Khamzat Chimaev just earned one of the biggest wins of his career at UFC 308 on October 26th, 2024 when he submitted Robert Whittaker with a rear-naked choke and broke his jaw in the process. It was the first time that Chimaev had fought in over a year and given that Whittaker is a former UFC middleweight world champion, this was generally seen as his toughest test to date. Although that was the case on paper, it certainly didn’t look that way when the cage doors closed. Not only did Chimaev maintain his incredible undefeated record, but he also became the first man to submit Whittaker as well.
Chimaev looked to use his elite wrestling right from the start of the fight, as he shot in for a takedown within the first few seconds. Whittaker tried to stay upright against the cage but he was dragged to the mat, with Chimaev sliding in one hook and landing some heavy shots from the top. The next few minutes were essentially the same cycle repeated over and over, as Chimaev was using ground and pound to set up a choke while Whittaker tried to defend and stand. Every time he managed to get his legs back underneath him, Chimaev was dragging him back to the mat and going back to his offense again.
One particular sequence saw Chimaev land a big elbow and quickly wrap his arm around Whittaker’s face as he tried to stand again. Chimaev connected his hands and squeezed on the rear-naked choke around Whittaker’s jaw, forcing him to tap almost instantly. Although UFC 308 was an incredibly dominant performance from Khamzat Chimaev, the fans were naturally a little confused at how quickly Robert Whittaker tapped. Shortly afterwards, commentator Daniel Cormier revealed on the live broadcast that Whittaker’s jaw had actually been broken by the submission. It’s an incredibly rare outcome but not impossible, and one of the main reasons that fighters are forced to tap to rear-naked chokes over the jaw-line.
The footage of Khamzat Chimaev breaking Robert Whittaker’s jaw with a rear-naked choke at UFC 308 was uploaded to the official Twitter account of SportsCenter:
KHAMZAT CHIMAEV SUBMITS ROBERT WHITTAKER TO STAY UNDEFEATED 😤 #UFC308 pic.twitter.com/gmT7UcPqKc
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 26, 2024
