The latest craze in the world of mixed martial arts is one particular fight in England ending with a pro wrestling move and former UFC fighter Sean Pierson loved every second of it.
Jonno Mears moved to 2-0 as a professional fighter when he made Aaron Jones tap out to a Boston Crab, also known as "The Walls of Jericho" in a fight in Manchester, England. The event was Full Contact Contender 19, and it happened just 90 seconds into the first round.
Pierson appeared on the "Holy Smokes MMA Podcast" to talk about the newest meme in mixed martial arts. The connection between the submission move and Chris Jericho's Walls of Jericho is pretty obvious. Pierson even took the connection one layer deeper, by saying that someone on Mears' team is associated with Ralphus, Jericho's Personal Security (JPS) from way back during Jericho's heyday in WCW, and that Mears was then trained in the art of the Walls of Jericho.
"I saw it. My biggest concern is I don't know if I saw Ralphus in that corner. That was JPS all over it, I swear to God,' it was JPS. I know Chris is with his band but i think this JPS or Ralphus' son or someone he's been training with. That was great," Pierson said.
Even though the Walls of Jericho has won many matches for the Jericho, the move, as well as several other submission moves done in pro wrestling, are mostly impractical in MMA. The move, as well as the single leg variant of the Walls of Jericho, which is essentially a Boston Crab, can technically be applied well in MMA. But the video points to an even larger problem in MMA.
According to Pierson, the reason why stuff like this happen in MMA is because certain fights, especially done at the lower levels of the sport, carry a large skill gap between fights, allowing the better fighters to do moves such as the Walls of Jericho relatively easily. When asked whether or not Pierson could try and apply a Walls of Jericho in an MMA fight, Pierson said he feels confident he could pull one out.
"One-hundred percent (I can do one in an MMA fight). The sad part about MMA is the lower ranks. The truth of the matter is that the skill discrepancy is huge. With everybody trying to build their records up because everybody needs to be 8-0, I could go back out there at 41 years old and throw moves on guys, just do what I want. It was almost a joke when I watched the video, I heard the guy laughing. His cornermen are laughing. What a mismatch, but I didn't get to see the whole fight so maybe it wasn't a mismatch," Pierson said.
Pierson's comments can be seen in the video above. The Holy Smokes MMA Podcast with Showdown Joe Ferraro and Fightful managing editor Sean Ross Sapp can be watched live on YouTube and on Fightful every Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET.
