Mikey Musumeci: Read the Weight (UFC BJJ 11 vs Bryce Mitchell)

No leg lock submissions allowed against Bryce Mitchell, and Mikey Musumeci still won with the legs. His rule against stronger opponents: read the weight. Weight back, go to the legs and get one knee off the floor. Weight forward to save the leg, go to the upper body. In Mikey's and Bryce's own words.

Flow outline

  1. Stronger opponent on top

    • UFC BJJ 11: Bryce Mitchell, a UFC featherweight, on top in Mikey's guard. Leg lock submissions were off by agreement.
    • Mikey: "when you remove like half of my game and I have to only do upper body and he's very strong, it becomes very difficult to finish."

  2. Weight back, arms tight

    • Read where the top player's weight is. Square, arms tight, weight back: closed up top.
    • Bryce: "a lot of the upper body work I shut down."
    • Mikey teaching: "his weight is on his legs here... so now I'm going to play on the legs."

  3. Go to the legs

    • Have the foot as they step to pass. The crowd booed the first time; it was a sweep, not a leg lock.
    • Bryce: "Anytime I tried to get any angle in the guard, he like grabbed my feet."

  4. One knee off the floor

    • Lift the leg. The knee on the mat is the top player's base. Once it's up on your body they can't put it back down, and they're balanced on one leg.
    • Mikey: "now it'll be very hard for him to put his leg down because I'm wedging his knee on top of my body... the whole fight becomes how to take his knee off the floor."

  5. Sweep, come up on top

    • No finish allowed, so the leg sweeps. Bryce goes over and Mikey comes up on top.
    • Mikey: "I was using the leg lock to sweep, like basically like how you do a single leg or double leg."

  6. Weight forward to save the leg

    • To get the leg back, the top player has to bring the weight forward. Forward is the signal to go to the upper body.
    • Mikey teaching: "if he brings his upper body forward... now I'm going to play on the upper body."

  7. Foot lock, when it's legal

    • With leg locks back on the table, the same knee off the floor stops being only a sweep: the heel hook on Rerisson Gabriel (UFC BJJ 1), the Mikey lock on Keven Carrasco (UFC BJJ 3), a straight ankle lock on Shay Montague (UFC BJJ 5, pictured).
    • Mikey teaching: "I wedged his whole leg off of the floor... look where I end up, into my foot lock position."

  8. Upper body: underhook

    • Mikey: "I swept, got an underhook, came up, and then got to the anaconda."
    • Mikey teaching: "the perfect way to sweep someone is attacking their back or a submission. Then when they defend that, they give you the sweep."

  9. Anaconda

    • Round 1. Bryce: "The tightest one was in the first round, as an anaconda choke."

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