BJ Penn's Variety of Rear Naked Chokes

The rear naked choke is a devastating and deadly submission. When applied properly there are only two ways out: tap or go to sleep.

When the rear naked choke is applied by someone like BJ Penn, however, it is even more devastating. First let’s break down the rear naked choke, then let’s look at how BJ Penn utilized it to finish a few of his fights.

The rear naked choke starts with the feet, the fighter would get behind his opponent, or take the back, wrap both his legs around him, then proceeds to put them between the opponent’s legs. When the fighter has his legs between the opponents legs he can effectively control the opponents movement so the opponent can’t turn and face him. There’s another variation to that which is called a body triangle, but for now let’s focus on the hooks.

After the fighter controls the opponents movement with his legs he would also apply a grip commonly called “the seat belt” which works to keep the fighter’s body pressed up against the opponent’s back. The way the seat belt work is the fighter holds his hands together one above the opponent’s shoulder and one below the opposite armpit, like a seatbelt.

The seatbelt along with the hooks will give the fighter a lot of control over the opponent and will allow them to stick the opponent back and will be hard to shake off. Fighters use the seatbelt to stick to their opponent for a short while as they set up a way to get their arms under the chin and choke the opponent.

Here we see BJ Penn tries his famous “arm trap” on Kenny Florian. As Florian puts his hand up and holds BJ’s hand, to prevent him from sinking his hands under his chin, Penn tries to trap Kenny’s arm with his leg.

Penn fails at trapping the arm, but he improvises. The Hawaiian scrapper then starts hitting Florian in the ribs and kidney with his heel to get Kenny to lower his hands and leave Penn’s hands free to finish the job and wrap around the neck. Sure enough, KenFlo can’t take too many of these liver kicks, he lowers his hands and BJ sneaks his hands right around his neck and gets the tap.

Here’s a look at a successful arm trap, Penn is trying to sink his hands under Joe Stevenson’s chin, but Joe keeps holding on to his hand not allowing him to move freely. BJ then pushes his hand down towards his feet and raises his leg up and wrap Stevenson’s arm with his legs neutralizing it and leaving his neck vulnerable. After trapping the arm it’s a matter of time before Penn gets the tap, and all the blood makes it even more slippery and easier to get.

BJ Penn used the arm trap one more time against Jens Pulver. Lil’ Evil realizes he’s in trouble right away and tries to bridge and free his hand, but to no avail. BJ ultimately chokes him and gets the win.

Matt Hughes was caught in a bad position with BJ Penn on his back in UFC 46. Matt was trying to pull BJ’s foot out and remove the hooks so he can turn and land a few punches on Penn, but in doing so he left his neck unprotected. BJ is not one to waste such an opportunity, he snatched the read naked choke right away and made quick work of Hughes with seconds left on round one.

That was a quick look on the many sneaky ways BJ Penn used to sink a rear naked choke in. What's worthy of mention is how fluid and in control of his limbs BJ Penn was. He believed that we should be able to control and move our feet just as well as we can our hands.

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