Pat ‘Bam Bam’ Healy teaches you how to destroy your opponent with a brutal back crucifix.

With Alistair Overeem’s transfer just one of a number of UFC headlines dominating Planet MMA this past month, the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix semi-finals kind of went unnoticed – which was a real shame as the action by far surpassed the largely muted expectation levels.

Along with late stand-in Daniel Cormier’s destruction of ‘Bigfoot’ Silva in the co-main event, there were eight stoppages on the 10-fight card in Cincinnati, Ohio – none more spectacular than that of another replacement, Pat Healy, who not only stepped in at two week’s notice to face Brazilian shooting star Maximo Blanco, but bagged a late second-round submission.

Officially it was announced as a rear naked choke at 4:27 into the second round, but in reality it was a lethal “back crucifix” submission which spoilt Blanco’s US debut.

How did Healy manage to pull off the awesome adapted finish? 

“I call it the back crucifix and it’s something that I worked on a lot with BJ Penn, it’s my go-to submission right now,” Healy says.

“In fact, it even goes back like a year ago to when Marcello Garcia was with me, I was working on it then too. But it’s really over the last two or three months that I have started to really get the rhythm of the move down. 

“People think you have to be completely behind, but the grip of the choke comes from laying the non-choking hand right down the back shoulder blade and it locks that side of his body right into the choke. That way you actually have the same control as if you had both legs in the lock in, he’s completely locked in so you have complete control over his body.”

Blanco, a notorious and brutal striker, was quickly grinded out by the hard work ethic of Healy, letting himself be tricked by ‘Bam Bam’s ground game wizardry. 

Healy adds: “You set it up and the guy kind of thinks he’s out of the crucifix and kind of starts defending a far-side kimura, that’s what baits him to roll and, once that happens, it opens up the neck for the rear naked choke.

“The most important aspect of the submission is that once you have that arm hooked you just have to stay glued to the guy’s back.

Marcello calls it the seatbelt, no matter where he goes if you are on there you just have to keep riding him and following him and eventually the neck will come open for you to slip that arm under.”

Yet Healy is keen to point out that he doesn’t deserve all the credit for his crucifix sub.

“I have to thank BJ for helping me put this move together, it’s something we worked on a lot out in Hawaii and it’s really a move that he’s been putting together. But I’ve actually had a ton of different people exploring this submission technique with me. Even Matt Lindland was looking at this with me the other day, and he pointed out like 10 other finished from this position also, so I think that the back crucifix position is just going to become used more and more in the future.”