5 MMA fighters who have techniques named after them
To etch one's name among the all-time greats of a sport takes a lifetime of unfathomable commitment, discipline and evolution. These manifest themselves in accomplishments so lofty they remain untouched for decades and the names of those who achieved them echo across generations.
But there are also those who've left legacies inerasable despite not leaving their hearts on the field of play, minute after minute, day after day. The fruit of their toil was a single, iconic, eternal bequeathal that mankind will not fail to recognize no matter how many years pass.
We're talking about Gustav Eiffel's Eiffel Tower, Rudolf Diesel's Diesel Engine and Mikhail Kalashnikov's Automat Kalashnikov, or as it is more commonly known, the AK-47. There are very few things that can make a person prouder than having something named after them.
Sport has plenty of examples: in boxing there's the Ali shuffle, named after the GOAT Muhammad Ali; in cricket there's the Dilscoop named after Tilakaratne Dilshan and in pro-wrestling there's the Lou Thesz press, made famous by Stone Cold Steve Austin.
Mixed martial arts has a handful of techniques that bear the names of the fighters who popularized their use. MMA is an amalgamation of many disciplines like judo, jiu jitsu, wrestling etc and most of these moves were adopted from one of these parent disciplines. But the fighters with whom these manouevres became synonymous honed them to such an extent that they became a perfect fit for MMA. Here are a few of them:
#5 Imanari roll:
The Imanari roll might be the only technique whose proliferater is still actively fighting in MMA. We're talking about Masakazu Imanari, the 42-year-old Japanese veteran who is a member of ONE Championship's Featherweight division.
Imanari's nickname, "Ashikan Judan" means "The Great Master of Leg Submissions" is well-justified, as he has 16 wins in that style. Here's a tutorial on the technique:
UFC stars Tony Ferguson and Rory MacDonald have attempted the Imanari roll in their fights, but the most successful practitioner of the move is leg lock specialist and The Ultimate Fighter season 22 winner Ryan Hall.