Nothing in the world beats the feeling of watching a fighter taking things to the canvas to submit his opponent. These moves are not just mesmerizing to watch but are agonizing as well. Some fighters rely just on submission to win fights so without wasting any more time, let us go through the top five wins via submission.
Back at UFC 216, Demetrious Johnson broke UFC’s long-held record for most consecutive title defenses and he did that in impressive fashion against Ray Borg. The Mighty Mouse displayed one of the most dominant performances of his career before finishing the fight off with one of the best finishes seen in MMA history. The fight went down till the final round and after 3 minutes and 15 seconds, Johnson threw Borg backwards and caught his wrist midair and grabbed hold of an armbar to end the fight.
The main event of UFC 140 featured a fight between Jon Jones and Lyoto Machida. In the start of the fight, Jones opened up a gash on Machida’s forehead and the match was suspended before the doctor cleared him to fight. Once the fight restarted, it was all about Jon Jones, he stunned his opponent with a punch and then went for a standing guillotine choke. Machida thought he could get out of it and so he refused to tap out but ended up unconscious on the canvas as the referee stopped the bout. This fight also earned him the fight of the night award and it was the first time Machida lost a fight via submission.
UFC 140 was all about submission and grappling. Nogueira had a flying start to the fight as he attacked his opponent and attempted a choke submission early in the game. The former champion, Mir did well to get out of that situation and turn things around. He grabbed Nogueira’s right arm and attempted a kimura lock. Both the fighters were seen rolling around the octagon with Antonio trying to get out of the choke but Mir had held onto his opponent tightly giving him no chance. The Brazilian martial artist refused to tap out and ended up breaking his arm which gave Frank Mir a TKO victory in just 3 minutes and 38 seconds of round 1 and also earned him the Submission of the night award.
This was the second time Leonard Garvia and Chan Sung Jung faced each other inside the Octagon. The fight seemed quite open from the start but towards the end of round 1, the korrean Zombie got a slight advantage and won the round 10-9. He started the second round from where he had left off. Once things were down to the canvas, Chan landed some mighty elbows which found their way through Garcia’s guard. When the Korean had the opportunity, he locked up Garcia’s left leg and then locked him in a choke called the ‘Twister’. As soon as the move was locked everyone knew that it’s all over for the American. This fight marked the first ever Twister submission win in the history of the sport.
The fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen was hands down, one of the best fights in the history of the competition. In this fight, Chael Sonnen bossed Anderson Silva inside the octagon for four rounds and everyone thought that the fight was over and Sonnen would win on the judges score but NO! Things took a different route in the fifth round of the fight. A right from Sonnen put Silva on the canvas but the Brazilian did well to get into full guard position and out of nowhere Silva started to land big elbows and locked up a triangle hold which put Sonnen in real trouble. He desperately tried to get out of it but just couldn’t posture out and had to tap out.
[Featured Image Credit: UFC: Ultimate Fighting Championship]
Shashank Iyer