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Yesterday we looked at the best UFC knockouts of 2018, and no doubt there’s been some great ones. But of course, knocking your opponent out isn’t the only way to win inside the Octagon, and this year’s shows have seen some submissions that would make the great Royce Gracie proud.
Over the course of 37 events we’ve seen all kinds of submissions, from rear naked chokes and triangle chokes to armbars and leglocks, and we’ve even been treated to a couple of super-unique submission finishes, too.
Here are the 5 best UFC submissions of 2018.
#5 Tyron Woodley vs. Darren Till – UFC 228 – 09/08/2018
Coming into UFC 228, there was a hell of a lot of pressure on UFC Welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
Sure, his fight against Darren Till was set to be his 4th title defense, but those previous three title fights had hardly been barnburners, and his last fight – against Demian Maia – was widely considered as one of the worst fights in promotional history.
Throw in a period of over a year on the shelf due to injuries, and you can see why Woodley had his back to the wall.
His opponent, Liverpool’s Darren Till, was bringing a flashy undefeated record into the fight and had beaten Donald Cerrone and Stephen Thompson in his previous two outings.
Many were actually favouring him to defeat Woodley, but with all of his doubters watching, Woodley delivered in spades.
After a dull first round, ‘The Chosen One’ dropped Till with a huge right hand and immediately looked to finish with some brutal elbows.
‘The Gorilla’ did well to survive the barrage, but it was clear he was struggling from his back, and eventually he made the mistake of reaching for an underhook. Woodley immediately synched up a tight D’Arce choke, and seconds later, Till was tapping out.
Not only was it Woodley’s first finish since his knockout of Robbie Lawler in 2016, but it was his first submission victory in the UFC – and post-fight, he was also presented with his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
This was an excellent finish that cemented Woodley as a major threat with his grappling – and as one of the best 170lbers in UFC history.
#4 Paul Craig vs. Magomed Ankalaev – UFC Fight Night 127 – 03/17/2018
Arguably the most memorable knockout of 2018 came from Yair Rodriguez in the last second of his fight with Chan Sung Jung; back in March, we had an almost equally memorable submission at the same stage of the fight.
Scotland’s Paul Craig was coming into Fight Night 127 in dire need of a victory, having lost his previous 2 UFC outings, but for most of his fight with Magomed Ankalaev, it didn’t look like he’d get it.
The unbeaten Dagestani fighter – making his UFC debut – was simply far superior to Craig in all areas; on the feet, in the clinch and on the ground.
It looked like Ankalaev would coast to a unanimous decision as the fight ticked away in the third round, but with ten seconds to go, it turned out Craig wasn’t done. He threw up a desperation triangle choke, and incredibly, managed to synch the hold in.
Ankalaev attempted to muscle his way free of the choke but just couldn’t get free, and incredibly – with literally one second remaining in the fight – he was forced to tap out, giving Craig an inexplicable submission win. This was the absolute definition of snatching a victory from the jaws of defeat.
Not only was the submission one of the best of 2018, but it probably goes down as one of the all-time great UFC comebacks too, as Craig barely had a second of success in the fight beforehand. Rodriguez’s knockout might’ve gotten more plaudits, but Craig’s submission was arguably its equal, albeit in a different way.
#3 Aljamain Sterling vs. Cody Stamann & Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Brandon Davis – UFC 228 – 09/08/2018
I had to rank these two together in a tie simply because not only did they occur on the same show – September’s UFC 228, which coincidentally also saw Tyron Woodley’s D’Arce choke of Darren Till – but also because both men somehow managed to pull off the same (or similar) low-percentage, rarely seen submission on the same night. It was pretty wild to see.
Firstly, the preliminary card saw a back-and-forth fight between Aljamain Sterling and Cody Stamman end when Sterling was able to gain back control on his opponent.
Rather than attempt a choke, Sterling instead reached down and grabbed Stamann’s left leg, pulling it out to the side in a variation of the ultra-rare – and ultra-dangerous – hamstring stretcher. Stamann didn’t even have time to defend before his knee blew out, forcing him to tap.
It was one of the year’s most vicious tapout finishes, but somehow Zabit Magomedsharipov – fighting just a bit further up the card against Brandon Davis – managed to match it with an eerily similar move.
Like Sterling, Zabit managed to take his opponent’s back, but rather than go for the choke, he instead pulled out a truly crazy submission – a combination of a kneebar, hamstring stretch AND a banana split hold – forcing Davis to tap out.
It’s impossible to split the two essentially because of their rarity, and the fact that while Magomedsharipov’s was probably flashier to look at, it was clear that Sterling’s caused more pain. From a fan’s point of view, however, both were equally brilliant.
#2 Aleksei Oleinik vs. Junior Albini – UFC 224 – 05/12/2018
UFC 224 had plenty of spectacular finishes, including one of the year’s best knockouts in the form of Lyoto Machida’s front kick KO of Vitor Belfort.
The show also contained one of the year’s most memorable submissions, as somehow, veteran Aleksei Oleinik managed to pull off the ultra-rare Ezekiel choke for the second time in his UFC career, tapping out prospect Junior Albini in under two minutes of the first round.
The choke is of course incredibly rare in MMA because it usually requires a gi to pull off, but clearly that isn’t the case with Oleinik.
When ‘The Boa Constrictor’ used the same choke to submit Viktor Pesta in 2017, he did it after Pesta took him to the ground. This time he had such confidence in his abilities that he wrapped up Albini’s head and neck while standing before pulling half-guard to finish the submission.
Quite how Oleinik manages to submit top-level foes inside the UFC with such a choke is one of the mysteries of the sport, but it’s hard to deny that he’s quite brilliant at it.
The best part for Oleinik? He managed to pull off an almost-as-memorable submission of Mark Hunt a few months after this – and has now broken into the Heavyweight top ten at the age of 41.
#1 Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor – UFC 229 – 10/06/2018
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.
