Fast-rising middleweight sensation Mike Malott, who captured a UFC contract on Dana White’s “Contender Series” back in Oct. 2021, secured his third straight victory inside the Octagon by strangling Adam Fugitt on the UFC 289 pay-per-view (PPV) main card last weekend in Vancouver.
Get much more on that showdown here.
The submission was good enough to bag “Proper” a $50,000 performance bonus. After the fight, jiu-jitsu phenom Gordon Ryan took credit for creating the finish, insisting he “invented this variation about a decade ago.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen the high wrist guillotine being used in the UFC,” Ryan wrote on Instagram. “I hate when people say they invented moves when they didn’t, but as far as I know, I invented this variation about a decade ago. I always knew the arm in guillotine was the hardest to free yourself from and that the high elbow guillotine was the tightest, but easiest to defend by just simply covering your opponents arm and converting it to a low elbow guillotine.”
“So i asked myself, ‘How can I have the strangling power of a high elbow guillotine while eliminating an easy defense and forming a strong connection to my opponent’s body?’ In this variation, you have a high elbow guillotine grip, so the strangling power is the same. But instead of going to a high elbow, you simply cover what would be their defensive arm by over wrapping it. This gives the connection of an arm in guillotine, the strangling power of a high elbow, and is near impossible to defend because your opponent’s defensive hands can’t access your strangling arm. I hit this for the first time in competition in 2016 [in] EBI in the 170 pound division in my first match.”
Malott praised Ryan for the lesson in submissions.
“Thank you Gordon,” the 31 year-old Canadian replied. “The first time I ever saw the high wrist with the overhook used was when you hit it in EBI back in the day. I’ve been using it ever since.”
That said, not everyone is in agreement regarding the genesis of the submission.
“Gordon ironically Friday posted [an] old fight of mine then Saturday something similar was hit then saw your post,” UFC veteran Jesse Taylor replied. “Mine might be little different but did it 2010 in MMA fight … if [you] take [a] look at it on [the] page let me know but have to respectfully say I might’ve been the originator! Love ya’ bro but had to say I might be the inventor.”
Ryan, 27, is currently recovering from a serious illness that left him frail and decrepit.