Scotland’s Jack Foote secured his third win via rear naked choke out of as many professional fights last weekend in the co-main event of Cage Warriors 205.
“The Foote Soldier” began his amateur MMA career in 2022 and compiled a 6-3 record, with four of those victories coming via submission. He closed out his amateur days with back-to-back wins with Budo Fighting Championship in 2024 before making the jump to Cage Warriors for his pro debut the following year.
Foote met fellow debutant Aaron Towns at Cage Warriors 187 and ended things via rear naked choke in the second round. The 25-year-old has managed to replicate that formula in all three of his pro fights, as Brennan Gait and Eoin McDonald were also forced to tap to the same submission during the second frame and give Foote a 3-0 start to his pro career.
While it’s obvious from his record that Foote is a finishing threat on the mat, he creates his chances for those grappling exchanges by being aggressive on the feet. He loves to immediately open fights with a rear high kick from his natural southpaw stance, and he’ll also look to stomp on an opponent’s knee and chip away at the lead leg to get them moving backwards.
Foote will occasionally switch stances off of his kicks and does a good job of working in combination when he does open up with punches, although he does have a tendency to get a bit wild and leave his chin up in the air and was briefly dropped in his pro debut after getting countered by Towns.
The 25-year-old loves to establish head control during clinch exchanges and immediately try to land knees to the head, which is how he managed to break McDonald’s nose in his most recent outing. If he ends up with his back to the fence during a clinch, he also excels at throwing his opponents from this position and will quickly try to take their back once they hit the mat.
“The Foote Soldier” showed off good scrambling ability and submission defense in his fight with Gait, and he’ll always look to threaten submissions of his own from top and bottom position while also throwing nasty elbows from either spot. As his pro record indicates, he’s obviously a massive threat to end things if he gets on an opponent’s back, and against McDonald he used his legs to tie up one of the Irishman’s arms to set up the rear naked choke and omit the need to establish traditional hooks.
Foote’s aggression on the feet makes him exciting to watch, but I’d like to see him use it in a bit more of a calculated manner and try to take things to the ground more quickly. He’s obviously still got time to further develop that aspect of his game, and his submission skills make him a prospect worth keeping an eye on in the always-deep bantamweight division.
