Rear Naked Choke

Neck672 Finishes · 39.2% of All Submissions

Total Finishes

672

Share of All Subs

39%

Most by One Fighter

Peak Year

2016

Year by Year

31 Years with a Finish

Statistical overview

The most used submission in the UFC

Every figure below covers complete years only, from 1994 through 2025. The current year is left out until it is finished, because a part-season is both a smaller sample and a lopsided one — this section rewrites itself each January.

640finishes

38.9%of all 1,644 submissions

#1of 39 distinct submissions

2016peak year, 45 finishes

How’s it trending?

−12%running quiet

Across the last 1,000 men’s fights the rear naked choke finished 66 against 75.3 its earlier rate predicts — 6.60 per 100 fights against 7.53 before. It sits below our threshold for calling a trend shift, though. On 66 finishes in a window this size, a run like this turns up often enough by chance that we will not call the underlying rate changed — a genuine move and a good spell look the same until more fights land. Worth watching rather than worth re-planning a camp around.

And over the long run

37.2%of submissions1994–2020

43.5%of submissionslast five years, 2021–2025

The rear naked choke first appears in 1994. That is a real difference — 6.3 points more of the modern game than it used to be, and big enough that chance does not explain it.

That is a real difference — 6.3 points more of the modern game than it used to be, and big enough that chance does not explain it.

43.5% against 37.2% · 195 of 448 · 95% range 1.0 to 11.7 points

95% range −33% to 13% · 2024-06-28 to 2026-09-19, men’s divisions. Measured as the rate at which the rear naked choke ends a fight, not its share of submissions — share moves whenever the overall submission rate moves.

When does the finish come?

43.9%Round 1

35.9%Round 2

18.0%Round 3

1.7%Round 4

0.5%Round 5

rear naked choke every other submission

43.9% of these finishes come in the first round, against 55.7% for every other submission. That is a real difference — 11.8 points later than the rest, and big enough that chance does not explain it. Within the round itself the median comes at 2:57 against 2:48 — 9 seconds later.

Does weightclass matter?

Welterweight and middleweight37.5%183 of 488

Featherweight and lightweight43.5%194 of 446

Light heavyweight and heavyweight30.0%72 of 240

Flyweight and bantamweight43.0%101 of 235

Women's divisions44.6%75 of 168

The rear naked choke is at its strongest in featherweight and lightweight, taking 43.5% of the submissions there against 37.2% elsewhere — 6.3 points clear, interval 0.9 to 11.6. It is weakest in light heavyweight and heavyweight at 30.0%, 10.5 points below the rest of the sport, interval −16.8 to −4.1.

The men’s and women’s divisions

Across the women’s divisions the rear naked choke accounts for 44.6% of submissions — 75 of 168 — against 38.3% everywhere else. That looks like a gap, but on 168 it is well inside what chance alone would produce. Treat the two as the same. That said, the women’s sample is 168 submissions in total, so it moves on a handful of fights in a way the men’s does not.