JOE looks back at UFN 24, a night that was defined by the memorable ‘Twister’ move performed by Chan Sung Jung on Leonard Garcia.
By Michael Cunningham
On the under-card of WEC 48 last year, Chan Sung Jung and Leonard Garcia waged an all out war, high on aggression but low on skill.
The re-match between the two at UFN 24 last weekend wasn’t quite the chaotic slugfest their first encounter had been, but nevertheless, it provided another truly memorable moment in MMA history.
After an entertaining but by both fighters’ previous performance, restrained affair, the Korean Zombie finished Bad Boy with the Twister submission which had never been performed in the UFC.
Jung showed a lot more composure in this fight than in the previous meeting between the pair, making sure not to get into reckless exchanges with Garcia, who throws his punches with the whack of a tennis player at times.
Instead, he took what he could get and bided his time until he took control of Garcia’s back to set up the finish. More impressively though, he was racing against the clock to force the tap from Garcia and succeeded with the official time of the finish coming at 4.59 in round 2.
The Twister is a nasty submission that originated in wrestling but was made famous by renowned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and teacher Eddie Bravo, who actually wrote an entire book on the subject called Mastering the Twister (Watch Bravo break down Chan Sung Jung’s move below).
The submission is particularly devastating as it places the spine under tremendous pressure. It’s considered so dangerous that it is banned at the ADCC Submission Wrestling Championship in Abu Dhabi, though Bravo did place his opponent in the position despite getting a warning, to show the audience he could if he chose to.
The Twister consists of a sideways body bend and neck crank, which involves forcing the head towards the shoulder while controlling the body, hence its name. It is performed from a back mount single vine ride position, where the top man has one “hook” threaded through the bottom man’s legs and secured behind the ankle.
The top man then pulls the bottom man’s opposite arm behind his own head and grabs hold of his opponent’s head, pulling it down to his shoulder. However, Jung himself said at the post fight press conference he’d discovered the move in an unlikely place.
“It’s something I saw a long time ago on the internet on video,” Jung said.
“It’s one of Eddie Bravo’s moves. It’s something I practiced because it looks fun and I do it quite a bit in practice. I have always told people I was going to try it sometime in competition. I wanted to do it in the UFC and I was able to, finally.”
This is sure to get fans back on the Korean Zombie bandwagon again, possibly obscuring his rough, high-kick knock-out loss to George Roop in the WEC from memory. However, it cannot be denied that few fighters have captured the attention of fans after posting 2-1 under the Zuffa banner.
Whether he could ever challenge for a title can certainly be questioned, but the Korean Zombie certainly has the look of a fighter with many more bonuses coming his way, if not wins to go with them.
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