Bloody Elbow 2020 Year-End MMA Awards – Best Submission

It’s back!

Over the next few days, Bloody Elbow is going to ask for your opinion on some of the best things that have happened in the MMA world over the course of 2020. There will be a total of eight different categories you’ll be asked to vote on. For the sake of simplicity we’re going to stick with high-level and relevant MMA stuff in these posts. While I’m sure there was a ludicrous knockout in an unscheduled MMA event at The Lumberyard strip club in Des Moines, or an insane pancreas lock submission on an obscure ZST! card in Japan, let’s just stick to stuff a lot of us have seen, okay? (If that spiel looked familiar, it’s because I’ve used the same one for ten years in a row. Originality? What originality? Also, is ZST! even a thing any more?)

It’s pretty simple. I’ll post 5-10 options in a category, you vote for what you think was the best. If you think I left something really important off my list, post it in the comments and we can add it to the poll if it’s deemed worthy. I can almost guarantee you won’t like all my suggestions, but narrowing down these lists is tough.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get onto the first poll – the best submission of 2020. There have been some excellent subs all over the MMA landscape this year, and getting the list down is very difficult. But I did, and here it is.

Khabib Nurmagomedov stops Justin Gaethje, UFC 254

Mackenzie Dern kneebars Hannah Cifers, UFC on ESPN: Woodley vs. Burns

Aljamain Sterling chokes out Cory Sandhagen, UFC 250

AJ McKee neck cranks Darrion Caldwell, Bellator 235

Jack Hermansson heel hooks Kelvin Gastelum, UFC Fight Island 2

Ariane Lipski kneebars Luana Carolina, UFC 255

Luis Felipe Dias ties up Vanilton Antunes, Shooto Brazil 100

Jimmy Flick flying triangles Cody Durden, UFC Vegas 17

Thiago Moises heel hooks Michael Johnson, UFC Jacksonville

Alexandr Romanov forearm chokes Marcos Rogerio de Lima, UFC Vegas 13