A tactic which has become prevalent in no gi grappling is using the single leg to get to the bodylock. Wrestlers will often shoot a conservative single leg to stand up into an underhook or clinch because getting the foot off the mat is the hard part, but in grappling it is common to see a competitor get the leg completely off the floor and then transition to the body as the opponent is hopping on one foot.

Dante Leon presented a beautiful counter to this tactic in his bout with Ethan Crelinsten. For a little while everyone wanted to counter single leg takedown attempts by jumping into a kani-basami / leg scissor takedown and entering the legs. Kani-basami is now illegal under WNO rules, as in Judo and folkstyle wrestling, because it involves competitors throwing their uncontrolled weight onto their opponent’s knee. The loophole on kani-basami is a technique that is sometimes called a cutback—though in the tradition of wrestling using confusing nomenclature that no one agrees on, the cutback is also a completely different type of finish for a single leg takedown.

The cutback we’re talking about is different from kani-basami because it is hard to use offensively. However if one man picks up a single leg with the opponent’s foot between their own legs, it puts the defending grappler in perfect position to attempt the cutback. The man on one leg reaches down between his standing leg and the opponent’s nearest leg. The forearm or crook of his elbow blocks the opponent behind the near knee, while his foot blocks the opponent behind the far knee. Here is Ryan Bader performing it in college and scoring a pin.  

The great thing about the cutback from a grappling perspective is that it gets you into all the leg entries a kani-basami would, without the inconvenience of getting you disqualified for landing on your opponent’s knee and destroying it. On both occasions that Leon used the cutback, or rolled off attempting it, he was able to take top position off the leg entanglement that followed.

Because the grappler is bending over and getting elbow deep on his opponent’s leg, there is also a good deal of crossover between this cutback and the Viktor roll. On his second attempt at the cutback, Leon ended up rolling forwards instead and was able to enter the saddle and take top position just the same.

Leon’s best offensive effort on the feet was the classic shot-and-foot-sweep combination that JT Torres has used to win two ADCC golds. I have heard this shot called “safada” which is apparently the Portuguese equivalent for “naughty”. This has led to me referring to this as the Cheeky Boi in my own training. This takedown is considerably more popular in Jiu Jitsu circles than in wrestling: perhaps because of the higher stances or the judo connection. Whatever the case, many jiujiteiros tend to perform this takedown falling into the floor but Torres and Leon have shown a great ability to run through their takedown even after hitting their knee on the sweep.

Crelinsten was stuck on the bottom for most of this match, playing a pretty ineffective reverse de la riva. We have been discussing the role of “mutual ashi” recently and how it might be better suited for MMA because the bottom man must make something happen, rather than work for a perfect leg entry. Crelinsten was struggling to get anything going but by taking the risk on the mutual ashi he was able to cause a scramble and get out from under Leon while holding an achilles grip. The second time he attempted it he also created a good deal of movement but got flattened into the match ending arm triangle off the leg shootout. Mutual ashi is not going to stop being dangerous, but it can often be easier to get to when you really cannot get anything going.

Pena vs Haisam

Single Leg foot sweep

Reverse De La Riva

Nicky Ryan vs Rene Souza

High Step

Meregali vs Kaynan

The Standard Kaynan wrestling

Meregali collar ties

Overtie to Single Leg

Meregali DLR and Lasso