It appears that Jeff Monson has pulled out of the submission underground event and will no longer be facing Gordon Ryan in what would have been a fascinating battle of experience, size, strength and submission defense vs agility and submission offense. The organizers of Submission Underground have substituted leg locking specialist Joe Baize as substitute. Mr Baize competed at EBI 8 which Mr Ryan won – but they never met as they were on opposite sides of the brackets. I remember Mr Baize putting on a very good performance. He was probably the smallest man in the tournament yet won his first match well by submission (leg lock) and did very well against the much larger and stronger Felipe Fogolin, almost catching his legs on multiple occasions before getting tired and caught in a stranglehold. Nonetheless I was impressed by his skills, calmness under pressure and willingness to mix it up with bigger athletes. The nature of the match now is very different – it will be a match centered around submission skills – where leg submissions are the specialty of both athletes. Both men know what it takes to get to the legs and finish on the legs. It's been a frustrating week for the squad running through multiple opponents pulling out of match ups at the last minute – we are proud of our record of professionalism of showing up come what may. Now it seems we have two dangerous opponents who play the submission game very well and are ready to play ball Sunday night in Portland.
