A Case Study On Strangling From UFC 310

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On a week with four major professional grappling events the most exciting grappling came from UFC 310. Today we’re going to review some finishing details for rear naked chokes and arm bars, trips off of the cage, and wonderful scrambling. Let’s get into it.

UFC 310 over delivered. From top to bottom there was solid action on the floor and the feet. There was one anomaly though.

Not only did Shavkat Rakhmononv not get a finish, but, his opponent Ian Garry found himself inches away from choking Rakhmonov unconscious. Let’s start there.

Ian Garry is a striker first and foremost. He doesn’t have the most firepower, but he has the timing and accuracy to stifle almost everyone.

Garry became the first man that Rakhmonov never finished. His stock rose in my book and many others’. Still he did show one giatn hole in his game. His lack of ability to finish on the back.

Normally I wouldn’t start a write up being so critical. But Garry has literally found himself here in back to back fights and not finished either submission.

What should he have done? Let’s look at UFC 310’s headliner, Alexandre Pantoja, and how he finished Kai Asakura.

Everything about Pantoja’s positioning was tight. His ear was glued to Asakura’s head, obscuring his support hand and keeping Asakura’s spine locked in place.

Garry, on the otherhand, was so high up on Rakhmonov and Page that his head was hardly involved in the choke at all. Both men had space to breathe and open Garry’s hands. Let’s look at exactly what I mean.

1. Pantoja’s head is close. His chin is obscuring the choking hand while the supporting elbow is wedged behind Asakura’s back.

2. Garry’s head is high so Rakhmonov has space to breathe and open the grip.

3. Garry’s head is high with the support hand on Rakhmonov’s head instead of behind the neck. All Rakhmonov has to do is pull the support hand down and he can get out.

I know Garry’s arm is not under the chin in these images. That’s not the point here.

You can choke your opponent through their chin, but, you cannot choke anyone if you cannot maintain the position.

Before we move on let’s take a look at how Pantoja actually got to his spot. His fence wrestling and back takes were both technical and acrobatic.

These two would stay on the fence for about a minute before Pantoja dragged Asakura to floor with another trip.

How can you not love Pantoja? He’s fast, aggressive, and he jumps on every opportunity.

This win firmly cements Pantoja behind Demetrious Johnson as the UFC’s second best flyweight ever. Accordingly, Pantoja used his mic time to call Johnson out of retirement for one final fight. Johnson took to Twitter to reiterate his retirement status.

There’s no one left for Pantoja at 125 except Kyoji Horiguchi but they’re training partners and he fights in Rizin. It’s about time Pantoja moved up to 135.

Now let’s look at a fight that was surprisingly one of the most entertaining of the whole evening.

One of the top stories going into UFC 310 was the perceived unfair placement of Movsar Evloev and Aljamain Sterling. Sterling is a former bantamweight champion who recently moved up to featherweight. Evloev is an undefeated featherweight with wins over Arnold Allen and Diego Lopes, among others.

The problem? They wrestle. A lot. And many fans argued on behalf of the UFC to say that this fight would be too boring to be on the pay-per-view.

They were wrong.

Sterling and Evloev’s fight was a wonderful show of high level scrambling and counter wrestling. Let’s look a few key exchanges from the fight.

Sterling kept going back to lifting Evloev for big slams. Unfortunately that just gave Evloev the space to scramble.

Like Pantoja, Evloev looked excellent tripping his opponent off of the cage.

What stands out from this fight to me is Sterling’s one and done wrestling. He put a lot of effort into big mat returns but didn’t follow with anything. They looked great, but all Evloev had to do was stay loose and he could beat him to the second and third spots.

Evloev should move right into title contention with this win. Sterling shouldn’t lose much stock either. Losing a tight decision to an undefeated opponent ranked #5 in the world can only mean you belong there.

We’re coming up on the end of the year. That means combat sports is slowing to a snail’s pace soon. Before we leave, there was one more beautiful submission finish from UFC 310. Chase Hooper arm barred Clay Guida.