UFC/MMA best ‘Submissions of the Year’ 2024 - Top 5 List

Recapping the top athletes responsible for some of the most exciting and legacy-building moments of the years.

Andrew Richardson is a professional fighter who trains at Team Alpha Male in Sacramento, Calif., providing MMAmania.com (and its readers) with expert technical fighter breakdowns, insight and analysis you can't get anywhere else.

Of these recap categories, knockout and submission of the year feel the most subjective. In the case of tapout wins, the real key components are rarity of the technique vs. skill level of the opponent. Does omoplata’ing a kickboxer on some random undercard mean quite as much as a classic rear naked choke win over an elite opponent? That’s the debate, and hopefully, all five of these finishes will satisfy both criteria at least to some extent.

Let’s checkout 2024’s “Submissions of the Year.”

5. Jim Miller vs. Damon Jackson

I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to give Jim Miller his flowers. At 41 years of age, the New Jersey native is still setting records and recording slick finishes over quality opposition. Jackson is quite a solid veteran himself, but he landed deep in the classic Miller arm-in guillotine.

The finish itself was textbook: Miller sat upright and into the squeeze, clamping down on Jackson’s windpipe to force a panicked tap. For those keeping track, that’s Miller’s fourth UFC guillotine in this style, which might well be the record for arm-in guillotines.

Legend.

4. Alexandre Pantoja vs. Kai Asakura

The rear naked choke is the least flashy of submissions, but it’s also the best one. There is no move more synonymous with Brazilian jiu-jitsu, nor is there any submission more responsible for finishes. From the undercard to the main event, the rear naked choke is king.

Flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja is a master of this iconic move. His back-taking talents were on display versus Asakura, who was able to fend off the Brazilian’s grappling for about a round. Early in the second, however, Pantoja expertly tied together trip attempts and jumping back takes to secure the position and wrap up the neck moments later.

3. Paddy Pimblett vs. Bobby Green

Pimblett really exceeded expectations here. “King” was supposed to a tough fight for “The Baddy,” and instead the longtime Lightweight veteran was asleep after just a few short minutes. That takedown turned out to be an awful bad idea ...

My favorite part of this finish was the transitions. Pimblett used an arm-in guillotine attempt to isolate the head and arm then instead attack with a triangle. That’s already quite cool, but then Pimblett attacked the arm too as Green was passing out. That’s three submissions chained together, and seeing as Green both passed out and had his arm hyperextended, two of ‘em were LOCKED IN!

Give Pimblett his due, it was a killer finish.

2. Islam Makhachev vs. Dustin Poirier

This tapout hits a lot of the markers for best of the year. An incredible technical sequence? Check. The conclusion of an outstanding fight? Confirmed. In the main event of a UFC pay-per-view with an undisputed title on the line? Yup and yup.

The sequence was absolute brilliance. Makhachev attempts a single leg but is stuff, so he switches off to a grip on the other leg. Poirier has him beat, down to an ankle, but the Russian still manages to whip his foe off-balance and to the floor briefly. As Poirier goes to scramble, Makhachev jumps on his neck, drops down with a guillotine, and rolls over his opposition.

From top half-guard, Makhachev then attacks the d’arce. Here’s a detail most will miss: he doesn’t have a full d’arce choke. Makhachev’s choke arm isn’t very deep. He cannot place his choking hand on the tricep as a textbook d’arce choke demands. Instead, he adjust and opts for the “short” d’arce, a variation that places the choke hand on the forearm rather than tricep before compressing the squeeze. It’s a weaker version compared to the classic, but for a man of Makhachev’s strength, there’s no issue in putting Poirier to sleep anyway.

It’s downright outrageous that Islam Makhachev still has to deal with boring allegations from a certain subsection of mouth-breathing fight fans.

1. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Robert Whittaker

Once more, the rear naked choke is king. It’s a move that in many ways I’ve dedicated 15 years of my own life to understanding, and yet there was a real moment where “Borz” made me question everything I know about jiu-jitsu and grappling.

Chimaev instantly tapped Whittaker with an off-angle squeeze that wasn’t under the jaw. For a period in time, it was truly baffling. Whittaker is one of the toughest men in the sport, unafraid of any challenge and willing to throw himself into the fire time and time again. Is the Chimaev squeeze truly so formidable that it could force a frantic tap before it’s even fully locked into place? That kind of strength seems inhuman.

The truth was revealed shortly: Whittaker’s teeth were already a weak point, and Chimaev broke them in an instant. It adds some logic to the finishing sequence, but the Chimaev mysticism lives on anyway. To steamroll Whittaker in just a couple minutes and shatter his jaw ...

Whether you love or hate “Borz,” it’s now impossible to deny him.

Honorable Mentions

• Du Plessis vs. Adesanya
• Pereira vs. Potieria
• Duncan vs. Oki
• Jandiroba vs. Lemos
• Holland vs. Oleksiejczuk

Best Submissions 2024 | Best KOs 2024 | Best Fights 2024 | Best Fighters 2024 | Best Events 2024