Marcelo Garcia recently broke down the exact north south choke setup and finish that he used in order to submit Masakazu Imanari at ONE 170 on January 24th, 2025. It was his first grappling match in around fourteen years so naturally there was a ton of anticipation around his comeback. In the end it looked as though he hadn’t been gone at all, as he put on an absolute clinic against Imanari and won every single exchange. Not only did he take Imanari down early but he passed his guard and controlled him before steadily working his way towards the finish.
It quite literally couldn’t have gone better for Garcia and it was a clear signal that he would be a force to be reckoned with at ONE Championship. He doesn’t have a second match booked just yet, but he used his post-match interview to call for one against Shinya Aoki. We actually spoke to Marcelo Garcia before the match and he revealed then that he had signed a contract with ONE Championship for between two and six matches this year. That means that he could easily get that match against Aoki and even if he doesn’t, fans will still get to see him at least one more time.
That means that we might get to see Garcia lock up his signature north south choke once more, and he’s let fans in on exactly how he set it up against Imanari. Despite the name Garcia actually started setting it up when he was in side control, by controlling Imanari’s head and the arm nearest to him. He then circled towards Imanari’s head and used pressure to help force him into the right position for the finish. He took the time to break it all down step by step, explaining exactly how he generates that pressure and sinks in to the choke.
Marcelo Garcia uploaded the footage of him explaining exactly how he submitted Masakazu Imanari in a recent post to his official Instagram account:
