In many sports Milliseconds can be the difference between winning and losing, but in combat sports they can be much more.

Reaction time, speed, timing, power, explosiveness, technique, all traits that make a good athlete but in combat sports these traits mean more. In baseball bad timing could lead to a strikeout, in soccer lack of speed can cost the team points but in combat sports lacking any of these traits can lead to serious injury or even death. Now many sports are dangerous, many football athletes are injured and if you put an unqualified person on the field they would be at serious risk for injury, but at the end of the day they have gear on to protect them. If however someone was to compete in combat sports who was unqualified, they could be severely injured or killed. The point I am making here is that combat sports are in my opinion the most dangerous and all of the above mentioned attributes matter so much more because the goal in combat sports is to hurt your opponent. In other sports your opposition may get hurt in the process of the game but that is not the goal, the goal is to score points, you can't win in football by knock out, technical knock out, or submission.
In the above video you can see 2 fighters, myself and my opponent (Who was 10 pounds over the 155 weight), competing in Amateur MMA. My opponent seemed to be very strong but not so fast and as sharp with his timing. After a few feints he quickly realized that my reaction speed was fast and that he was going to have a hard time connecting on the feet. He also feints the take down to make me look to defend it. In the first round on this match (not shown in this video), he caught my leg kick and took me down, spending the better part of the round in my guard not doing much until the ref stood us up. So it was intelligent of him to fake the take down since his take down in the first likely won him that round on points. In the second round I took a lower stance and planned to throw no kicks. As soon as the second round started I took control of the center of the cage and started to put pressure on him, I was hoping he would shoot on me out of desperation from the pressure, but instead he threw a wild spinning back-fist hoping to end the match with a knockout. I believe it is never best to rush the win, you must let it happen. After moving out of rang of this spinning attack I immediately blitzed my opponent with right hook, left hook, right cross. As my opponent folded under the punches he tried to catch my legs as many wrestlers do when they are dropped with punches. I dropped heavy hips on him to prevent him from taking one or both of my legs, threw a few punches to his ribs then set up for a Peruvian Neck Tie. Once the choke was in I squeezed with all my might and pushed my legs down as hard as I could, this put my opponent to sleep in under 4 seconds. It took a few minutes before the doctor stood got my opponent back onto his feet.
The Peruvian Neck Tie is a very powerful choking submission, I would venture to say it is the most powerful NoGi choke. It applies all of the downward force of your hips and legs against all of the upward force of your back and arms. This choke also folds the neck into a cranked position that is painful. While Peruvian Neck Tie submissions are still not a common submission in MMA or Jiu Jitsu competition, it was extremely rare back in 2012 when this fight took place. I learned this submission 2 weeks prior to this match from a seminar, I was at the time not training Jiu Jitsu but training at an MMA gym that taught catch wrestling and Vada Kempo striking. I was also a Black Belt in Taekwondo at the time, this was before I walked into a Taekwondo gym and told them I wanted to test for my second degree years later.

I can not begin to express to you all the excitement that I experienced receiving Submission of the Night honors in my first MMA fight after 4 years of training (9 months of which recovering from ACL reconstructive surgery from my first grappling competition). After years of watching MMA on TV and picturing myself in the cage being interviewed after a match to actually be there center cage felt amazing.

1 week before this match I parted from the gym that I had been training with and after joined a Renzo Gracie Academy run by Joe Capizzi where began training BJJ and Boxing.

I hope you enjoyed the video, I will be posting a Peruvian Neck Tie instructional video in the next couple of days, please look out for it soon. Comment below we love to hear from you, whether its questions or opinions all comments are welcome here.