Luke Thomas recently made a very intriguing – and accurate point. While Islam Makhachev’s finish was impressive regardless it’s bad journalism to attribute the finishing technique to Khabib – as he’s not the inventor of that particular strategy.
Here’s the moment in question:
Khabib Nurmagomedov telling Islam Makhachev to move his leg over Dan’s head to secure the submission!
Khabib is truly a genius when it comes to grappling!#UFC267 pic.twitter.com/Uw7oprowwb— Pablo_Escobar (@JM97_79) October 30, 2021
Many including prominent MMA influencer “Anatomy of a fighter” filmmaker Will Harris neglected MMA history in order to praise Khabib for this move. In a since deleted tweet he – the technique was falsely attributed.
Luke Thomas was one of the first to point out the lengthy history of the move.
“This is the standard move to finish a kimura from this position. Khabib did the right thing to call for it and he’s obviously a phenomenal grappler (as is Makhachev), but this isn’t some amazing innovation. This is common knowledge among even intermediate grapplers.”
This is the standard move to finish a kimura from this position. Khabib did the right thing to call for it and he’s obviously a phenomenal grappler (as is Makhachev), but this isn’t some amazing innovation. This is common knowledge among even intermediate grapplers. https://t.co/8k4sVlwYO0
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) November 1, 2021
Thomas went on to provide video evidence:
Here’s Phil Baroni in 2006 and Frank Trigg/Mauro Ranallo on commentary were talking about the need to step over the head the entire time he attempted it, which started long before what’s shown (check FightPass if you don’t believe me).
Khabib is a genius, but not for this. pic.twitter.com/xhTQO3Krn7
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) November 1, 2021
Here’s Joe Rogan talking about Mir stepping over the face of Nogueira to secure the final step.
Again, if this is new to you, that’s OK. Nothing wrong with that, but if we are going to heap praise on fighters for their technical acumen, we have to be accurate about what they did pic.twitter.com/OOOuSTdnPu
— Luke Thomas (@lthomasnews) November 1, 2021
And of course Ryan Hall’s open elbow dvd – released in 2015 features this exact finishing strategy.
One additional note interesting to observe is Makhachev attempt to rebrand a jiujitsu staple. After his victory Makhachev said:
“What I do is not Jiu-Jitsu nor Grappling, it’s MMA ground game and I have the best in the division.”