How To Attack Triangles In MMA With Paul Craig

Paul Craig Background

I'm a sucker for a unique fighter. I love tight technicians and athletic freaks as much as the fighting fan, but the fighters I really root for are those who are more art rather than martial. The fighters that are kind of weird and win in spite of their athleticism rather than because of it. I generally like being surprised more than I enjoy watching a master of their craft do what they’re supposed to do. It’s for all of those reasons that I love Paul Craig.

Craig was not a martial arts prodigy. He didn't even start practicing MMA and Brazilian jiu-jitsu until he was an adult. After he did, he went undefeated across twelve professional and amateur fights before getting signed to the UFC. Since then, he's pulled off miraculous upsets and spectacular submissions. Now, he holds the record for the most triangle choke finishes in the UFC.

Craig is scheduled to fight another submission specialist this Saturday, Brendan Allen. Ahead of that fight, I wanted to examine Craig's closed guard game and how he keeps getting away with triangle choking people. Before we do that, let's review what makes a good triangle choke so we can examine why Craig is able to achieve the submission.

A Quick Primer On Triangle Chokes

The triangle choke is one of my favorite submissions in all of grappling. Not only does it put your strongest muscles in position to choke your opponent, but it's also extremely versatile.

You can attack triangles from the top and bottom, behind your opponent and side on, and every way you attack them, you have a variety of finishing options. You can finish with the choke, mangle the trapped arm, and, if you’re really feeling frisky, you can wrist lock your opponent from the position. For the sake of brevity, we'll be focusing on triangle chokes from closed guard.

Right about now you might be asking yourself, what makes a good triangle choke?

There are three components to every submission. Those are the:

• Lock - How are your limbs closed onto the limb you're attacking?

• Anchor - How are you connected to the limb you're attacking?

• Angle - What direction are you attacking the limb from?

Nate Diaz's finish of Kurt Pellegrino below is a textbook example of a picture-perfect triangle choke. Check out the image below to see the perfect representation of the lock, anchor, and angle of triangle chokes.

Broadly speaking, there are two ways to get to the triangle choke from full guard. You can either pull one arm in as you clear the other away with grips on one or both of the wrists. Or, you can connect yourself to one of your opponent’s arm with an over or under hooks to clear the other one arm before locking your legs for the triangle.

Both broad different options require leg dexterity and timing to be able to move your legs into choking position when you have the space to do so. Timing becomes even more relevant in MMA fights because the distance required to set up triangle chokes often means your opponent has space to hit you. Punching does leave arms extended and opens you up to be triangle choked. We’ll see how Craig dances with this specific type of danger in the sequences below. Now let's move on to Craig's game, and how it has given him so many triangle chokes.

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