It shouldn't be any surprise that I'm doing a Judo Chop on Cole Miller's inverted triangle plus kimura submission win over Dan Lauzon at UFC 108. This move is exactly why the Judo Chop was invented!

The fight was a very good one, evenly matched with several back and forth swings of the pendulum for such a short fight. Initially Miller scored with his aggression and reach but then Lauzon's punching power quickly reversed their fortunes. But when Lauzon took Miller down, he found that Miller's jiu jitsu is a force to be reckoned with, even from a very disadvantageous position.

We've talked about the inverted triangle in a previous Judo Chop covering Toby Imada's famous tap out of Jorge Masvidal:

The thing to understand is that the triangle choke is an artery choke. It's not Imada's shin calf cutting off Masvidal's windpipe that causes Jorge to pass out. Instead its a blood choke that uses Jorge's own left shoulder and Imada's left thigh to each compress a carotid artery which prevents oxygen reaching the brain.

There's a whole discussion I could get into about what exactly is an inverted triangle since Renzo Gracie for example uses the term to describe a completely different move in which you switch the choking leg in a regular triangle.

You can also see Ryan Hall landing an inverted triangle in a no-gi grappling competition in a slightly different position here. It's also not to be confused with the triangle from inverted guard which is beautifully explained here.

And we've talked about a kimura being applied while using the legs to control the opponent's head, in Gray Maynard's near tap out of Roger Huerta with a kimura plus head scissors.

What Miller did was basically a combination of Imada and Maynard's moves.

Let's look at how he did it in the full entry.

Gif via Fightlinker.

On the left we see Miller seemingly working for an armbar while Lauzon has him stacked face down. Miller has control of Lauzon's left wrist and uses it to isolate the left arm. But instead of going for an arm bar, Miller wraps his legs around Lauzon's head and right shoulder, establishing a figure four without using his hands at all.

This is why long, lanky opponents are so dangerous! Once Miller has Lauzon's head and right arm trapped between his legs and the figure four cinched pretty tight, he rolls onto his back, dragging Lauzon with him.

Only at this point does he switch his grip on Lauzon's left wrist and move to a kimura. Note how he releases Lauzon's arm and switches the placement of his hands such that his right hand gripped Lauzon's wrist and his left hand gripped his own right wrist after threading through the crook of Lauzon's arm.

The photo on the right illustrates Miller applying the kimura grip and torquing Lauzon's arm back.

At this point all of Lauzon's options were bad ones. His right arm is trapped by Miller's triangle and is cutting off the blood-rich oxygen flowing to his brain. His left arm is being twisted with the possibility of serious injury being sustained to his shoulder.

Lauzon made the wise choice of tapping.

According to Lauzon's twitter feed, it was the choke, not the kimura that forced him out: "nope. It was the choke."