Issue 157

Former Bellator champion Joe Warren surprised even himself with his crazy armlock-triangle submission.

So you can teach an old dog new tricks. Joe Warren earned his very first submission win at Bellator 101, despite being the wrong side of 35 and, by his own admission, far more comfortable in a wrestling singlet than a jiu-jitsu gi.

But he didn’t tie opponent Nick Kirk in any old knot. He forced his fellow bantamweight to submit to an Americana-style armlock from an inverted triangle in just over three minutes of the second round. Surprised to see such a creative hold from a boxer- wrestler? You’re not the only one.

“This last fight with Nick Kirk, I had a lot of ups and downs, a lot of time off,” he tells us several weeks after his tricky tapout. “I was able to impress myself and show myself that there is a whole other side of MMA (the submission game) that I am just starting to figure out. It was the first submission of my life.

Warren and Kirk having already slugged it out on the feet in the first, the unique catch came when the world champion Greco-Roman wrestler immediately relocated the fight to the canvas in round two. Warren saw his opening as Kirk tried to stand from Warren’s oppressive top game.

“I was pushing the pace and fell into that situation,” Warren said on the night. “I had the triangle locked up and his arm extended, so I didn’t want to move, I didn’t want to let go of it.”

Kirk held off the former Bellator featherweight champion’s attack for some time, but ultimately allowed an opportunity for his bent elbow to be twisted (as it would in a keylock from a figure-four grip, putting pressure on both the shoulder and elbow) and Warren took it – with a little guidance.

He said: “I looked over in the corner and they told me to pop my hand and lift my head and I instantly felt his elbow pop and it was done.”

Warren’s first-ever tapout was made all the better considering it was his first ‘W’ of the year and the fight had been rescheduled from several weeks earlier when the wrestler was mistakenly refused his medical license.

“I was jacked,” he added. “Triangle- armbar, I don’t even know how to say that, you know what I mean? I’m not a triangle-armbar guy but, hey, I’ll take the submission all day long.”