Mr T v Sahara Knite – A guest review!

I’m not the only male, mixed wrestler around you know! There are dozens of us in England alone. One of those is London lad “Mr T”. He approached me about contributing to my blog and sharing his experience of a session with the gorgeous Sahara Knite. Of course, I said, putting my feet up and letting someone else do the work! Here is a report on Mr T’s match against Sahara – in his own words!

I’ll start off by saying that I’ve been a fan of Sahara Knite for a very long time and when I got wind that she was training in BJJ I was a very happy young wrestler indeed!

Usually when I go into a session I have a good idea of how tough the match is going to be. This time around, I had very little to go on as to how tough a match this would be! Sahara has been training BJJ now for more than 2 years and has competed in a few comps so far. On the flip side, Sahara has done relatively few pure wrestling sessions with session customers. Also, the match was to follow my ‘hard-core’ rules, which allow the girl to stay on top after I tap as long as she doesn’t go for the same hold twice in succession.  So could the unfamiliar match format (for her), my unconventional tactics and the fact that I’m nearly 18 stone help me overcome my ‘inexperienced’ opponent? Would the two curries I ate the day before provide me with enough fuel to survive for a whole hour? My friends, all shall be answered very soon!

Sahara greeted me with a big smile at the door and she instantly put me at ease and made me a cup of tea. We sat down and we had a good chat about the session wrestling industry and various issues. As you’ll see from the pre-match pictures, Sahara has a lovely slender physique but is also incredibly toned. As I’ll explain later in more detail, she is also deceptively strong. Although she told me her little arms would put her at a disadvantage, I knew that immediately to be an attempt to lull me into a false sense of security. And I was right, because they were perfect for coiling in under my neck to get me in choke holds during the session!

And so the match began. After jostling for position I found myself on top but trapped in her guard. She cradled my arm to her body and made various attempts to transition to arm bars and triangles but I was able to defend them by keeping my arms close and concentrating. The guard was pretty strong and Sahara was adept at repositioning in order to keep me trapped. I twisted my body and tried to roll away and I was quickly semi-back mounted and Sahara started to manoeuvre me for chokes. Again I could defend the moves but I never really managed to completely wriggle free from her clutches. Eventually I found myself on my back and with lightning speed Sahara spun around to press me to the mats hard and attempt various arm locks, as well as other tactics including pushing her forearms on my neck and wearing me down by immobilising me. From here I knew it was only a matter of time until I tapped out for the first time, and so the first submission came when Sahara moved her legs up and positioned me for a triangle, although she didn’t quite have her legs locked enough to go for the triangle itself, she did manage to use her weight to push my arm back into a dangerous position and I had to tap.

In truth, most of the remaining ‘rounds’ were very similar, with me trapped in either a pin, guard or control position, frantically trying to protect my arms and neck from attack. The second submission came when Sahara took my back and, while going for the rear naked choke, managed to use one of her feet to cleverly hook my arm out of the way so I only had one arm to defend with. Those slim, slender arms came into play and she very cleverly alternated the use of both to catch me out and slowly snake one under my neck to achieve the choke. After I tapped she refused to let me go and made me tap a few more times (as I requested) before trying for her next move ☺.

One of the main things I look for in the best sessions is the feeling of helplessness, and the ‘third’ submission was when I really started to feel helpless. It came from an unexpected hold. While Sahara was working for an arm bar she coiled her legs around my neck for a reverse head-scissors. Now I very rarely tap out from this move and given Sahara’s size, I really thought it would be easy to escape. Unfortunately, her legs were too strong and their slenderness once again enabled her to tightly lock in under my neck so I was completely unable to prise them apart for long enough, especially as she was constantly trying to bend one of my arms out of shape at the same time. Now let me say I love the reverse head scissors, there’s just something about the position and how my opponent can just recline and squeeze her victim with minimum effort. This part was definitely the highlight of the session for me, because from this point on I realised that I was no longer her opponent, I was her ‘prey’!

From here, I was getting tired so it was really a case of me doing my best to minimise the points taken off me. Sahara’s speed meant that any semi-escape only ended up with me in another precarious position seconds later. Also her positioning and knowledge of weight distribution meant I really couldn’t fully escape her mounts. I continued to valiantly defend as many of her attacks as I could, which included a grapevine and some hand over mouth smothering. As she rotated her position she caught me in a type of north/south choke hold which I had to tap to.

In total I tapped out another 5 times, to a schoolgirl pin where an arm was trapped in a Kimura type hold, that amazing reverse head scissors again, a 1-2 combo of an arm bar followed up instantly with a wrist lock which gave her two submissions within the space of 10 seconds. Last of all, as if to save the best till last, she trapped me in a full triangle hold where she slowly increased the pressure and ‘tap or nap’ were my only two real options, after an in depth discussion on twitter with Mike earlier that day, I opted for the former option! 

And so, not including the times where she tortured me in a hold for multiple submissions the final score was Mr T 0-9 Sahara Knite. All in all I had a fantastic session where I got exactly what I wanted, the feeling of fighting for my life against a superior opponent who gradually wore me down and gradually made me putty in her hands.

After the session, we chatted for another 45 minutes and although I felt guilty for sticking around and taking up too much of her time, she seemed really happy to let me stay and she was absolutely not a clock watcher.

Big thanks to Sahara for the great session and to Wrestler Mike for agreeing to let me post this review.

Sahara’s profile on WB270 has just gone live which can be viewed at  http://www.wb270.com/eur/saharaK.htm and you can email her at saharaknite@hotmail.com for session enquiries.

*A big thank you to Mr T for writing this. And to sensational Sahara for inspiring his fantastic review!