UFC 261: Randy Brown and his one-armed rear naked choke win over Alex Oliveira
Randy Brown of Jamiaica forces Alex Oliveira of Brazil to tap out during UFC 261 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on April 24, 2021 in Jacksonville, Florida. Credit: Getty Images/Alex Menendez
Randy Brown once found himself on the wrong side of rare occurrences in the UFC. But on Saturday night at UFC 261, the Long Island-trained Brown experienced life on the other side.
Brown secured a one-armed rear naked choke for a submission win over Alex Oliveira to win their welterweight bout with 2:10 left in the first round.
Earlier in the round, Brown, who trains at Budokan Martial Arts in Lynbrook and Bellmore Kickboxing MMA, dropped Oliveira with a perfectly timed right hand that landed flush. Brown (13-4) moved in for some ground and pound, but Oliveira defended his way back to the feet after about 45 seconds.
"He was a lot more willing to get into my range than I thought he would be, I thought he would be playing the long range a lot more, but he actually stepped right to me and was in my range immediately and I was surprised, I guess he was trying to push me back and take charge, but that was the only thing that surprised me," Brown said.
The bout took place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, in front of a full crowd of more that 15,000 fans.
Brown never let Oliveira get free, and as Oliveira got back to his feet at the 2:45 mark, Brown had his left leg hooked around Oliveira’s left leg, and his right arm wrapped around his body. While standing, Brown was able to get his left arm around the neck but Oliveira (22-10-1) prevented Brown from bringing his right arm up to complete the traditional rear naked choke hold. Brown didn’t need it. He slid over to take Oliveira’s back and pulled him to the ground, all the while holding the choke. As Brown finally got his other arm free to secure the choke, Oliveira had already tapped.
"I’m excited to have crowds back. I cannot wait to get back in there and throw hands and have 15,000 more people watching me, that was cool," Brown said. "It feels good, it means a lot to me, if you heard my interviews earlier, I take my losses really hard, I pick them apart and I dissect them, I’m my biggest critic, cliché, but it’s true. I sit on it, I work on everything that I find as an issue and I work on it and I come back stronger."
Mark La Monica is a deputy sports editor at Newsday. He also covers mixed martial arts.
