Issue 139
March 2016
A slick triangle choke satisfied Brian Ortega’s appetite for submissions at UFC 195.
Everything was going to plan for grappling ace Brian Ortega after five minutes of action at UFC 195. He might have lost the first round to Diego Brandao, but it was all part of a strategy to take the Brazilian into deep water and strike once his energy had been sapped. But the TUF 14 featherweight winner continued his standup assault in the second stanza and – down 20-18 on most scorecards – Ortega had to act fast in the final frame. His coach, Rener Gracie, asked: “Are you ready for a takedown or what?”
He was. When it mattered most, the undefeated Black House product dug deep into his bottomless box of jiu-jitsu tricks to put an emphatic period on the fight. Showing off a slice of chain-submission brilliance, the 24-year-old sunk in a deep anaconda choke on the feet, which forced his opponent to drop to the mat to defend.
Welcome to Ortega’s world. He moved to full mount, switched to a guillotine choke and then a triangle, just as Brandao began to sneak his head out of his grip.
Awesome foursome: four of Ortega’s five submission wins have come by way of triangle choke.
“I knew he was going to come in aggressive, I knew he was a good fighter, I knew he was trying to get very emotional and come in strong, so I tried to just stick and move for the first two rounds and in the third round turn it up like we always do and go for that finish,” Ortega recalls.
“Pretty much every time I train with the Gracie brothers, they’re like blankets over me,” he adds. “So I did the same thing and it’s something we train at the gym every time. We go from choke to choke to choke to choke. You think you’re out, but you’re not.”
Quotes
Can’t stand the heat
“I feel it was an unexpected choke that I threw on him from the standup. He tried to go to the ground to defend it, but it was out of the frying pan and into the fire.”
UFC dream
“That finish was awesome. It’s something I’ve always done in the gym growing up as a kid. To successfully do it in the Octagon was a dream come true.”
What’s in a name?
“They call me ‘T City’ for a reason: Triangle City.”
