Gerald Meuse made himself known in New England Fights three years ago with a Captain America-themed walkout.
Given his close association with a rare mixed martial arts submission, Meuse might consider digging a few decades deeper into the comic book collection. Perhaps Mr. Twister (DC Comics, 1964) or Texas Twister (Marvel Comics, 1976) would be an apt choice.
Meuse (7-3-1), who will take on Bruce “Pretty Boy” Boyington (19-15) in a professional lightweight bout at “NEF 69: Crossfire” on Saturday, Nov. 14 at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine, made a tornado touch down twice in 2023.
He dispatched Anthony Vasta with the extremely rare twister hold at 2:45 of the second round of their bout at “NEF 52: Zero Hour.” Wildly enough, barely four months earlier, he delivered the same surprise ending in a victory over Joshua Beauparlant.
“It is definitely a rare move to pull off, and I think I’m good at getting it,” Meuse said. “When you do the twister, you’re kind of like showing off, because if you get them with the twister, you probably could have got them with something else.”
Typically applied from the back or side control, the twister is an advanced grappling submission that combines spinal rotation and neck pressure to force an opponent to tap out.
“I tend to be kind of flashy when I fight,” Meuse said. “I tell people that I’m trying to go for the twister or I’m trying to go for something special. I think that can hold me back in some ways, but I tell people that how you win is just as important as winning.”
How stunning was the encore against Vasta? At the highest level, the move has only been accomplished four times in Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) history.
Meuse takes the task of crowd pleasing seriously.
“Say you won off disqualification, like where a guy got kneed in the head and couldn’t continue,” he said. “That’s not really a great victory. People don’t want to win or lose like that.”
He knows that doesn’t mean it is necessarily wise to put the unusual submission front-and-center in his repertoire.
“Miyamoto Musashi, the undefeated samurai duelist, said use a move once or twice, but never use it a third time, because everybody would be expecting it,” Meuse said.
That doesn’t mean he won’t take advantage of the fear factor, such as when he stepped in last minute to fight Paul Teague a month after Vasta.
“I came out to the song ‘The Twist.’ I could tell the way the guy was carrying himself he just didn’t want to get twisted,” Meuse said. “His grappling was not on the level, but he was so locked in, because he had put in the time and was expecting the money.”
Meuse won the bout with his psyched-out foe via heel hook in 18 seconds.
“I kept saying the third twister is coming. Then I came out and did the Imanari roll, and I rolled under and got his legs right away,” Meuse said. “He’s probably in there thinking, ‘Don’t get twisted, don’t get twisted,’ and then it’s like, ‘Oh, what the fuck’s happening?’”
“NEF 69: Crossfire” is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 14 at Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, Maine. Doors open at 6 p.m., with the first fight at 7 p.m. Tickets are available now at www.ticketmaster.com.