How to Get Submitted in MMA

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Underestimate your opponent. Just ask Cub Swanson, who’s talking about his loss to Jens Pulver in the WEC:

I didn’t think he was going to put a choke on. I thought he was just going to stand up and try to hit me… I thought he’d want to get right back to his feet. So I was just waiting for him to jump to his feet, and then I was going to roll back and get to my feet and start over.

When he put the choke on, I thought it was just a guillotine. You know, I’m facing the ground, I can’t see anything. So my first reaction was `OK, no big deal. I’ll pull guard, my head will slip out, and we’ll still be on the ground in my world.’ You know, I said `he doesn’t want to be there.`

So when I went to pull guard, my neck cranked pretty severe, and I realized it was a wrestler’s front head lock. We would call it like a no-arm D’Arce, or a no-arm anaconda, but it’s really a wrestling move, and that’s the only reason that he knew it. So I would have had to fight the hand instead of pull guard. I guessed the wrong choke, and all I did was make it worse.

Share this story

About the author

Nate Wilcox

Nate Wilcox is the founding editor of BloodyElbow.com. As such he has hired every editor and writer to work for the site. Wilcox’s writing for BE is known for its emphasis on MMA history, the evolution of fighting techniques and strong opinions. Wilcox developed the SBN MMA consensus rankings which were featured in USA Today from 2009 to 2011. Before founding BE, Wilcox was a political operative working for such figures as Senators John Kerry and Mark Warner and an early political blogger. He is the co-author of Netroots Rising, a history of the political blogosphere from 2003 to 2007. Wilcox also hosts the Let It Roll podcast on music history for the Pantheon Podcast Network.