On Thursday, on the preliminary card of ONE 161 at Singapore Indoor Stadium, black belt competitor Rodrigo Marello secured a 15-second foot lock, setting the record for the fastest submission in the history of ONE Championship’s submission grappling division.
Facing Sambo specialist Ruslan Bagdasarian, Marello immediately pulled guard, locked in a De La Riva hook, and applied a picture-perfect “Caio Terra foot lock,” soliciting a violent and panicked tap from Bagdasarian.
“This submission I have been doing since blue belt, like 8 years sharpening this same position and it saved my life many times and today it wasn’t different. I’m so happy, man,” Marello said after his victory.
This is a foot lock that I do from De La Riva guard and I’m so confident when I get it,” he added. “Once I get it tight, I was sure my jiu-jitsu was going to work.”
Watch the entire match below (the video is queue’d up to Marello’s match).
 
After the win, Marello was awarded a $50,000 performance bonus.
“You know, I come from a social project in Brazil,” an emotional Marello said. “Three years ago I had no money to sign up myself in the tournament. I had to ask for help.”
In the past several months, ONE Championship has shown a serious interest in growing its submission grappling roster, signing top athletes like Kade and Tye Ruotolo, Danielle Kelly, and Mikey Musumeci. The Singapore-based promotion’s next submission grappling match is set to go down on Friday, September 30, when Musumeci and Cleber Sousa square off for the inaugural ONE flyweight submission grappling championship at ONE on Prime Video 2.
