body. Each defense opens the other side.
Why does lifting the knee off the floor work as a sweep?
The knee on the mat is the top player's base. Mikey teaches that once the knee is up on his body, acting as a wedge, the top player can't put it back down. They're balanced on one leg and go over, the same way a single leg takedown works.
What happens when leg locks are legal?
The same knee off the floor becomes a finish instead of only a sweep. Mikey's earlier UFC BJJ matches ended in a heel hook on Rerisson Gabriel, the Mikey lock on Keven Carrasco, and a straight ankle lock on Shay Montague.
