Leglock specialist Eddie Cummings opened up in a recent interview and laid out his future competition plans. 

The New York-based grappler, a black belt representing the Renzo Gracie Team and long considered one of the original members of the “Danaher Death Squad,” only competed in two superfights in all of 2017. This was compared to Cummings' four superfights and two EBI events in 2016, a total of 12 matches. 

“There's been a lot of injuries this year. I mean I'm always injured. It's just a matter of the severity: the amount of ligaments I'm missing, the pain I feel on a daily basis,” Cummings said in a video interview by Scramble Brand.

“It's stressful sometimes. It takes me 10 minutes to warm up and get out of bed and start training, and that's on a good day. I’ve competed through injuries. Each match I've had I've been fairly injured...

Known for his deadly heel-hook game, Cummings can mostly be found teaching at Renzo Gracie Academies in Brooklyn and Manhattan, New York, during his time out from competing. He explains in the video that he sees himself moving away from tournaments and more to single superfights. 

“I think superfights are more in my future than tournaments just because, you know, the last superfight I did I had a pretty bad injury that I could work around with a single opponent, and gameplan for," he said. "Whereas, for a tournament it's hard to tell who you're going to get, longer matches, a lot more competition time. It's harder to work around severe injuries.” 

The former scientist-turned-professional grappler, who is 34 years old, is focused more on teaching and passing on his knowledge. As he says, he wants to produce “more and more competitors come up in the Renzo Gracie lineage.”

His increased focus on teaching doesn’t mean he is retiring just yet though. 

“I’m not really done competing yet. I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business to take care of, but it's hard getting matches.”