In a battle between fellow Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) legends and renowned giant slayers, Lachlan Giles came out on top as he submitted an all-time great in Marcelo Garcia.
Known in their illustrious careers for submitting far bigger men, lightweight legends Giles and Garcia competed at ONE Fight Night 38 at the iconic Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand.
Garcia held top control for the entire match, but it was Giles who kept attacking with K-guard entries that stifled the four-time ADCC champion’s passing game. After Garcia defended a few leg entries and shoulder crunch attempts, Giles eventually got another deep K-guard entry that led to a quick submission finish.
Commentators initially called it a kneebar, but Lachlan noted how he also twisted the heel, like a modified version of Mikey Musumeci’s trademark submission.
“It wasn’t a kneebar, it was a rotational leg lock, similar to a Mikey lock but I have the foot across my chest. I’ll just name it after myself. Sorry, Mikey, it’s different,” Giles laughed, before saying that we can call the move a “Lachy Lock.”
Watch Giles debut the new submission below:
While the 42-year-old Garcia is only a few years older than Giles, they both competed in different eras of the sport. Marcelo was a four- time ADCC champion in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2011, while Giles was known for his ADCC absolute run several years later 2019.
While Garcia defended well early in their match, it was Giles’ more modern leg lock game that proved to be the difference in the contest.
It’ll be interesting to see if Garcia continues to compete, as this marks the all-time great’s second BJJ match since a 14-year hiatus and battle with cancer. Early in 2025, he looked dominant as he submitted a Japanese MMA legend with one of his patented chokes.
The 39-year-old Giles earlier noted that he only came out of retirement because he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to face a legend. Known as one of the most highly regarded BJJ coaches today, Giles confirmed after the match that he indeed plans to retire and focus on teaching again.
Beating an all-time great and debuting a new submission that he can teach and sell BJJ instructionals over does seem like the perfect way to hang it up for Giles.
