Recently Tandfonline.com went through the arduous process of finding the statistics of choke submission rates in the UFC. This data was collected from UFC 1 in 1993 up until October 2020. With this said, there are literally tens of years of numbers that have been poured into this analysis. So, for those fans of MMA and UFC who are into number crunching then this will appeal to you. There are some interesting findings and some more obvious details that have been found from the data. Please note, this is only looking at chokes and doesn’t include other submissions such as armbars or joint locks.
Table of Contents
The Rear Naked Choke is king, whilst Guillotines are good too
Firstly, there have been 913 successful choke submissions during this period. By far, the king of chokes was the Rear Naked Choke which is not surprising at all. This contributed to 48.96% of total submissions. With this said, the RNC truly is the best submission in terms of ending fights. Secondly, the next biggest submission was the Guillotine which made up roughly 23% of subs.
This means that roughly 70% of UFC submissions were comprised of Rear Naked Choke’s and Guilltotines. Interestingly, the third most common submission was the Triangle choke that made up nearly 10% of total submissions. Put another way, the top 3 common submissions made up 80% of the total submissions in the octagon.
Is it even worth learning the more obscure chokes?
This means that the vast majority of other choke submissions aren’t very common or successful at all. For instance, there have been a total of 5 North South chokes in UFC history…when you think of it that way, it’s barely worth thinking about in the big scheme of things. Does this mean that it’s worth learning this choke when training for UFC? That’s up to the individual, but from a general viewpoint, it doesn’t look worth pursuing.
Lower on the list were lapel chokes that had been completed twice in UFC history. This is because in the earlier days, gi’s were legal. Royce Gracie in particular used the gi to choke some of his opponent’s to gain victory. This means that although the lapel chokes are minimal, they would be far higher on the list if fighting in the gi was still allowed.
Chokes are far more successful when compared to joint locks
Looking at other areas of the data, it claimed that 20.25% of fights ended in submission and that 76.38% of those submissions were chokes. Again, viewing this from a general stance – there’s no denying that chokes end fights with far greater success when compared to joint locks. Put another way, 15.47% of total fights were ended by chokes. This proves that if you’re serious about MMA – then learning how to choke people is vital.
The data also shows that if you want to fight in the UFC, then learning general submissions is also vital. As numbers go, 20.25% is huge which means if you had 5 fights, on average one would be won by submission. These days it’s becoming rarer to see fighters who don’t use BJJ in fighting – especially away from the heavyweight categories.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, if you’re looking at the data from a brutal view then learning back takes and Rear Naked Chokes seems the way to go. Similarly, it is ideal to deploy a good front-headlock game that specifically focuses on Guillotine chokes. If you can master these two chokes then you will significantly improve your chances of getting a victory by choking in the cage. Further, if you’re able to add Triangle’s to your attack then the statistics will be even more in your favor.
