Tristar MMA coach and John Danaher BJJ black belt Firas Zahabi was recently seen training and having a roll with a legendary heavyweight arm-wrestler, Devon Larratt. Zahabi has long been a prominent figure in the MMA world as the coach for Georges St-Pierre but his level of Jiu-Jitsu knowledge and proficiency is often very overlooked. Not only is a legitimate black belt, but he’s constantly training with some of the best grapplers on the planet and always advancing his knowledge and improving his skillset.
When Zahabi comes up against the incredibly impressive physical specimen of Larratt it’s clear that the strength advantage is not something you can ignore. In the past, untrained but physically impressive grapplers have been able to submit those with years more experience over them just by virtue of size and strength alone. In the video, Zahabi starts to wrestle with Larratt but that’s realistically not an avenue that he’s ever going to have much success in, so he pulls guard shortly after.
From there, Zahabi immediately uses one of the most successful areas of his game and starts to work on attacking the legs of Larratt. From there he picks up two easy entries into heelhooks and manages to submit the bigger man without much real issue. It’s understandable of course, not only because of the significant gap in knowledge and experience between the two but also because Zahabi’s own coach John Danaher has gone on record to say that attacking the legs is the most effective way for the smaller person to negate a strength advantage.
Alternatively, Danaher also believes that the other primary option to overcome a strength advantage is attacking the back. This is something that has also been demonstrated by a high-level grappler and a gigantic untrained opponent when Dustin Poirier decided to take on four-time world’s strongest man Brian Shaw. The video footage of legendary heavyweight arm-wrestler Devon Larratt trying to roll with Firas Zahabi was uploaded to the official YouTube channel of Tristar gym:
