Why it's called the ezekiel
The sleeve choke carries the name of a judoka who was only passing through jiu-jitsu. He invented nothing: he brought in something nobody there was using.
BJJ Square · Updated on 08/11/2026
Late 1980s. Ezequiel Rodrigues Dutra Paraguassú is a judoka on the Brazilian national team, preparing for the Seoul 1988 Olympics. His weak point is groundwork, and to improve it he goes to train where the best on the ground in Rio are: the Academia Carlson Gracie.
He cannot get past the jiujiteiros' guards. So, while his opponent is pulling guard, he uses something that in judo is routine administration: sode guruma jime, the sleeve choke. It works. It works even against the black belts of the house, who had never seen that hold.
In the gym they start calling it “*a do Ezequiel*” — the one Ezequiel does. Then just Ezequiel. Then, by way of English, ezekiel.
The technique is not his
Sode guruma jime had been in the judo repertoire long before him, and every serious source agrees on this: Ezequiel did not invent the choke, he imported it. Which is exactly why it worked so well for him — in that gym nobody knew it.
It is why the line “the creator of the Ezequiel choke”, which you often read, ought to be corrected. This is not pedantry: it changes the story from “a man invents a hold” to “two disciplines meet and one learns from the other”, which is much closer to what actually happened.
What we do not know
- The exact year. Brazilian sources say vaguely “the eighties”. Paraguassú competed at Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992.
- Who actually coined the name. A training partner, an instructor, the gym in general: nobody documents it.
- Whether the best detail is true. The story goes that Paraguassú moved abroad and had no idea for almost twenty years that a choke carried his name, finding out only on his return to Brazil. It has a single source and no confirmation: good story, not a fact.
Why this story matters
The ezekiel is the clearest case of a rule that keeps repeating in jiu-jitsu: techniques come in from outside, and take the name of whoever brought them in. Ezequiel was a guest, he came from another sport, he trained there for a few months and for a goal of his own. He left behind a word that is now used all over the world.
Note In judo, that hold is still called sode guruma jime. The two disciplines have lived side by side for a century and use two different names for the same thing: it is the most visible trace of how little they spoke to each other.
The other words you will hear at the gym, explained one by one: BJJ glossary.
Frequently asked questions
- Who was Ezequiel Paraguassú?
- A Brazilian judoka born in 1963, on the national team and at Flamengo, who competed at the Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992 Olympics. He was not a jiu-jitsu practitioner.
- Who invented the ezekiel?
- Nobody in jiu-jitsu. It is judo's sode guruma jime, a standard technique. Paraguassú brought it into the BJJ environment, where it was not in use.
- Why is it named after him if he did not invent it?
- Because in the gym they called it “the one Ezequiel does” to tell it apart, and the phrase stuck. In jiu-jitsu the name almost always certifies who was using a hold, not who created it.
- Is it spelled ezekiel or ezequiel?
- In Portuguese it is Ezequiel, like the man's name. The spelling “ezekiel” is the anglicised version that spread through the rest of the world.
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