In world of jiu-jitsu there are a lot of different submissions. Many of the bjj submissions, an average MMA fan never even sees due to the adaptation that’s required to make sport bjj techniques work in a setting where the opponent can strike you.
In an attempt to make the bjj watching experience more user friendly and the sport bjj more usable, Eddie Bravo even launched his own modality called combat jiu jitsu that allows for open palm striking. This alone significantly changes dynamics.
Regardless, we most often see finishes by rear naked choke, armbar, neck crank and kimura/americana variations in MMA.
But recently an Irish athlete by the name of Jake Ngai pulled off an incredibly interesting finish called Tarikoplata.
Tarikoplata is a spin on the kimura technique which is incredibly painful and acts, sort of, as a bicep slicer.
Jake Ngai managed to finish his opponent, Byron Murphy, at Cage Legacy 18 with it.
We can see in the video that Ngai had secured a kimura grip early. His leg position indicates he was interested in rolling his opponent over and scoring an armbar, but with the opponent defending another option soon opened up.
Ngai is soon entirely on the side, with Murphy’s arm stuck between Ngai’s legs, still in the kimura hold (figure four).
Now here Murphy made a mistake, he kept his hand low, which effectively trapped his arm as the two rolled over.
Tarikoplata finishes are typically done from the top – when someone is adamant on defending the kimura by either clasping his hands or is just significantly stronger than the person attacking.
By trapping the arm with your legs, with your own arm in between you’re effectively creating a bicep slicer.
Bicep slicers are not that common in MMA, but it’s a comparable situation to a calf slicer akin to what Roman Dolidze used this past weekend to trap Jack Hermansson into a TKO.
The angle of the arm here is brutal. THe thighs can create ample pressure forcing the bicep pain as your arm bends at the elbow.
The pain could be seen on his opponent’s face overwhelming him at which point he tapped and that was it.
The submission was named based on the first name of the competitor that popularized it – Tarik Hopstock. Hopstock is a Norwegian grappler that mostly competed on the Gi IBJJF circuit.
There are many examples of Tarikoplata working in sport bjj competitions including this one: