Jonno Mears was the first professional MMA fighter to pull off the famous AEW move ‘Walls of Jericho’. The British fighter successfully submitted his opponent using this lock.
Jonno Mears competed at Full Contact Contender back in September 2017 against Aaron Jones in a middleweight bout. It was his first fight competing in that promotion and was his second professional bout. Meanwhile it was Jones’s first.
Mears had it easy against inexperienced Jones. As soon as the fight started, Mears immediately took down Jones. And within two minutes in the first round, he locked Jones in a ‘Walls of Jericho’ position. This move is also named as the ‘Boston Crab’. The name Boston Crab also comes from pro wrestling. Many credit it to Dory Funk Jr. and his Cloverleaf move.
In terms of jiu jitsu – the move is viable but the leverage is harder to achieve on both legs at the same time as opposed to just one. Another name would be the double ankle lock.
While locking Jones in position, Mears also taunted him by sticking out his tongue. It didn’t take long for Jones to tap out, marking Mears second professional victory.
Jonno Mears was asked about what motivated him to do the Walls of Jericho move on his opponent. During an interview with MMA Fighting in 2017, he said he saw the chance when Jones was crawling on all four.
“When I took him down, he turned to all fours quickly, but I managed to chin strap him and was going to try the Peruvian necktie. But he tucked his chin, so I jumped to his back, then the crab came into my head. Then, during the scramble,”
I was going to turn into mount and give it up, but I saw he covered up while I was striking him, so I thought, ‘Why not I just try?’ And I was shocked myself I got a hold of his legs in a scramble.” Mears said.
Jonno Mears went 2-3 after his famous fight against Jones. His last bout was against Joel Downey-Cave at FCC 27 event in December last year. So far, Mears has a total score consisting of 4 wins and 3 losses.
The AEW star Chris Jericho himself also talked about Mears and was proud of his move.
“Hahah see the #WallsOfJericho really works!” Jericho wrote on Twitter.