With another action-packed year of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie takes a look at the best submissions from January to December. Here are the top five and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Year award for 2025.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting on your choice for Submission of the Year.
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Honorable mentions
Anthony Hernandez def. Roman Dolidze, UFC on ESPN 72
Anthony Hernandez proved he was a level above Roman Dolidze in their middleweight main event.
Hernandez (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) dominated virtually every moment of the bout as Dolidze (15-4 MMA, 9-4 UFC) struggled to find any answers offensively. It all came to an end at 2:45 of Round 4 when Hernandez forced a tap from a rear-naked choke.
The fight reached Round 4, where Hernandez picked up right where he left off. On the feet and on the ground, Hernandez was in full control. The final sequence occurred after a takedown, where Dolidze grabbed the fence. Dean took a point without interrupting the flow, and Hernandez drilled a few knees to the head and then locked in a rear-naked choke.
Merab Dvalishvili def. Sean O’Malley, UFC 316
Merab Dvalishvili (21-5 MMA, 14-3 UFC) defeated Sean O’Malley (18-3 MMA, 10-3 UFC) even more emphatically than he did the first time the two fought, as he retained his title via North-South neck crank. The stoppage came at 4:42 of Round 3.
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Round 3 saw Dvalishvili drag O’Malley down. Just as the crowd became restless, Dvalishvili shifted into North-South position, grabbed hold, and cranked. Then came the tap.
Jean Silva def. Bryce Mitchell, UFC 314
Jean Silva (16-3 MMA, 5-1 UFC) tapped Jean Mitchell (18-3 MMA, 9-3 UFC) with a ninja choke after a tense pre-fight build between the two sides.
Silva looked supremely comfortable in the biggest fight of his life and had the crowd heavily on his side, barking along with him at will. Although his showboating, pointing and look-offs were fun, it was his striking, takedown defense, and offensive submission game that got the job done.
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Silva attempted a guillotine choke in Round 1 that looked tight, but Mitchell escaped. However, Mitchell couldn’t escape the ninja choke Silva wrapped up quickly in Round 2.
Henrique Madureira def. Eriglent Prizreni, OKTAGON 80
Henrique Madureira had a serious trick up his sleeve vs. Eriglent Prizreni. In the opening round, he got in position to wrap and tie up his legs around his opponent’s neck from the backside, all while they were still on the feet.
Madureira (9-7) managed to lock in the inverted triangle choke and arch his weight down to bring Prizreni (3-1) toward the mat, and by that point it was too late to escape and elicited the tap out to end the featherweight bout just 70 seconds after it began.
The winner
Costello Van Steenis def. Johnny Eblen, PFL Africa 1
If he does nothing else, Costello van Steenis will always be remembered for his insane comeback against Johnny Eblen to claim the PFL middleweight title.
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Not only did he become PFL middleweight champion, van Steenis (17-3) did so in improbable fashion when he submitted Eblen (16-1) with nine seconds left in their five-round bout. The stoppage came at 4:51 of Round 5.
Eblen had utilized his strong wrestling base and relentless pressure to largely dominate van Steenis the entire fight prior to his demise.
Entering Round 5, Eblen was up 39-37 on two judges’ scorecards with a third having the fight tied 38-38.
Eblen got the fight down to the ground midway through Round 5 and took van Steenis’ back. With approximately 45 seconds left on the clock, Eblen made a fatal mistake and fell off the top.
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Van Steenis slickly flipped the script, got Eblen’s back, locked in a rear-naked choke, and put Eblen to sleep.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: MMA Junkie’s 2025 Submission of the Year: Van Steenis def. Eblen