Gifs by BE reader Grappo.
Rani Yahya secured a 65 second rear naked choke of Eddie Wineland at WEC 40 while showcasing his Brazilian jiu-jitsu roots and smart set-ups for positional advances. We first see Rani flick out a long distance jab and keep his head low in a style very reminiscent of boxers looking to score against bigger, stronger opponents – which Eddie is in this match. Eddie sees the jab coming from a long way off and slips it nicely, while pivoting over his front foot and stepping with his back foot. Rani sees that and begins a similar motion to the jab, but at the same time Eddie anticipates another jab and looks to pop Rani in the face with a jab of his own, Rani has sold the fake jab with a slight hitch in a shot to secure a single leg on Eddie’s front foot. Rani gets both hands on the back of the knee and begins to drive Eddie down to the mat away from his hopping back foot. Eddie is focused on head/neck control and despite his hopping, cannot stop the takedown.
Due to balance and arm strength, Eddie is able to keep his body off the ground. However, Rani drives him back into the fence and remains bent over to keep Eddie’s balance off-kilter. They remain like this for three to four seconds, as both men struggle for control of the fight.
Eddie has reached over with his farside hand to try and break Rani’s control of his leg from a different angle. Rani reacts by straightening his legs momentarily and then in a motion very similar to wrestling’s Granby roll, Rani folds his right leg underneath him and rolls over his right shoulder. With good instincts, Eddie manages to avoid being caught in side control or with both legs under Rani’s control. Eddie begins to scramble to his feet, but turns his back while Rani has one hand around Eddie’s waist. Rani immediately goes for the waist lock and matches Eddie’s scramble to the fence:
Rani uses his free hand to start going for a seatbelt grip – as per standard BJJ doctrine – while standing with Eddie and getting a standing back hook in. At this point, Eddie wants to get his backside onto the fence and fight Rani off in the clinch, but Rani overbalances him by securing the seatbelt and committing to the single back hook by tipping himself over. Eddie lets go from fighting the seat belt grip and puts his hands out to prevent another fall to the ground. We skip over a few seconds where Eddie tries to prevent Rani from sinking a second hook in and half-heartedly grip fighting for control of his own neck.
Rani has both hooks in and has managed to progress the seatbelt grip into a rear naked choke set-up. Although he’s hanging off Eddie’s back, the arm is tight across Eddie’s neck and Eddie’s hands are down on the mat trying to keep himself upright while possibly shucking Rani off with gravity’s assistance. The hooks and grips Rani has prevents that and Eddie has truly lost the grip fighting battle bit by bit at this point. His insistence on staying upright means that Rani has all the time he needs to finish cinching the rear naked choke. This is good progression from back control to a submission as taught in many Brazilian jiu jitsu classes. Due to his skill and tenacity in bringing the fight to the ground, Rani was able to quickly seize advantage of the openings Eddie’s slips in technique created and get the lightning quick submission at the 1:05 minute mark.
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