📰 Mikey declares - 'Look out Steve Aoki, you're next'

Who’s On Top This Week:

With WNO, Pans, Polaris & ONE events all playing out over the weekend - the No-Gi P4P rankings have received a healthy little shakeup since we last had a look at them 🔥 

To the surprise of absolutely no one at this point - Gordon Ryan retains his spot as the king of the mountain 🏔 🤴(or is it the king of cringe? 🤔 ) - after a ludicrously one-sided performance against Patrick Gaudio at WNO 20.

It’s getting to the point where he should probably wear a blindfold to even things up, however, the notorious sh*tstirrer AJ Agazarm makes the claim that this match wasn’t legit and that there is a conspiracy afoot 🛸 .

Again, nooootorious sh*tstirrer so take from it what you will 🤷‍♂️

Enough about Mr. Ryan though - the ‘boss move’ 💪 in the men’s P4P rankings has to go to Dante Leon as he jumps from #6 to #2 after taking the win at Pans in the SuperHeavyweight Division 🤯.

 Not too bad for a guy that usually competes at 155 lbs…

Diogo Reis, Mica Galvao, and Kaynan Duarte all had some solid wins too - bumping them up the rankings at the expense of Craig Jones who loses his spot at #7 and slides out of the Top 10 (a long way from his coveted Segundo 😬).

The Women's P4P rankings have been far less turbulent but no less impressive with Elisabeth Clay sneaking past Ffion Davies to take the #1 spot after a double gold run at IBJJF Worlds as well as recent Polaris and WNO wins.

These rankings are very sensitive to the most recent results though so it’ll be interesting to see how the deck shuffles 🃏 with the next run of competition!

What’s Happening On The Mats:

Can you Aoki an Aoki? Yes. Yes, you can.

If you’re brand new to jiu-jitsu - or have accidentally ended up on this newsletter list because you thought Tap, Nap & Snap was a new-age boy band, then you’d be forgiven for thinking that the ‘Aoki Lock’ was this summer’s latest banger from DJ Extraordinaire Steve Aoki 🎉 

Well, don’t crack the tequila just yet 🍹 🤔 because the Aoki Lock is not a siiiick new club track, it’s a brutal leg submission invented by the Japanese grappling legend - Shinya Aoki (…don’t worry, we understand if some of you are disappointed).

The reason you may be hearing a bit more about it than usual this week is because, in a cruel twist of fate, Shinya fell victim to his very own Aoki Lock this past weekend in a bout with none other than Mikey Musumeci 🍝 

Let’s face it - Shinya is no spring chicken 🐔 and Mikey is widely considered one of the best grapplers in the world - so the result isn’t a huge surprise.

But to Aoki Lock Mr. Aoki himself? Ice cold. 🥶 Watch the quick finish below 👇

Speaking of Shinya Aoki…

Father time waits for no one 👴 

It’s like Harvey Dent (kinda) said in The Dark Knight - ‘You Either Die A Hero Or You Live Long Enough To See Yourself Become The Villain tap to your own submission.’

And while this unfortunate Batman-esqe scenario has just played out for Shinya Aoki, it doesn’t mean that he hasn’t had his fair share of wins in his early days 🏆

He is a true pioneer and legend in the grappling world (I mean, how many people get a submission named after them!? 🔥) and with just a little archive digging - we’ve unearthed a clip of Shinya winning Rickson Gracies Budo Challenge from back in 2008 🤯 

This clip ☝️shows just how dynamic a young Aoki was … and how wild the scoring system was in Rickson’s Budo Challenge 😂 

All we will say before you press play is - holy flying armbar! 😬

From Jits to Hits - who’s done it well?

The leap from being a jiu-jitsu superstar 🥋 to becoming an MMA superstar 🥊 has been a pretty successful one for many top athletes in our sport.

BJJ legends such as Charles Olivera, BJ Penn, Demian Maia, Fabricio Werdum, Gilbert Burns, Jacare, Roger Gracie, Gary Tonon, Mackenzie Dern & of course Royce Gracie have all shown that the crossover can happen - and real money can be made! 💰

So with the path being paved with gold, it’s only natural that many of the current top BJJ athletes also have their eye on the MMA scene. So who from the current crop of talent in our sport would do the best? 🧐 

Kade Ruotolo wants to make the move as soon as possible, Mikey is embracing Muay Thai with a passion and Gordon claims he’s knocking back 7-figure offers - waiting for some of his teammates to catch up before he makes the jump (if ever).

I feel like this lays a nice foundation for our question this week ✅ - scroll on down to our question section and cast your vote…

Do Less. No, Wait, Do More:

The Good Option: Give em the ol’ ‘shove by’

Dean Lister. Another grappling legend known for many amazing achievements in our sport - but perhaps most famous for uttering the famous phrase ‘why ignore 50% of the body?’ and basically catalysing the leg lock revolution 🦵

Aside from being responsible for single-handedly increasing every orthopedic surgeons workload 10-fold 👨‍⚕️ - he’s also got a deep bag of tricks that only someone who’s been grappling for nearly 30 years can have 🤯 

In this quick clip, he leaves the legs alone and goes for what he has termed ‘the shove by’. It’s a nice little modification of the arm-drag principle that adds a bit of kimura pressure to the shoulder ✅

Check it out 👇

The Not-So-Good Option: Thinking you’re ready for ‘the wall’

I’m sure we’ve all trained in a gym that has the all-seeing eye of Helio 👀 high above you on the wall - watching the mats to make sure you are shrimping properly and oss-ing at the right time.

For most gyms - getting your picture up there with Helio probably requires that you have some Gracie blood running through your veins 🩸 - or that you’ve competed at the highest level for years and left an undeniable mark on the sport.

Or maybe, just maybe, crushed it in the white belt division like no one else ever 👇 Guess you’ll never know unless you go!

Things That Keep You Up At 2 AM:

It’s like the wise and slightly unhinged Mike Tyson always said - “Thpinal”.

No, wait - “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Yeh, that’s the one.

Being good at BJJ doesn’t necessarily mean you are good at MMA - everything changes a bit when someone can ball up a fist and chuck it at you - or kick you square in the liver 🤒 

Or even slap you for that matter as Combat Jiu Jitsu has shown…

So, given the current crop of BJJ athletes in line for a potential move to MMA…

This week’s big question: ⬇️

Last week’s results:

Last week we asked you - “The BJJ Belt 'Gauntlet' - Are You A Fan?”

• 50% of you said - 👍 Absolutely! It's a rite of passage and all in good fun

• 50% of you said - 🙅 No way! It's stupid and unnecessary

This holds up. In my experience, 1 in every 2 people seem to like the gauntlet. The one holding the belt and doing the whipping seems to love it, and the one running and screaming not so much 🤷

The Meme Open Mat:

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