Rodrigo Marello is a multiple-time BJJ world champion who competes at ONE Championship. And, at ONE 161, he scored the fastest win in ONE Submission Grappling history!

Marello immediatelly pulled guard against his opponent, Ruslan Bagdasarian. Then, once he got close enough, he established a De La Riva Guard and entangled Bagdasarian’s legs.
From there, instead of going for a sweep or a transition, Marello went immediately for the submission. He angled out his body enough to apply a Straight Ankle Lock with success… And to make Bagdasarian tap in pain.

 

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This historic performance earned Marello a $50,000 bonus as well.
He explained his game plan in a post-fight interview:

I couldn’t feel better, man. I worked so hard for this.
This submission I’ve been doing since I was blue belt. Like, 8 years sharpening the same position. It saved my life many times and today wasn’t different.

I knew that he [Bagdasarian] is really good at takedowns. And to be honest, I’m still improving my takedown game. So the plan was to pull guard.
This is a foot lock that I do from De La Riva Guard, and I’m so confident [when] I get it. Once I got it tight, I was sure my Jiu-Jitsu was going to work.

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