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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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: