The power of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was on display at UFC 164 even though there was only two submissions on the whole card. Ironically, they came in the first and last fights of the night. In the first fight of the night, Magnus Cebenblad too out Jared Hamman in under a minute with a guillotine choke. It was the first submission loss of Hamman’s career, and it was the fastest that he had been finished. For Cebenblad, it was his first win in the Octagon all with the power of BJJ.
Of course the biggest win of the night came in the main event when Anthony Pettis used an armbar to finish off Benson Henderson. Ahead of their lightweight title rematch many people had talked about how close, amazing, and long their first fight was up until the kick off the cage, and that kick did not even knock out Henderson. All it took to win the fight this time was a simple armbar from guard, and it all came in the first round. While Pettis is known for some amazing knockout finishes, at the end of the day he has just as many submission wins as knockout wins.
Ahead of their title fight, Henderson was awarded his black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and while Pettis is not a certain level in the martial art form he went to train in Brazil in BJJ before this bout. Obviously, the work paid off in spades in the form on a brand new title belt. In the words of Henderson, a lot of people may have not seen what went of, but what Pettis did in the armbar was some very high level techniques. The crowd was not sure of what went on which shows that the education of BJJ needs to continue, because if a lot more champions see that they can end fights that quick then this may be a lot more commonplace in the Octagon.