Mata Leão

Mata leão is the Portuguese name for the rear-position bilateral neck compression — the configuration English-speaking grapplers call the rear naked choke and judo calls hadaka jime.

Etymology. Mata is the third-person form of matar (“to kill”) and leão means “lion”; together the phrase translates literally as “kills the lion” or “lion killer.” The name is the standard Portuguese-language term across the Brazilian grappling lineage and predominates in Brazilian gyms, Portuguese-language instructional material, and the older Gracie-academy vocabulary. The evocative naming convention — contrasted with the descriptive Japanese hadaka jime (“bare strangle”) and the equally descriptive English “rear naked choke” — reflects BJJ’s broader pattern of naming submissions after their lethality rather than their mechanics.

Mechanics. The choke succeeds because the attacker’s arm forms a closed loop around the neck, compressing the carotid arteries bilaterally without any clothing-based grip. Connection between the attacker’s chest and the opponent’s back is the prerequisite for the choke — without it, the choking arm cannot maintain compression as the opponent rotates.

Cross-reference. Judo retains hadaka jime; English-speaking no-gi uses rear naked choke or RNC. Full mechanical coverage on Rear Naked Choke.