UFC Hidalgo Breakdown: Angles and Front Headlock Chokes
Join us as we break down the action at UFC Fight Night 94. From Michael Johnson’s first round knockout, to front headlock chokes and the curious case of Uriah Hall.
Michael Johnson has had a bit of a hard time in recent fights, dropping a decision to Nate Diaz after being goaded into engaging in a brawl, and finding himself on the losing end of a controversial split decision against Beneil Dariush. However, he’s back in top form and looking better than ever with an impressive knockout of Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC Hidalgo.
Dustin Poirier has put the lightweight division on notice since moving up from featherweight in 2015. His recent fights have played out in much the same way – he’ll march into the pocket, take a subtle angle to the outside of his opponent, and wallop them. Up until now, Joseph Duffy was the only man skilled enough on the feet to force a deviation from that gameplan and encourage Poirier to start wrestling.
Michael Johnson’s Angles
Johnson started moving around immediately, circling and changing directions to keep Poirier from setting his feet and getting on top of him. A puncher like Poirier wants to line his opponent up, step in on him, and fire off a big combination. By constantly angling out and changing direction, Johnson forced Poirier to keep resetting his stance, preventing him from lining Johnson up and sitting down on a hard shot.
Johnson went to work attacking from range with his longest weapons. He picked at Poirier with an inside low kick and lead leg front kick, as well as a few non-committal jabs and straights. Poirier was already having trouble lining Johnson up due to his movement, but attacking from long range and angling off immediately forced Poirier to commit to stepping in harder and walk himself onto Johnson’s counters.
While Poirier is very skilled in the pocket, his entries aren’t as crafty and Johnson took advantage of that. Every time Poirier stepped in, Johnson would bite down and throw a couple hard shots. Once Poirier committed to defense, Johnson would angle out.
The finish came much the same way. Poirier entered the pocket with a large, over-committed step on a 1-2 that Johnson gave ground to avoid. Because of his big step in, Poirier’s stance is too drawn out to throw follow up strikes while keeping his feet under him.
He turns his hips into a big lead uppercut, squaring his stance and leaving his face up to be hit. Johnson angles out while throwing a right hook that takes his head out of the uppercut’s path and lands flush. Poirier is in no position to take a shot – feet square and legs straight – and he crashes to the mat where Johnson jumps on him for the finish.
Front Headlock Chokes
The main event didn’t give us a whole lot to talk about, but the card as a whole provided a great opportunity to study chokes from the front headlock position. Various fights demonstrated front headlock techniques, counters, and counters to those counters.
Early on the card, Randy Brown hit a power guillotine with a rear naked choke grip on Erick Montano as the latter shot in for a takedown. The cage got in Montano’s way and preventing him from passing to the side he needed to relieve the choke. He tried to pass the other way, but rushed it and allowed Brown to triangle his legs together, securing the choke.
A common defense for the standing guillotine is to reach over the non-choking shoulder and walk around to that side to take pressure off, before bringing your hips in for a takedown.
Gabriel Benitez catches the guillotine as Sam Sicilia shoots a takedown. Sicilia abandons the takedown and tries to throw his arm over the shoulder, but Benitez arcs his left elbow up, blocking Sicilia from reaching over the shoulder and turning it into a high-elbow guillotine.
Another counter available when an opponent is attempting to lock in a guillotine from the front headlock is to roll into it as they sit back. This can allow you to sneak out the side if the opponent doesn’t get his far leg over your back in time. Note how Mendes doesn’t have any of McGregor’s arms in as he attempts the roll. Arm-in guillotines give you more control of your opponent’s upper body and make rolling out difficult.
Chas Skelly gets his right arm under the chin, with his left arm blocking the bicep as Maximo Blanco shoots for a takedown. Skelly takes away his frame on Blanco’s bicep to look for an arm-in guillotine. Instead of keeping his hand in tight to prevent it, Blanco’s arm goes right for Skelly’s hip and gives him the grip he wants. Blanco immediately tries to roll out, but Skelly just has to pinch his left elbow tight to trap the arm, and Blanco ends up rolling into an anaconda choke.
If Blanco wanted to roll out, he would’ve been best served keeping his right arm tight to deny the arm-in grip. If he wanted to reach for the hip and allow the arm-in, he would’ve had better results attempting to sit out or pass to the opposite side of Skelly’s body and get himself perpendicular to the choke.
Chris Wade demonstrated another important aspect of guillotines – that they can be used to facilitate positional control.
Here Wade locks in a guillotine as Islam Makhachev attempts a takedown. Makhachev needs to get himself perpendicular to Wade’s body in order to defend the choke, and in order to do that he needs to free his left leg. Because Wade has a tight high elbow guillotine with Makhachev’s posture broken down, he doesn’t have the ability or time to flatten Wade out and work a cautious pass. Makhachev desperately scrambles to free his leg and Wade waits until both of his feet are in the air to bridge. With no base keeping him anchored to the ground, Makhachev is easily rolled over.
Wade also used the guillotine to prevent Makhachev from turning into him in half guard and open up opportunities for ground and pound. Although at one point he was so focused on keeping Makhachev from turning into him that Makhachev was able to sweep him the other way.
Similarly, Evan Dunham attacked a Japanese Necktie to prevent Rick Glenn from building his base up whenever he turned in from half guard.
Defending the Front Headlock
Now that we’ve covered front headlock attacks, let’s look at some prevention courtesy of Antônio Carlos Júnior. Note how in the clips of finished guillotines, each was the result of a sloppy takedown. In order to lock in a guillotine, you need to break down the posture of the head and neck. Montano and Sicilia made it easy for their opponents by shooting with their backs hunched over and their heads down.
Carlos Júnior takes a similarly sloppy shot, with his back bent over and his head down, but he straightens his back and looks up as soon as he feels the guillotine, keeping his head tight to Leleco’s body. This puts Leleco in a bad position, forcing him to stand straight up. His arm is hanging over Carlos Júnior’s head, but he has no ability to choke him or control his posture. Carlos Júnior continues bringing his hips in, before turning the corner and ducking under the elbow.
Uriah Hall’s Bad Tendencies
Uriah Hall put on a typical Uriah Hall performance against Derek Brunson, showing the questionable tactical decision-making he’s become known for.
Brunson backs him up to the cage and feints an overhand left. Hall leans toward his right, letting Brunson know exactly where he’s going to go, and breaks his stance, squaring himself up as he circles. Brunson turns toward where he knows Hall will soon be and barrels forward with a left. He doesn’t have to worry about the threat of counters because Hall has taken his feet out of position.
This fight played out like a carbon copy of Hall’s knockout loss to Chris Weidman six years ago, right down to the minutia. The predictable circling, telegraphing his intentions, and taking his feet out of position were present in both. The only significant differences being that Weidman is more skilled at cutting off the cage than Brunson, and this fight was contested in a regulation-sized Octagon, with much more space to maneuver and avoid being backed up.
Donald Cerrone once struggled mightily with guys that could press forward and back him up, but he’s since developed nuance to his footwork that allows him to change directions and angle off once his back reaches the cage. Hall would be wise to take note and incorporate some of that footwork into his game.
For a card that looked unspectacular on paper, UFC Fight Night 94 delivered with some exciting early finishes, a barn-burner between Dunham and Glenn, and an entertaining, technical grappling match between Makhachev and Wade.
More from Cage Pages
This article originally appeared on 
