Craig Jones has been working with Alexander Volkanovski for a while, coaching him on the journey to improve his Jiu-Jitsu skills.
Volkanovski has faced Sambo world champion Islam Makhachev in the UFC 284, and – according to Jones – hel hook was part of their preparation against the Dagestani national:
A lot of Sambo guys are terrified of Heel Hooks.
In Sambo, you can only Kneebar, and I believe you can do it like a Straight Ankle Achilles Lock, no Heel Hooks. Terrified of it.
So, I could definitely see Volk submitting him very quickly with a Heel Hook.
Jones has been critical of Makhachev’s submission technique as well… Including the choke he used against Charles Oliveira:
Like, he submits people, but I don’t think he has good submissions. Like, it’s a wrestling culture, and they obviously have some submissions in Sambo and stuff, but Sambo’s pretty bad as a grappling art.
Obviously it’s hard for me to say this, but even when I looked at him submit Charles Oliveira… If you looked at how he submitted him, he grabbed his neck and he squeezed him as hard as he could.
To me, I look at that, I see that as an inefficient choke. If he didn’t get that, he’s burning his arms out.
Whereas I feel like higher-level technique, he’d be able to hold onto that thing for three, four minutes, if you know what I mean.
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