Paddy Pimblett needed less than a minute to end Benoit Saint-Denis‘s night at UFC 329, submitting the French contender with one of the more technically creative chokes seen on a UFC main card in recent memory.
The co-main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas was billed as England versus France, and for just over 50 seconds, it delivered on the billing. Saint-Denis, a former French paratrooper who had rattled off four consecutive stoppages heading into the bout, came forward immediately, backing Pimblett up with a head kick and asserting his physicality early. But a takedown attempt changed everything.
As BSD went in, Pimblett caught him in a guillotine and began to transition. What followed was a rapid-fire sequence that left the broadcast team and the grappling community debating exactly what to call the finish: the Liverpool native flowed from the guillotine into a d’arce grip, then crossed his legs underneath Saint-Denis’s arms in a configuration more commonly associated with the Peruvian necktie.
BSD attempted a belly-down defense, but Pimblett’s leg position negated it entirely, cranking the shoulder into the neck and forcing the tap at the 52-second mark.
“Look at the position of Paddy’s legs. Criss-cross is out. And that will do it,” the broadcast team called as the referee stepped in.
On social media, BJJ practitioners began debating the label almost immediately. A thread on r/bjj gathered responses from numerous grapplers.
The general read was that Pimblett had used a d’arce grip combined with necktie finishing mechanics, creating a hybrid that most had never seen at the elite level.
“It was a d’arce grip and a Peruvian necktie leg configuration. Paddy knows his stuff,” someone observed.
Others were less concerned with naming conventions and more focused on the craft itself. “Paddy is very, very slick. That was genuinely impressive. But yeah, set up for a d’arce but just threw the necktie in there for some swag points. I’m impressed either way,” wrote one purple belt.
The grappling community has since taken to calling it the “Scouser Necktie,” a nod to Pimblett’s Liverpool roots and apparently the only appropriate tribute for a finish that refuses to fit neatly into any single category.
Official Result: Paddy Pimblett def. Benoit Saint-Denis by submission (d’arce choke), Round 1, 0:52.
Full Sequence of Paddys sub: Guillotine to Darce to Is it a Peruvian Necktie?
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