Last night's SENGOKU Sixth battle event featured two fights ending in one of the less common submissons: the heel hook.

Satoru Kitaoka nails a heel hook in his semi-final match against highly touted (and #15 meta-ranked lightweight) Eiji Mitsuoka.

Kitaoka -- training partner of fellow submission kings Shinya Aoki and Masakazu Imanari -- has adopted many of the grappling techniques of BJJ revisionist Eddie Bravo. But applying leglocks in MMA isn't something Bravo recommends.

From an interview Eddie Bravo did with Boxing Insider:

Eddie Bravo: I think leg locks are risky for MMA. If you just pay attention to all the leg lock attempts in MMA -- many times someone goes for a leg lock they leave their opponent's hands free -- free to bomb on them.

It happens so much in MMA: Frank Mir / Ian Freeman, he got killed going for leg locks; Rumina Sato against Joaqiem Hanson, got killed going for leg locks; "Cafe" Dantas against [I think it was] Gan McGee -- got killed going for leg locks. It's just too dangerous. You've got to round up your opponent's arms. You can't leave your opponent's arms free to punch you.

Another reason is that a lot of times leg locks aren't always adrenaline proof. A lot of people tap in the gym, in their training, because they don't want to get hurt. So the guy pulling off the leg locks starts to rely on them because people tap quick in class, but in the cage and in the ring -- when there's a lot of money on the line and alot of adrenaline pumping through your system-- it doesn't seem that people tap that often to leg locks, -- with all that adrenaline going, they don't seem to feel it.

...

So that is why I choose to master going after the neck instead of the legs. Another reason is that when you're attacking someone's legs, you're attacking your opponent's strongest limbs. You're attacking your opponent's strength. It's better to attack his neck and his arms. They are weaker. Why would you want to attack the stronger limbs?

And leg locks are the only submissions where -- if you go for a leg lock, your opponent can go for a leg lock on you. You could try to get a heel hook on someone and they could turn it around and get a heel hook on you. There's no other submission like that.

...

So all in all, I think leg locks are way too risky for MMA, but for submission wrestling they're great. This just my philosophy, I could be totally full of shit.

Note that Kitaoka starts in a modified side-control that's really more of a standard wrestling position. I believe its called a cradle where he's controlling his opponent's head and legs (wrestlers pipe up and correct me please). He quickly drops back, grabs the leg and gets figure four control over Mitsuoka's thigh. This is critical if you're going to control your opponent's position while going for the submission.

Also note that they end up in a position where Mitsuoka has little if any chance of countering with a leg lock of his own. By doing these two things Kitaoka has answered the criticisms of the leg lock given by Bravo.

We've been seeing more and more leglocks winning in high level BJJ and submission grappling contests in recent years and I believe the trend is now making it into MMA.

I'll talk about Jorge Santiago's leg lock and more theory in the full entry.

About the name of this feature: I chose Judo Chop because it’s an utter misnomer that is sometimes used by poorly informed MMA commentators during fights. It’s also from the Austin Powers movie. I chose it because it reflects my own lack of expertise and what this column is, my stumbling along in the dark trying to get a handle on the technical aspects of the fights. The techniques featured here will sometimes involve judo but not always. Sorry if that's confusing. As always I'm strictly an armchair technician so anyone with real knowledge is encouraged to pipe up.

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Top World Victory Road lightweight Takanori Gomi reacts to the judges' verdict in last night's split decision loss to underdog veteran Sergey Golyaev of Red Devil Sport Club. While the "Fireball Kid" did appear listless at times during the fight, Gomi clearly outstruck and out-grappled the Russian throughout the first and third rounds; the judges seemingly placed much emphasis on an outburst of offense from Golyaev in the second where Gomi was dropped twice, but quickly recovered both times.

In a pre-fight interview, Golyaev said that a win would garner him a title shot against the winner of WVR's now ironically titled "Road To Gomi" Lightweight Grand Prix. However following Satoru Kitaoka's GP victory over Kazunori Yokota, there was this exchange which would indicate otherwise:

“Although you lost tonight Mr. Gomi, I look forward to facing you,” Kitaoka then addressed the former Pride champion and the crowd.

A visibly upset Gomi stepped up into the ring then, congratulating Kitaoka at first on his tournament win, followed by a challenge.

“Let’s get at it. You better bring it. I’ll be waiting for you in this ring come January 4,” he said.

photo via SportsNavi

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Middleweight Grand Prix Semifinals
Jorge Santiago def. Siyar Bahadurzada via Submission (Heel Hook) at 1:10 of Round 1
Kazuhiro Nakamura def. Yuki Sasaki via Decision (Unanimous)

Lightweight Grand Prix Semifinals
Kazunori Yokota def. Mizuto Hirota via Decision (Unanimous)
Satoru Kitaoka def. Eiji Mitsuoka via Submission (Heel Hook) at 1:17 of Round 1

MWGP Reserve Bout
Joe Doerkson def. Izuru Takeuchi via TKO (Punches) at 4:13 of Round 3

LWGP Reserve Bout
Jorge Masvidal def. Seung Hwan Bang via Decision (Unanimous)

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira def. Moise Rimbon via Decision (Unanimous)
Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal def. Fabio Silva via TKO (Punches) at 0:40 of Round 3
Sergey Golyaev def. Takanori Gomi via Decision (Split)

Middleweight Grand Prix Finals
Jorge Santiago def. Kazuhiro Nakamura via TKO (Punches) at 0:56 of Round 3
After two rounds of relative inaction, the American Top Team product used a left jab to set up an absolutely devastating right hook which left Nakamura prone throughout the post-fight speech and awarding of the oversized novelty check for ¥5,000,000 (approx. $51,000 US). After the fight, Santiago told Kazuo Misaki "you can't hide anymore."

Lightweight Grand Prix Finals
Satoru Kitaoka def. Kazunori Yokota via Decision (Unanimous)
Despite some terrible refereeing (break from standing back mount?) and a near troubling addiction to looking for heel hooks, Kitaoka ground out a sloppy win and will now move on to face... Sergey Golyaev? A little slapstick comedy to round out the evening, as Kitaoka leapt with joy at the sight of his ¥5,000,000 check and the medal fell from around his neck. Yokota was awarded a check for ¥2,000,000 (approx. $20,300 US).

UPDATE: As the broadcast ended, Kitaoka was addressing the crowd on the mic and Gomi could be seen entering the ring. So perhaps that's still the fight for New Year's.

Notes

- Red Devil's Sergey Golyaev just toppled World Victory Road's damn apple cart, taking an extremely questionable split decision over golden boy Gomi, who controlled all but a few minutes of the fight. Golyaev did nearly mount a TKO in the second round, which might have seen the fight stopped if Gomi wasn't Gomi and this wasn't Japan, but that alone could certainly not have been enough to earn him the victory. It was stunning and somewhat ironic to see Gomi robbed by the judges in his home country. Since this was simply a tune-up fight as Gomi awaited his title match with the winner of the LWGP on New Year's, it will be interesting to see how WVR proceeds from here. One would think the opportunity would now have to go to Golyaev, dubious win or not.

- "King Mo" looked impressive once again as he handed durable Chute Boxe product Fabio Silva only his second TKO loss. (The other was at the hands of Melvin Manhoef.) Though it took him significantly longer to accomplish than his first round destruction of Travis Wiuff, Lawal did get a chance to utilize his ridiculous wrestling skills and definitely grew his legend with the Japanese fans via another over-the-top entrance, "queens" and all.

- Hard to tell for sure from the stream I was watching, but Saitama looked absolutely empty tonight and sounded even deader.

Videos after the jump.

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"Finalized" because while the full slate of matches has been announced, nothing ever seems certain with the major Japanese promotions until the week/day/hour before the show. Still, even if the tournament and reserve bouts were the only fights to stick, this would still be a pretty phenomenal card.

SENGOKU VI
Date: November 1st, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Lightweight Fight:
Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi 29-3 vs. Sergey Golyaev 10-6


Light Heavyweight Fights:
Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira 14-3 vs. Moise Rimbon 13-7-3


Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal 1-0 vs. Fabio Silva 11-4


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Semifinal Fights:
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. Eiji Mitsuoka 14-5-2


Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. Mizuto Hirota 10-2


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Final Fight:
Kitaoka/Mitsuoka vs. Yokota/Hirota


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Reserve Fight:
Bang Seung Hwan 5-2 vs. Jorge "GameBred" Masvidal 15-3


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Semifinal Participants:
Kazuhiro Nakamura 12-8 vs. Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1


Jorge Santiago 18-7 vs. Siyar "Afghan Killa" Bahadurzada 14-3-1


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Final:
Nakamura/Sasaki vs. Santiago/Bahadurzada


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Reserve Fight:
Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. Joe Doerksen 40-12

"Lil Nog" was scheduled to face Vladimir Matyushenko at Affliction's cancelled October show, but will instead take on the veteran Rimbon for his first fight on Japanese soil since 2006. Mo Lawal drops down to light heavyweight to face Wanderlei clone Fabio Silva after shocking almost everyone in his MMA debut by TKO'ing the far bigger and more experienced Travis Wiuff.

It's going to be great to see the semis and finals of both the Middleweight and Lightweight Grand Prixs play out all in one night. The MWs semifinalists should be fun (not to mention Doerkson returning to Japan against the tough Pancrase vet Takeuchi), but thanks to some major upsets at Sengoku IV, the LW participants will be the ones to top, with a quartet of explosive Japanese fighters vying for a shot at the inaugural Sengoku lightweight title. In the reserve bout, Jorge Masvidal makes a quick turnaround from his September TKO of Ryan Schultz to face relative newcomer Bang Seung Hwan, who was last seen giving Gomi a run for his money in a decision loss.

Speaking of Gomi, he's been given another fairly safe fight, taking on Sergey Golyaev as he treads water waiting for the LWGP winner. Golyaev boasts the impressive submission skills you'd expect from a Red Devil, but has faltered and in fact been submitted by every "name" fighter he's faced (Joachim Hansen, Rich Clementi, Kurt Pellegrino).

Meanwhile, no sign of Josh Barnett, who announced that he'd be participating last month.

[Update by Nick Thomas] - Bumped for this weekend... added pictures and fight records.