Tap Dance: The Scrambles & Submissions of Charles Oliveira

If you’ve never been choked unconscious by an experienced grappler, it’s a hard sensation to describe. At first there’s panic as your body rejects what’s happening to it and looks for a way out, but then the world slowly darkens and narrows until your eyes open to see your mildly concerned training partners (or if you’re less lucky, the referee) standing over you.

UFC vet Charles Oliveira has finished 15 men by some form of choke in his MMA career, along with three additional wins by submission. 13 of those taps came in the sport’s premier league, a UFC record that he looks to grow November 16th against Jared Gordon in his home city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. While not as decorated in sport jiu jitsu as his countrymen and colleagues Jacare Souza, Demian Maia, or Fabricio Werdum, Do Bronx’s style lends itself to exhilarating finishes in a way unlike any other jiu jitsu fighter. Ahead of his upcoming fight we’ll take a look at some of his finishes and examine what it is about his style that leads to so many submissions.

Built to Choke

Certain body types lend themselves to certain grappling styles. While this is not an absolute rule, it is more common to see long limbed people playing guard and throwing up triangle chokes, whereas shorter, stockier fighters tend to gravitate towards heavy pressuring styles. Flexible grapplers often like to invert and use that flexibility to retain guard, strong grapplers want to have a tight grip on the hips or upper body to shut down movement, and so forth.

In terms of morphology alone it would be difficult to create someone better made to choke people unconscious than Charles Oliveira. Do Bronx sports a 74 inch reach in a division where the average is around 70”, and he’s extremely flexible allowing him to wrap his legs around his opponents’ upper bodies from almost any position creating tremendous counter pressure and squeeze. An example of this is the unusual manner in which Oliveira prefers to finish anaconda chokes. Most fighters will roll to one side of the other and try to throw a leg over their opponent’s body while squeezing to get the finish.

Sport BJJ legend and anaconda choke aficionado Rafa Mendes locks on the strangle while rolling with MMA veteran Jake Shields. Notice how Rafa rolls to the side and starts walking towards Jake’s legs. If Mendes hooks a leg the finish is easy, though in this case it comes anyway just from the squeeze and chest pressure.

Oliveira’s method takes advantage of his flexibility to get to a closed guard finish. While more difficult to lock up, it’s also a much tighter finish.

Against another strong grappler in Hatsu Hioki, Oliveira locks on the anaconda from a front headlock. After his grip is secure Do Bronx walks his opponent up just enough to create space to jump into guard (though in this case his left leg does come over Hioki’s shoulder rather than around his midsection).

Oliveira will attempt to enter this closed guard style position anytime he’s able to get the anaconda grip locked in, as in this example against Jonathan Brookins:

Oliveira rains down blows from top half forcing Brookins to sit up into him. As that occurs Chucky Olives is able to connect his hands and secure his preferred anaconda. Oliveira then slowly passes what remains of Brookins’s guard to mount before falling back for the finish.

Not many fighters could secure that choke from that angle, which is why Oliveira’s above average reach plays such an important role in his finishes: he can lock his hands from almost any position. It’s common in head and arm chokes like the anaconda or Darce for a grappler to first lock his hands palm to palm and use the Nelson-like pressure created to break the opponent’s posture before moving to the ultimate rear naked choke style grip, but Oliveira doesn’t need that intermediate step. He can frequently get his arm all the way under his opponents’s chins to their far armpit right off the bat, giving them much less time to defend.

Fighting against David Teymur Oliveira hurts his opponent with an elbow early in the second round. With Teymur bending over near the fence Oliveira sees an opportunity to enter a front headlock. His left arm shoots all the way to Teymur’s far armpit on the entry making it much easier to secure the choke, drag the Underwear Man to the mat, and get the finish.

Swinging for the Fences

While Oliveira’s physical tools make some of his favorite submissions more viable in the cage than they might be for less rangy and flexible fighters, the main reason he finishes so many of his opponents is that he attacks submissions constantly. Traditional Brazilian jiu jitsu dogma is to secure dominant position before starting to set up submissions, but this is not how Charles Oliveira approaches grappling. Off his back, he’s not looking to tie up his opponent’s arms and get a referee reset or to create space to stand up himself. Instead, Oliveira is always looking for chances to stuff an arm between his legs and attack his favorite submission from the bottom, the triangle choke.

Darren Elkins takes Oliveira for a ride, but as soon as the fight hits the mat Do Bronx is looking for the sub. Oliveira immediately slides to his left to get to closed guard placing his left foot on Elkins’s hip as he does so. Right away Charles gets a hand on the Damage’s right bicep, pushes his arm under Oliveira’s own left leg, and throws up a triangle which would soon turn into a fight ending triangle-armbar.

Oliveira’s not defensively irresponsible off his back, but he never focuses so much on defense that he loses sight of the submission chances his opponents give him during the course of throwing strikes from top position.

In the third round of a scramblefest against Andy Ogle Oliveira finds himself on his back up against the fence. Ogle tries to create some separation to strike as Do Bronx chases angles of attack. As Ogle pulls his right hand back and postures up to strike, Oliveira slides his left leg under Andy’s armpit and locks on a triangle eliciting a quick tap.

Even when he’s not put on his back by an opponent Oliveira is happy to go there if it gives him a shot at a fight ending guillotine. Though the tendency to jump guard looking for the submission has gotten him in trouble against fighters like Ricardo Lamas, Oliveira has enough trust in his bottom game to keep hunting the guillotine finish.

Having hurt Nick Lentz with a knee Oliveira snakes an arm under his chin and locks hands. As soon as his gloves touch he jumps into closed guard and rolls the Carny into mount. Lentz had fought off several earlier guillotine attempts but this one was too deep and eventually Lentz was forced to tap.

Oliveira has an unparalleled nose for the guillotine and will set it up in transition during scrambles.

In the midst of a scramble Miles Jury starts to stand looking to disengage from grappling with Oliveira. As he does so Charles switches from attacking a single leg to looking for the guillotine choke. With his arm already deeply encircling Jury’s neck Oliveira feels confident jumping to guard for the standing tap.

Along with front headlocks and triangles, Oliveira attacks the back with deadly precision.

Defending a single leg against Efrain Escudero, Oliveira is able to get his left arm over his opponent’s back. That point of contact provided enough leverage for Charles to jump and throw his left leg over Efrain’s back securing the hook on the far side. With Escudero’s right arm trapped under Oliveira’s right leg defense is difficult, and Made in Mexico quickly gave up the fight.

And while rear naked chokes, triangles, and front headlock chokes make up the bulk of Oliveira’s submission arsenal, he does have a creative streak and will go for more esoteric submissions when the opportunity is presented to him.

Hunting for a leg lock against Eric Wisely Do Bronx finds the position starting to slip away. Wisely looks to clear his knee from between Oliveira’s thighs to defend the heel hook threats, but in doing so he turns his back a little too far falling into a reverse calf slicer (bear trap).

Putting it All Together

The best advice for watching Charles Oliveira grapple is: never blink. His game is chock full of transitions between submissions and he rarely stops to consolidate a position before diving towards the neck or back of his opponent. His striking is functional with especially nice knees and a solid kicking game, and his wrestling is improving with his reactive double leg being a highlight, but it’s on the ground where he really shines. Jared Gordon is a bit of a step down in competition for the Paulista submission ace, so look for Oliveira to put on a show in his hometown. This writer would be surprised to see the right make it to the bell. Expect Oliveira to run his UFC record submission tally to 14 in the second or third round.