UFC 172 results and photos: Joseph Benavidez makes Timothy Elliott tap out with his feet

BALTIMORE – Joseph Benavidez had Timothy Elliott so thoroughly trapped in a guillotine choke that he couldn’t even get a hand free to tap with.

With Benavidez on top of him and his arms constricted by Benavidez’s legs, Elliot had to submit with his feet, flailing them on the mat until referee Mario Yamasaki called a stop to the bout at 4:08 of Round 1.

The flyweight preliminary-card bout took place at today’s UFC 172 event at Maryland’s Baltimore Arena. It aired on FOX Sports 1 prior to the pay-per-view main card.

Elliott got off to a fast start in this one, and had Benavidez in some trouble early on. But after Benavidez escaped from an awkward crucifix position, he began to get his own offense going on the mat.

Using what he later described as “Joe-jitsu,” Benavidez managed to lock up a guillotine and jump over Elliott’s half-guard, straight into a high mount that trapped Elliott’s arms under Benavidez’s legs. Elliott at first struggled to get an arm free to defend the choke, then to tap out and end the fight. Neither attempt was successful, but fortunately Yamasaki got the message anyway.

“That was the first time I was able to pull off the ‘Joe-a-constrictor,’ a submission I’ve worked on and attempted in modified versions in the past,” Benavidez said of his finishing choke. “Even (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva said he had never seen that before in the octagon. Tim is tough, and I knew an old-fashioned punch to the face wasn’t going to stop that wild man, so I had to be creative. He is an awesome opponent and that was a lot of fun out there.”

Benavidez (20-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) gets his first win since being knocked out by UFC flyweight champion Demetrious Johnson in December. Elliott (10-5-1 MMA, 2-3 UFC) has now lost two straight in the UFC.

Up-to-the-minute UFC 172 results include:

For more on UFC 172, stay stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

(Steven Marrocco and John Morgan contributed to this report on-site in Baltimore.)