Bryce Mitchell managed to pull off just the second Twister submission in UFC history on Saturday night at UFC DC.
Washington, D.C. — Take one guess what Bryce Mitchell’s favorite 90s movie is. Go ahead, guess. If you saw his performance at the Capital One Center Saturday at UFC on ESPN 7, you’ll have an idea. Featherweight Mitchell pulled off just the second Twister submission in UFC history at the event, putting away Matt Sayles within a round.
His favorite movie? “Twister.” Game? “Twister.” No one thought to ask, but he’s probably a Chubby Checker fan as well. Let’s Twist Again.
Mitchell, now 12-0, was in great spirits, making the quips backstage speaking to reporters including Cageside Press. And for good reason. While Mitchell said later he wasn’t worried about bonuses since they’re out of his control, he was almost certainly a lock.
“That’s something I do in practice a lot. I’ve seen Eddie Bravo doing in on Youtube,” Mitchell said Saturday of the move that got fans out of their seats. “Practice it, practice it, practice it. I remember every step that he told me. I even know the Peruvian twister, it’s the tighter version, you have to really tighten it up. I really paid attention to that video, so shout out Eddie Bravo. That’s where I got it from. Then me and my teammates are always working on it.”
The submission, said Mitchell, also puts you in a good spot to hit some ground n’ pound, even if you don’t land the twister itself. And it’s rare mainly because of the steps involved. “So so many steps. It looks funky, so that’s another thing. It looks like it wouldn’t work.” However, for ‘Thug Nasty’ “it’s a common move for me.”
“I’m better at twisters than I am kimuras,” he later added.
So when in the six or so steps of the Twister does Mitchell know he has someone caught, say Sayles? “When I get that arm, when I get my leg around both of his legs, and he fails to lock his arms together,” Mitchell answered.
“If I have my legs figure-foured around your one leg, and you go to turn but you leave your arm, you’re not going to be able to lock your hands back together,” he explained. “At the very least, I’m just going to sit there and jack you with punches. He just didn’t know to lock his hands. And if he did, he would have had some ground n’ pound. You lock your hands, I’m going to sit there and wail on you until you get tired.”
In other words, Sayles was in a bad spot. And given his opponent missed weight Friday (by 2.5lbs for the featherweight bout), Mitchell had a little extra motivation.
“Him missing weight just made me feel like mentally, I was ready. I was prepared,” Mitchell told Cageside Press. “My weight cut wasn’t fun. You think I had fun in a sauna? I hired a nutritionist, because my last fight I was too small. I was 54 my last fight, I walked into this arena at 61 today [161lbs].”
“So I gained six pounds, seven pounds,” he continued. “The weight cut was incredibly hard. I was dizzy, it wasn’t fun, but I made it. I told myself ‘I’m going to stay here and pass out, I’m going to go unconscious in this sauna.’ I told my coach when I started getting dizzy, he said ‘stop talking like that, you’re fine.’ ”
Mitchell told his coach to carry him out if he did pass out. Luckily that didn’t happen. “Apparently [Sayles] wasn’t ready to do that,” he noted.
Watch the full UFC DC post-fight press scrum with Bryce Mitchell above!
