Eddie Cummings is a Bad Motherf!%#er

When I was home in New Jersey this past Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to train at several Renzo Gracie affiliate schools. The curriculum of these schools have been strongly influenced by John Danaher who teaches and coaches many of the Renzo Gracie affiliated instructors in the New York and New Jersey area.  When I spoke to an instructor at one of the Renzo Gracie schools I visited, he mentioned that there has been a shift in the past year to really emphasizing leg locks based on what Danaher has been focusing on in his classes. While Garry Tonon has been seen as Danaher’s prized pupil and major benefactor of Danaher’s leg lock teachings that he used to win both the Eddie Bravo Invitational and a super fight with Zak Maxwell at Metamoris 5, there is another student whose name I kept hearing from other students at Renzo Gracie schools.

That name is Eddie Cummings, a Brown Belt under John Danaher who teaches BJJ at Progressive Martial Arts in Fresh Meadows, New York.

I asked my friend who teaches at a Renzo Gracie school about him.

“Is he a MMA fighter?”

“No.”

“Is he some super athlete?”

“No, he looks like a regular guy that is great at leg locks.”

My friend then told me to look up his matches on youtube.com and mentioned that almost all of his matches end quickly with a leg lock submission. I watched a number of his matches. It really didn’t take long since they all ended within 3 minutes. His BJJ matches resemble some of Ronda Rousey’s early MMA fights, except instead of arm bars, Eddie Cummings prefer heel hooks. There is something both beautiful and ghastly about his leg locks. The technique involved in getting in position and properly executing the holds against another high level competitors is a piece of art. The quick, painful reaction and potential ligament damage though, is very cringe worthy.

It would be very intriguing to see Eddie Cummings compete in an upcoming edition of the Eddie Bravo Invitational in either the tournament or a super fight. The fan-friendly submission only format could be the platform that could raise Cummings’ profile in 2015, much like it did for Geo Martinez in 2014. His aggressive, fast paced, leg lock style would make him an instant fan favorite and potential champion at a future EBI event.

Eddie Cummings can be seen in the Polaris preview video below, helping Tonon prepare for his match against Polish leg lock specialist Marcin Held.

Here he is winning a Grapplers Quest match in 8 seconds.

Here he is winning the PGL Open Weight Finals in 16 seconds.

He took his time in the PGL Open Weight Quarterfinals with a win 1 minute.

To keep up with Eddie and get awesome clips and tutorials like the one above, follow him on his new Facebook page.

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