Cyborg with his knee on the neck.
Every BJJ athlete enters a tournament wanting to win and not hurt anybody. But sometimes a move required to win can seem crude, or too violent. The IBJJF makes restrictions for some belts and age groups, but generally, after the brown belt, most torsions and chokes are legal.
One example is Roberto Cyborg’s choke applied with a knee to his opponent’s jugular in 2010. Back then, Cyborg defended the delicacy of the technique. “I’ve been doing this position for a long time,” he said. “I start with my knee on the belly to then change to the neck, to apply the choke or force my opponent to give me his arm. In truth, there’s nothing crude about the move. Like in every choke technique, you apply pressure to get your opponent to surrender, but in this case I use my knee on the jugular. All I can say is that it’s a lot of pressure.”
