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Ariel Sexton vs. Anvar Alizhanov
One FC 24 “Dynasty of Champions”
Dec. 19 | Beijing
James Goyder: When Anvar Alizhanov knocked Ariel Sexton down early in the opening round at One FC 24, he decided to try his luck in the guard of the BJJ black belt. It proved a disastrous decision for the Dagestani who was instantly swept and then subjected to three minutes of total domination, culminating in an unorthodox and unusual submission.

Sexton transitioned from side control to take his opponent's back and locked in a body triangle, but then give up the position to move into mount. After some extensive ground-and-pound he seemed to be going for an armbar, then instead locked in a reverse triangle and with his opponent’s head trapped, twisted Alizhanov‘s left arm back into a nasty-looking keylock which used the shoulder it was trapped against for additional leverage. The tap was almost instantaneous. Given his complete control on the ground Sexton could probably have finished this fight any way he wanted but the Costa Rican did it with a submission which you don’t see every year. Jordan Breen: Naturally, this submission calls to mind the sassy submission that Luke Rockhold pulled off on Tim Boetsch earlier this year, and undeniably, that was of a higher calibre. But, I still adore the technical flexibility that Sexton shows in pulling this bad boy off at One FC's first-ever card in mainland China.

Alizhanov waits for a good moment to try to escape from full mount, as Sexton tries to crawl his mount higher, but he can't get free when he goes belly down. He does manage to pull his right arm free, unfortunately, doing so puts Sexton in position for the reverse triangle. You can see Sexton thinking about going over the back from the armbar, then realizing that a reverse triangle from there is a) easier and b) much cooler. From there, he looks to work an armbar in to put matters to rest officially, but he can't quite secure it. Instead, the reverse triangle gives him the perfect angle to attack Alizhanov's left arm and keylock it while the limb was stuck in the triangle, between Sexton's thigh and Alizhanov's head. The angle and bend are nasty as hell, forcing an instant tap.

This is a great submission because it illustrates the benefit of waiting for your opponent to show his hand, then capitalizing however you can. Sexton doesn't rush any submissions, he shows an offensive look, waits for Alizhanov to defend, then finds one way to move him closer to checkmate. Even when he gets the reverse triangle, he realizes that the traditional armbar is more defensible than an awkward keylock, capitalizing on the strange position. It's a reminder that on the ground, staying patient can sometimes get you to your goal the fastest.

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