5 best UFC submissions of 2018

#1 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor – UFC 229 – 10/06/2018

Khabib Nurmagomedov's neck crank of Conor McGregor wasn't pretty, but it was memorable

Khabib Nurmagomedov’s submission of Conor McGregor at UFC 229 certainly wasn’t the prettiest tapout of the year, nor was it a move that required much skill to finish.

‘The Eagle’ used a neck crank to submit his Irish foe – simply twisting his head to the side until McGregor could take no more – a move which leans more on sheer brute strength than anything else. But it’s hard to deny it as 2018’s most memorable.

The fight was built up as the biggest in promotional history, and when it came down to it, as both men entered the Octagon, it was hard to argue with the UFC’s rhetoric for once.

In the end though, despite all the hype and talk from McGregor, this was always Khabib’s night. Not only was he able to wrestle ‘The Notorious One’ to the ground seemingly at will, but he also knocked him down with a right hook in the second round.

For a time it didn’t look like McGregor would survive that round as he took such a beating, but somehow the Irishman willed himself through and managed to take the third round on most people’s scorecards.

But the fourth round was back to the same old story, and this time Khabib was determined to finish. When he took McGregor’s back, the Irishman defended a choke attempt, but it didn’t matter. Nurmagomedov simply squeezed and twisted, and that was that.

Of course, the fight ended in a ton of controversy as Khabib and his corner launched a wild attack on McGregor and his camp, but forget about that for a second; Khabib’s performance at UFC 229 was phenomenal, and the fact that he forced the trash-talking Irishman to submit was just the icing on the cake. This was the most memorable UFC submission of 2018 by far.