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Jordan Leavitt Aims to Be the First UFC Fighter to Score Two Inverted Triangle Chokes

In his latest fight, Jordan Leavitt became the first athlete in Ultimate Fighting Championship history to finish a fight with an inverted triangle choke. At UFC Fight Night 199, Leavitt (9-1, 2-1 UFC) locked horns with Matt Sayles and seized the moment to lock in the submission at the 2:05 mark of Round 2. While mixed martial arts and grappling fans praised the finish, “The Monkey King” didn’t receive “Performance of the Night” honors on that occasion. In an interview before his upcoming assignment against Trey Ogden at UFC on ESPN 34, Leavitt recalled how the highlight-reel choke came to fruition.

“A year ago, I mostly thought it was a fake move, like ‘I’m OK, no one good is going to get caught in this move,’” Leavitt said. “Then I worked with my coach Neil Melanson, and he was like, ‘This is a really legit move.’ I mostly believed him, but I was like, ‘OK, it’s a real move, but it’s not my move.’ I was training with my teammate [Sherrard Blackledge], and he choked me unconscious in it, and I was like, ‘There might be something there.’ The week before my Sayles fight, I was drilling that a lot just for fun, I was hitting my teammate and I’m like, ‘I can hit this move, I’m confident enough to force this move,’ because I could scramble out of it.”

Ultimately, things played out as Leavitt expected, and he hit the choke. That peculiar submission has now become a sort of signature move for “The Monkey King,” who is hoping to score at least one more finish like that.

“When it happened in my fight, it was kind of funny to me because I was like, ‘Well, I haven’t shown that before,’” he said. “My coaches are all like, ‘What the heck was that? We never drilled that backstage.’ That was kind of fun. It’s a really good attack to use when people are hesitant to engage in grappling like if they’re trying to just hold on or frame. Most people don’t want to grapple me, they’re trying to minimize the grappling exchanges. When Matt went to let go of me, I’m like, ‘Fine, perfect,’ and I got the inverted triangle. I feel like, since he was not willing to grapple me, that’s what kind of got him with that triangle. It’s a nice little thing I’ve been working on. Now, it’s like my thing. It’d be cool to be the first person to get two of them in the UFC.”

Leavitt also discussed his last-minute adjustments in his training camp following Victor Martinez’s withdrawal, shared some updates on his 2022 goals, talked about his latest sparring sessions, and more.



Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.

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