Top Guillotine Artists in Grappling

Dec 26, 2019BJJEEArticles

Guillotine is a one of the easiest techniques for a beginner to get. Many say that the simple mechanic and an intuitive understanding make it an integral part of the game of many beginners but it can also work in high level competition. Of course to work on that level you need to have a mechanical understanding of the finer details.

These competitors have made it their mission to slice of the opponent’s head, take a look:

Through the history the technique had found it’s place in both MMA, BJJ and the submission only scene.

Alexandre Ferreira Cacareco is a 37 year old fighter born in Brazil. In his 24 professional bouts, he had managed to submit as much as 17 opponents and 3 of them by guillotine.

Remember the historic ADCC 2003 grappling match between Cacareco and Comprido which ended with a nasty guillotine?

Cacareco is a 7th degree black belt in Luta Livre and once had the best guillotine in submission grappling.He is an ADCC medalist and UFC vet. You can read more about this here.

Kron Gracie

Kron Gracie is the prodigy of legend Rickson Gracie. Continuing his families legacy and particularly those of his father’s made Kron impose certain standards upon himself. Like many members of the Gracie family, Kron doesn’t believe in strictly sport jiu-jitsu. Kron believes in bjj fundamentals, as such it’s no surprise he’s a master of the guillotine. And here’s the tiny detail that can make the world of a difference:

You can see it applied here.

Roughly a quarter of Kron’s finishers came by way of guillotine. He notably choked Claudio Calasans with it during ADCC in 2011 and Shinya Aoki.

Garry Tonon

Leg lock specialist Garry Tonon is also known for his deadly guillotine. Tonon is a student of another member of our list – Ricardo Almeida, so it isn’t particularly surprising to learn his guillotine is considered his power move. Danaher System might be favoring the choke from the back right now but it doesn’t make the guillotine any less lethal.

If you’d like to see more of his setups we strongly recommend his BJJ Scout video. On the very beginning there’s a great segment dedicated to guillotines.

Josh Hinger

The Andre Galvao black belt, Josh Hinger is a 3x No Gi world champion and this year snapped up the bronze medal at ADCC. He is famous for his ‘Hingertine’ which he sets up from all positions. It is a type of arm in guillotine.

Bill Cooper

Bill “The Grill” Cooper takes the guillotine to a whole another level. Bill Cooper is a brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Ricardo “Franjinha” Miller and a black belt in judo. He’s also tried his hand at MMA, his professional record stands at 2-1 – both wins were by way of submission. Cooper notably made a comeback recently and made it to the finals of EBI 7. He’s also the man behind the fastest submission choke out in grappling history. He has a specific technique he calls his 7-year old guillotine choke but sadly there’s no video around. This is a very sneaky guillotine, in this version your hands are palm to palm and you roll them up under the opponents chin for the choke.

Alistair Overeem

Overeem is enjoying a fruitful and long career as an MMA fighter. Dutch born kickboxer has a record that stands at 41 wins and 14 losses. The UFC heavyweight title challenger has utilized the guillotine plenty of times – of his 19 submissions as much as 8 came by way of guillotine.

This might surprise the newbie MMA and BJJ fan but Overeem’s guillotine choke is legendary. He won the European trials of ADCC 10 years ago submitting everybody by guillotine. In Pride he submitted Vitor Belfort, Igor Vovchanchyn and James Thompson by Guillotine choke…

Overeem submitting Fedor (in practice) with a Guillotine

Perhaps he can add another one in a spectacular fashion at UFC 203 where he’s set to fight current heavyweight champ Stipe Miocic.

Chris Brennan

Chris also goes by “The Westside Strangler”. He is a bjj black belt and an MMA fighter who has competed in a variety of promotions, he’s done it all: UFC, Pride, King of the Cage, Shooto… He’s also one of the 18 lucky enough to have competed at ADCC 2005 77kg division. While his game is rounded he’s amounted 3 guillotine submissions in his MMA career only. Brennan is widely known as King of Kimura and 10-finger guillotines – a particularly nasty variation.

Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Nogueira

Nogueira is another MMA legend famous for utilizing this move. The first man to hold championship belts in both Pride and the UFC came to that landmark by his guillotine submission of Tim Sylvia.

Uriah Faber

Faber is an MMA bantamweight currently active in the UFC. He is oe of MMA’s veterans establishing that there is a market for lover weight classes. Faber is a NCAA wrestler. With his excellent base in wrestling, he later started Brazilian jiu-jitsu and quickly gained a brown belt under Fábio “Pateta” Prado, fifth degree black belt under Carlson Gracie Jr..

Jake Shields

A hanger on of the Danaher crowd – Jake Shields is no stranger to the guillotine. Self professed American Jiu-Jitsu expert, MMA fighter and wrestler specializes in typical wrestler takedown and, wait for it – guillotine. This technique has served him especially well in MMA – he submitted Robbie Lawler with it at Strikeforce. Along with Nick Thompson and Ray Steinbeiss. That totals to a quarter of his submissions. Of course Shields also happen to be on the otherside of that equation – back in 2006 Marcelo Garcia guillotined him into submission at PSL: X-Mission.

Ricardo Almeida

Almeida is a Renzo Gracie black belt and a former UFC competitor. He is also the co-instructor of Garry Tonon. He was one of the MMA fighters through the 2000s and he’s placed at most prestigious grappling tournaments around the world. Almeida, nicknamed cachorrao aka big dog has a history of solving matches with guillotine. Back in 2003 he was in a fight for a Pancrase title against Nate Marquardt. The Marquardt surrendered but Almeida dragged his feet a bit waiting to release the sub leading to some controversy. He’s been retired for a while now but his guillotine legacy lives through his master as well as his students. Another famous opponent who succumbed to his guillotine? Josh Barnett. Back at ADCC in 2000.

You can watch him make his magic here against Rob Yundt:

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v334786592fRq7CMB

Alexandre Franca Nogueira

Pequeno Nogueira has a slightly different background from others. He is a Former Luta Livre fighter as well as an MMA veteran. He is known for having held the record for longest title reign in any MMA organizations – he was Shooto Lightweight Champ for 6 years, 8 months and 2 days. He has a total of 8 of his 18 victories in MMA by way of guillotine. Some even refer to him as the Guillotine king.

Renzo Gracie

Brazilian born Renzo has a no-nonsense approach to everything he does. Outstanding competitor turned amazing coach is also a guillotine specialist. Here’s one of Renzo’s record finishers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKnOX2tkMps

In less than 10 seconds the opponent submits. Here’s Renzo teaching the guillotine. Notably Renzo recommends using the 5 five finger grip often referred to as the monkey grip and trying to get your fist as close to the shoulder as possible.

Renzo Gracie is quoted saying this is one of the easiest ways to finish the opponent in an MMA fight.

Marcelo Garcia

Marcelinho is the ultimate guillotine legend. He managed to succumb plenty of other competitors on this list with his lethal technique.

Garcia has conquered many opponents with his technique. Among them are: Victor Estima, Kron Gracie, Mike Fowler, George Sotiropoulos, Keita Nakamura, Jake Shields, Rodney Ellis, Davis Heart and others.