The moment referee Tim Mills stepped in to call off the fight between debuting UFC featherweight Bobby Moffett and Chas Skelly, there was a feeling of relief. 

Moffett finally realized his dream of picking up a win in the UFC and took his first step toward his goal of being the best 145-pound fighter in the world. 

However, what transpired next was anything but relaxing. As Skelly popped right up and began to protest the stoppage, it became apparent this finish was going to instant replay. As officials took a look at the footage, Moffett remembers feeling worried, annoyed, and on-edge. 

Although Moffett eventually got the result he desired, the annoyance was not yet over. In fact, the worst part was just about to begin. 

“There’s a lot of jiu-jitsu 'experts' out there,” Moffett said, referring to the comments he’s read about the fight. “And I say that with air quotes.”

After winning the fight, Moffett checked his social media and was flooded with so-called grappling experts claiming he didn’t even really have a choke or that there was no way Skelly would go out from there. 

 “I saw a few comments where people say that I needed to hook his leg to finish it, and that isn’t true,” Moffett said. 

In fact, the d'arce choke can be hit from any number of angles. 

“I can choke someone in that position—I can choke someone with a d’arce choke in almost any position,” Moffett said of his favorite move. “I can d’arce someone from my back. I can d’arce someone from them being on my back. I can d’arce someone from anywhere”. 

With all of these options, the progression suggested by his internet sensei is not one he likes to go to at all. 

“Personally, I don’t like hooking the leg because I don’t like having to use that kind of pressure,” Moffett said. “I lose the choke and it becomes a crank at that point.”

And if anyone were to know the fine details of the choke, it would be Moffett. Five of his 14 career victories have come by way of this choke—including each of his last three—and it’s something he’s been fine tuning since he was a child. 

“It honestly develops all the way from when I was a little kid,” Moffett said. “When I was a little kid and I would get in fights, I always thought, 'Man, if I could headlock somebody, I could just squeeze them as hard as I could and I could just hurt them and they wouldn’t want to fight anymore.'"

That desire to squeeze the life out of his classmates advanced through his high school wrestling days and then eventually into his BJJ and his MMA career. Not only is it something he works on, but it’s something he constantly thinks about. 

“This is my favorite choke,” Moffett said. “I’ve been choking people with this move for five to six years now—I’ve been perfecting my squeeze on the choke... Every time I roll with someone, I try to d’arce him.”

So while the critics may not have liked the call, there might be nobody out there who is more comfortable with the way that choke was going than Moffett himself. And to him, that's where the discussion starts and ends.