With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from December 2025: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for December.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
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Nominee: Mansur Abdul-Malik def. Antonio Trocoli at UFC 323
Mansur Abdul-Malik continues to show great signs of promise after putting away Antonio Trocoli in less than 90 seconds.
The middleweight matchup saw Abdul-Malik (9-0-1 MMA, 3-0-1 UFC) quickly snatch the neck of Trocoli from an upright position and finish the job with a standing guillotine choke at the 1:09 mark of Round 1.
Nominee: Chris Duncan def. Terrance McKinney at UFC 323
Chris Duncan vs. Terrance McKinney had finish written all over from the moment it was added to the UFC schedule. It ended inside the distance, just as expected.
Duncan (15-2 MMA, 6-1 UFC) walked away the victor as he stunned McKinney on the feet and worked his way to a D’Arce choke submission at the 2:30 mark of Round 1 of the lightweight bout.
Nominee: Boris Mbarga Atangana def. Guilherme Soares at PFL Lyon
Boris Mbarga Atangana showed more indications of being a prime prospect for PFL when he took out Guilherme Soares inside two rounds.
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Atangana (8-0) got the back of Soares and snatched a rear-naked choke, forcing the tap at the 2:35 mark of Round 2 in the light heavyweight bout.
Nominee: Vadim Nemkov def. Renan Ferreira at PFL Lyon
Vadim Nemkov only needed four minutes to become PFL heavyweight champion at the expense of Renan Ferreira.
Nemkov (20-2) mediated the hulking nature of the 6-foot-8 Ferreira when he immediately dragged the fight down to the canvas. Ferreira was able to briefly reverse Nemkov, but the Fedor Emelianenko protege quickly gained position back. He moved into proper position for an arm-triangle choke and got the submission exactly 4:00 into Round 1.
The winner: Yaroslav Amosov def. Neil Magny at UFC on ESPN 73
Former Bellator champion Yaroslav Amosov is now a winning UFC fighter after an excellent debut in the promotion.
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Amosov (29-1 MMA, 1-0 UFC) took on all-time welterweight wins leader Neil Magny in his first octagon appearance. Amosov took a few moments to figure out Magny, and ended the fight in the first round by submission.
As all fights begin, there were a few striking exchanges on the feet to start, and Amosov was willing to exchange. However, he saw an opening along the fence for the clinch, and scored a trip takedown. From there, Amosov worked in a few punches as he transitioned into an anaconda choke, trapping Magny and forcing a tap.
Amosov won the Bellator title by defeating Douglas Lima at Bellator 260. He dropped the title to Jason Jackson at UFC 301, and then rebounded under the CFFC banner with a first-round anaconda choke – the same method used to win his UFC debut.
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This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Submission of the Month for December 2025: Yaroslav Amosov