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In Honor of Ben Simmons, Here Are Five of the Best MMA Chokes of All Time

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 31st, 2019 · 11:31 AM EDT

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I haven’t done an MMA post in a long time. I think the last one was actually about Eddie Alvarez and his comeback victory over Eduard Folayang back in August.

But we’ve got a fantastic card this weekend at UFC 244, headlined by Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal, plus the Ben Simmons choke hold on Karl-Anthony Towns last night, so in honor of Simmons I figured I’d use that as an excuse to share five of my favorite UFC chokes of all time, in no particular order:

Aleksei Oleinik vs. Junior Albini

Nickname: The Boa Constrictor

Oleineik is 42 years old and still fighting. Last year, he got Junior Albini with an “Ezekiel choke,” which originated in Judo but was perfected by a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy named Ezequiel Paraguassú. Oleinik has successfully used this choke a couple of times from the bottom in MMA fights, which is incredibly hard to do since Jiu-Jitsu practitioners apply this technique using their gi for leverage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVk5nVr_T8U

 

Jon Jones vs. Lyoto Machida

This one one of Jones’ earlier title defenses, a fight where Machida did a nice job of countering leg kicks with well-timed shots, doing some first round damage.

In the second round, Jones faked a kick, threw a left, and then was able to sub Machida with a standing guillotine:

 

Miesha Tate vs. Holly Holm

This was Holly’s first fight after knocking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193.

Holm had done a decent job of fighting on the feet until the 5th round, when Tate was able to score a takedown and convert on a rear naked choke that won her the belt. Great fight here, one of the better title fights in women’s MMA dating back a few years now:

 

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg 2

This is still considered one of the best UFC fights and one of the best comebacks of all time.

Hughes broke a rear-naked choke, got up, and somehow carried Trigg all the way across the octagon before slamming him to the mat and getting the sub via his own RNC:

Ovince St. Preux vs. Yushin Okami

Von Flue choke.

You basically just use your left shoulder to squeeze down on the opponent from side control. OSP has won four fights with this choke, which is ridiculous:

UFC 244 picks:

• Nate Diaz over Jorge Masvidal (split decision)
• Kelvin Gastelum over Darren Till (TKO)
• Wonderboy over Vicente Luque (unanimous decision)
• Derrick Lewis over Blagoy Ivanov (TKO)
• Gregor Gillespie over Kevin Lee (sub)