INGLEWOOD, Calif. – [autotag]AJ Agazarm[/autotag] got what he wanted.
Agazarm, a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, picked up a submission win in his fourth professional fight on Saturday at Bellator 238. Agazarm (3-1 MMA, 3-1 BMMA) submitted Adel Altamimi with a triangle-choke after a back-and-forth battle that dragged into the third round at The Forum.
Although Agazarm got the tap, he didn’t do it with the textbook triangle MMA fans are used to seeing inside the cage.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment my whole life,” Agazarm said in his post-fight scrum. “That’s called the ‘Agazarm,’ and that’s my patented move.
“I learned it from my jiu-jitsu professor a long time ago and just kind of made it my own. You’ve seen that submission finish in Polaris like three or four times. Actually, funny enough, I just shared it on my Facebook like three days ago, so it was cool to finally get that.
“It’s a bait move, so you go for the arm bar, and you trick him into falling for the triangle, and he fell right for it. It’s not really your traditional triangle. It’s a bit of a variation, so I was stoked on that one.”
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It appeared Altamimi did a light tap before the referee called off the fight. Yet, Altamimi kept on engaging in the grappling exchange a second after the contest was waived off. Some people on social media said Agazarm’s opponent didn’t really tap.
The Nick Diaz Army fighter assures he got the clean submission win and says he “could’ve kept it longer” if needed.
“It was as tight as tight can get without his head popping off,” Agazarm said.
Regardless of what people think of the finish, Agazarm is now on a three-fight winning streak after losing his professional MMA debut in early 2019. Agazarm is happy with his performance but thinks there’s a lot to work on, calling himself a “white belt with three stripes” in MMA.
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