We saw it happen in the first round – Jon Jones moved in, worked his arm under in a whizzer-like armlock, then cranked Glover’s shoulder into oblivion. It looked nasty, and it was. The ‘standing Mir lock’ as many on the internet messageboards of the world have rightly dubbed it, tore Teixeira’s labrum and ultimately, the fight ended right there.
Of course, some people are calling it ‘dirty,’ but it’s a tactic that works, and frankly, there is nothing dirty about the move. The goal in MMA is to hurt your opponent, to beat him into submission or beat him up more than he beats you up in the eyes of three men sitting cageside. In my eyes, this just places the brilliance of Jon Jones’ performance in the spotlight again. It reinforces the fact that this guy is going to beat you from all angles, any way he wants.
Who even knew what a Mir lock was before this?
Glover’s coach, John Hackleman, broke the news to MMAFighting:
“When I found out after the fight about the injury, it broke my heart,” Hackleman said. “Had I known, I probably would have stopped it even though everyone would have hated my guts.
“So he just fought on with a torn labrum, swinging. It wasn’t like he was running, he was moving forward and banging. It’s unbelievable to think of going five rounds with Jones like that. And we’re not taking anything away from Jones because he caused the injury. Both the eye and the shoulder. So kudos to Jones for doing that. They are both legal moves. He didn’t try to hurt Glover intentionally, he did what he had to do to win.
“It just shows the mental fortitude and toughness of Glover. It shows what he’s capable of. It made me proud, man.”
