What is the Agazarm Choke?

What exactly is the Agazarm Choke and how does it work?

The practice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is evolving every day. New submissions, escapes and manoeuvers are being tried every day but few of those new (or altered) submissions are ever used on the highest level … until now.

Earlier this year we saw the first-ever Agazarm Choke used in an MMA bout, by none other than it’s creator, AJ Agazarm. He finished his opponent, Adel Altamimi, using the move.

"“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” Agazarm said in his post-fight interview. “That’s called the ‘Agazarm,’ and that’s my patented move. It’s a bait move, so you go for the armbar, and you trick him into falling for the triangle, and he fell right for it. It’s not really your traditional triangle. It’s a bit of a variation, so I was stoked on that one.”"

The move has been used in grabbling, as seen below, but never before in mixed martial arts.

Here’s how it works

The choke can oftentimes be misclassified as a triangle or an armbar, which was how the official submission was read at Bellator 238. But it’s the part of the body being used to choke the opponent which is the key difference.

The Agazarm Choke uses your own heel to choke your opponent. It’s set up with a trap and is pressed against your opponent’s carotid artery and compressed via his or her arm to cut off blood circulation to the brain.

Though this is just the first to ever be used, it probably won’t be the last.

Agazarm currently fights under the Bellator banner and does not have a fight scheduled at press time.

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