The best and worst from UFC on ESPN: Overeem vs. Rozenstruik

#3 Best: The Twister!

Bryce Mitchell pulled off a rare twister to submit Matt Sayles

Nothing else needs to be said here, really. Some submission finishes – the rear naked choke, for example, or the armbar – are so common that they don’t tend to raise any eyebrows when a UFC fighter pulls them off. Others are much rarer – the heel hook, for example, or the Peruvian Necktie. The Twister, however, is the submission equivalent of something like the clouded leopard; we know they’re out there and they exist, but seeing them in the wild is damn near impossible.

Prior to last night the only Twister submission in UFC history came back in 2011, when Chan Sung Jung used it to force Leonard Garcia to tap out. Incredibly though, we now have our second Twister, courtesy of prospect Bryce Mitchell, who used it to submit Matt Sayles in the first round.

This was an unbelievable – and painful looking – submission, hardly surprising as it targets the spine and neck area, and nobody can be surprised that it earned Mitchell a nice $50k bonus. Hopefully now he’ll become known as the guy who pulled off the Twister – rather than being recognized for injuring his scrotum with a power drill!