Image via Complex Original
UFC 134 kicks off from Rio on Saturday with a bunch of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu masters on the card. Feeling like you need to get warmed up for all those upcoming submissions? That doesn't mean slapping an armbar on one of your friends. Someone will get hurt. Besides, that's why Complex is here. Peruse our list of the 50 best submissions of all time. Just promise you won't get choked up by our selections.
ps, submissions from strikes were not included in this list. That's for another time...
Written by Orlando Lima (@limachips)
50. Randy Couture vs James Toney
Event: UFC 118 8/28/2010
Winner: Couture
Winning Move: Arm Triangle Choke
In UFC 1 boxer Art Jimmerson tapped out against Joyce Gracie without Gracie laying a finger on him. He said he wasn't used to the pressure of fighting off his back. Couture's submission of Toney, also a celebrated boxer, isn't spectacular in any way. It just proves the point that boxing is boxing and MMA is boxing and a bunch of other stuff.
This was Couture's easiest payday. He was gracious in victory stating, had it been a boxing match, Toney would have beaten him.
49. Ryo Chonan vs Anderson Silva
Event: Pride Shockwave 12/31/2004
Winner: Chonan
Winning Move: Flying Scissor Heel Hook
This was a once-in-a-lifetime maneuver that left us scratching our head. Did we just watch Anderson "The Spider" Silva fall victim to a video game move? Chonan was 7-4 going into this fight and he finished his career 19-12. Kind of a bum from Bumsville.
Yes, the move is fresh but Even Lebron gets dunked on. Silva gets the benefit of the doubt for the prolific amount of ass kickery he's dished out over the years. Chonan confirms that the old adage is true: sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
48. Frank Mir vs Cheick Kongo
Event: UFC 107 12/12/09
Winner: Mir
Winning Move: Guillotine Choke
Many fighters, Kongo included, find Mir's confidence irritating. Kongo also talked a lot of trash before this match. At the introduction, neither fighter made an effort to touch gloves. Bad blood? Just a drop.
Four minutes in, Kongo must have thought he was about to watch some movie previews because Mir followed a left hook with a guillotine and it was lights out. Kongo barely managed to tap... and passed out anyway.
47. Don Frye vs Tank Abbott
Event: UFC Ultimate Ultimate '96 12/12/1996
Winner: Frye
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
Tank was the best brawler ever to fight in the UFC. On multiple occasions the title barely eluded his grasp. He was never closer than in '96 at the Ultimate Ultimate. He had Don "The Predator" Frye KO-ed on his feet multiple times. Had it not been for Frye's granite chin and an accidental slip Tank may have been champion. But when Tank tripped and fell, Frye pounced and secured the rear naked choke.
To this day, one of the best comebacks in UFC history.
46. Fedor Emelianenko vs Choi Hong-Man
Event: Yarennoka! 12/31/2007
Winner: Emelianenko
Winning Move: Armbar
Until recently, Fedor was unbeatable. Since he depleted the fighter pool in Japan, it became more common to put him in the ring with freakishly large humans. Enter Choi Hong-Man a 7'2" 350-pound kick boxer from South Korea. Not sure what he was doing in MMA. He should have been playing hoops.
After Fedor secured that armbar, Hong-Man's elbow told him the same thing.
45. Antonio Nogueira vs Bob Sapp
Event: Pride Shockwave 8/28/2002
Winner: Nogueira
Winning Move: Armbar
At one point in time Bob Sapp was all the rage in Japan. He went from being a failed NFL lineman in the States to a household name overseas. Perhaps you've heard his CD, It's Sapp Time? #notsomuch
Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira, the best heavyweight practitioner of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), was always up to fight big men, in part to prove the basic concept of BJJ: technique beats size.
At Pride Shockwave, Sapp learned this the hard way. His fists won the battle but his left elbow lost the war.
44. Rickson Gracie vs Rei Zulu 2
Event: Independent Promotion 1/1/1984
Winner: Gracie
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
This is the match that put BJJ on the world map. Five years earlier, Gracie (185 pounds) beat Zulu (230 pounds) by rear naked choke. That victory made Gracie the most celebrated fighter in Brazil. When Zulu requested a rematch, Gracie gave it to him. The event was held on New Year's Day in Rio and attended by 20,000 fans. We're betting the the dime-to-dude ratio at that event was super lopsided.
Gracie won again, in convincing fashion, using the same choke. With nothing left to prove in Brazil, the Gracie family took its show on the road to California and Japan and the sport of MMA was born.
43. Royce Gracie vs Ken Shamrock
Event: UFC 1 11/12/1993
Winner: Royce Gracie
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
Of all the Gracies, Royce is the most well known. He was the first person admitted to the UFC Hall of Fame. He was also the winner of UFC's 1, 2 and 4. He would have won UFC 3 had he not had to throw in the towel due to injury.
UFC 1 was a bizarre event. There were almost no rules and it was bare-knuckle. No one in America had ever seen BJJ so to watch this scrawny, 178-pound guy manhandle seemingly superior opponents was mad confusing.
Ken Shamrock was a yoked-up wrestler fresh off the boat from Japan where he was a star submission fighter in the art of Pankration. Everyone was convinced he was going to snap Gracie's leg. Less than a minute into the match Shamrock tapped out four times definitively. When Gracie let go of the choke Sham-rock pretended nothing had happened and kept fighting. Get embarrassed on pay-per-view TV much?
Thanks to Gracie's performance at UFC 1, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was validated as the most effective martial art and MMA is now a multi-billion dollar industry.
42. Marco Ruas vs Larry Cureton
Event: UFC 7 9/8/1995
Winner: Ruas
Winning Move: Heel Hook (4:40 mark)
Ruas, known as "The King of the Streets," is the only person rumored to have fought Rickson Gracie to a draw. When Ruas showed up at UFC 7 he was the most complete mixed martial artist anyone had ever seen. He could stop you with strikes, grappling or submissions. He had no shortage of muscles and he looked like Robert De Niro. That always helps with the marketing.
Cureton didn't last long. He got caught in a heel hook and tapped out quickly. The evolution of MMA fighting from UFC 1 to this point was staggering.
41. Carlos Newton vs Kazuhiro Kusayanagi
Event: Shooto - Las Grandes Viajes 2 3/1/1998
Winner: Newton
Winning Move: Armbar
There was a lot of hype around Newton when he first got in the fight game but he was never able to win the big fights. This armbar reversal into an armbar of his own, though... if you listen closely you can hear the bones breaking in Kusayanagi's arm. Yeah, that's gonna require surgery.
40. Shinya Aoki vs Mizuto Hirota
Event: K-1 Dynamite 2009 12/31/2009
Winner: Aoki
Winning Move: Reverse Kimura
Forward to #39 if you're squeamish. This is one of those freakish submissions where one guy has to tap verbally because his arms are so locked up.
Some say this is one of the best submissions of all time. We say, hey Hirota ground defense much? It doesn't look ike he put up much resistance to getting his arm snapped and that cheapens the experience in these parts.
39. Phil Davis vs Tim Boetsch
Event: UFC 123 11/20/2010
Winner: Davis
Winning Move: Modified Kimura AKA the Mr. Wonderful
Haven't we seen this modified Kimura someplace before? Davis may not have invented this move but when Joe Rogan says he's naming a move after you, that's props over here.
38. Pedro Rizzo vs Michael Tielrooy
Event: World Vale Tudo Championship 2 11/10/1996
Winner: Rizzo
Winning Move: Kimura
Rizzo, nicknamed "The Rock," was a disciple of Marco Ruas. He was known as a heavy-handed striker who was hard to knock out. He only recorded one official submission that wasn't due to strikes. This is it.
37. Kazushi Sakuraba vs Kimo
Event: Shoot Boxing S-Cup 7/14/1996
Winner: Kimo
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
This will not be the last time we see Sakuraba or Kimo on this list. Both are old-school legends. The funny thing is that Sakuraba, who made a living in Japan with crazy submission moves, lost his first match to Kimo by submission. That's history, people. Class is in session.
36. Fedor Emelianenko vs Mark Coleman 2
Event: Pride 32 10/21/2006
Winner: Emelianenko
Winning Move: Armbar
By the time Mark "The Hammer" Coleman met Fedor at Pride 32, Coleman was 3-3 in his last six fights and Fedor was undefeated. Two years earlier, when Coleman was a more formidable opponent, Fedor submitted him with an armbar. We're not much for meteorology but apparently lightning can strike the same place twice. Since Fedor won this match, Coleman's career has been in decline.
35. Georges St-Pierre vs Matt Hughes 1
Event: UFC 50 10/22/2004
Winner: Hughes
Winning Move: Armbar
The impressive thing about this stoppage was that it was against GSP who only loses on leap years. Hughes was at the top of his game for this fight and GSP later admitted he fell victim to hero worship and stage fright. They fought two more times after this. All three matches were classics.
34. Demian Maia vs Chael Sonnen
Event: UFC 95 2/21/2009
Winner: Maia
Winning Move: Triangle Choke
Maia is a BJJ master. Perhaps the best in the game right now. He's also a reserved dude who says he wants to win without hurting his opponent. Sonnen, on the other hand, is a tough, shit-talking wrestler with a penchant for getting caught in triangle chokes. The way Maia set up this finishing move was a thing of beauty.
33. Quinton Jackson vs Kazushi Sakuraba
Event: Pride 15 7/29/2001
Winner: Sakuraba
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
Rampage (Jackson) entered Pride 15 on an eight-fight winning streak but no one in Japan knew much about him because he'd never fought outside the States. Sakuraba was the most famous Japanese fighter at the time but in his last match he got the dignity beaten out of him by Wanderlei Silva. Both guys needed this victory. Jackson repeatedly power-slammed Sakuraba and escaped a few submission attempts. Sakuraba, whose bones are made of high-density iron ore, weathered the storm. He ultimately got the bigger man down and locked in that choke. Great match. Even though Rampage took the loss, it raised his stock to legit contender.
32. Ken Shamrock vs Bas Rutten 2
Event: Pancrase: Eyes of Beast 2 3/10/1995
Winner: Shamrock
Winning Move: Kneebar
If you've never seen grown men bitch-slap one another then you've never watched Pancrase. The odd rule of this Japanese fighting organization was that only open-hand strikes were allowed to the face. Everything else (body punches, submissions) was fair game.
A year before this fight, Shamrock submitted Rutten by choke. This time, it was for the title of "King of Pancrase." Rutten was the challenger so he had something to prove. Unfortunately (for him), he didn't prove it. Shamrock finished the fight with a spin move he learned from Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and in the process almost broke Rutten's knee into pieces.
They never fought a third time. Shamrock and Rutten became friends but Shamrock boasted, beating a man two times is enough.
31. Donald Cerrone vs Paul Kelly
Event: UFC 126 2/5/2011
Winner: Cerrone
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
We know what you're going to say: Ben Henderson beat Cerrone twice, including by guillotine choke in their last match... And you're right... though that first loss was questionable, at best.
Since moving from the WEC to the UFC, Cerrone has looked, how do you say in Spanish? Un-stop-ablay? He's already fought three times this year and he's lining 'em up and knocking 'em down. Hey Dana White, where's that title shot at? This rear naked earned Cerrone his first UFC victory. For that, he makes the list.
30. Kazushi Sakuraba vs Carlos Newton
Event: Pride 3 6/24/1998
Winner: Sakuraba
Winning Move: Kneebar
Some fans consider this fight to be the best display of grappling in MMA history. Yet again, Sakuraba came out victorious by submission.
29. Antonio Nogueira vs Tim Sylvia
Event: UFC 81 2/2/2008
Winner: Nogueira
Winning Move : Guillotine Choke
Tim Sylvia is a gigantic guy who throws thunder. Nogueira takes punishment, waits for the right moment then lures his opponents into one of the many submissions in his arsenal. You can never count Minotauro out. He's the Houdini of fighting.
In this match, his second in the UFC, Nogueira was getting pounded mercilessly. In the last round, he pulled Sylvia to the floor and used a guillotine to end the match. It wasn't even the choke that made it so dope. The reversal he pulled to get on top of Sylvia demonstrated a level of grace rarely seen in fighting. The choke was the submission equivalent of a Tim Haradaway killer crossover. Sylvia thought Nogueira was going for the armbar--Oops. Made you look--and found himself locked in a choke tighter than GSP's shorts.
28. Royce Gracie vs Kimo
Event: UFC 3 9/9/1994
Winner: Gracie
Winning Move : Armbar
Other than Sakuraba, Kimo was the toughest opponent of Gracie's career. Kimo was big, fast and mean. Had his head been shaved before the match he may have done the unthinkable and beat Gracie. But it wasn't. Gracie absorbed a lot of punishment waiting for the right moment to strike, but when it came he ended it quickly. Sweat the technique.
Gracie was so battered from the fight he claimed he went blind. He was forced to withdraw from UFC 3, which he was favored to repeat as champion.
27. Kazushi Sakuraba vs Zelg Galesic
Event: Dream 12 10/25/2009
Winner: Sakuraba
Winning Move: Kneebar
Sakuraba has so many awesome tap outs it's hard to pick only a few. If the Gracies weren't so stubborn he'd be on this list a few more times.
At Dream 12 Sakuraba was 40 years old and still squabbing with the young boys. After taking a couple minutes of intense punishment he secured the knee bar and Galesic tapped out. This was the last victory (to date) of Sakuraba's long, illustrious career. We tip our hats to you, Gracie Hunter. Even in defeat you've been spectacular.
26. Bas Rutten vs Yusuke Fuke
Event: Pancrase: Eyes of Beast 3 3/10/1995
Winner: Rutten
Winning Move: Inverted Heel Hook
Bas Rutten AKA "El Guapo" was one hell of a fighter. He's slapped more people in the face than Iceberg Slim. His most impressive professional accolade was finishing his career on a 22-fight unbeaten streak (21 wins, 1 draw). This fight was the first victory in that streak. He snapped up Yuke's ankle so bad dude was flopping around like a fish out of water. Word on the streets is Fuke has been walking with a cane ever since.
25. Cole Miller vs Junie Browning
Event: UFC Fight Night 4/1/2009
Winner: Miller
Winning Move: Guillotine Choke
Junie Browning talks a lot of shit; especially for a guy who hasn't done much in the octagon. Guess that's why they call him the Lunatic. Before the fight he said Miller was overrated. There are good ideas and there are bad ideas. That was a bad idea. It only took Miller two minutes to choke Browning out with the guillotine. After standing up and resting his ball sack on Browning's head, Miller bent down and asked his fallen opponent, "Who's overrated now (bitch)?"
24. Forrest Griffin vs Mauricio Rua
Event: UFC 76 9/22/2007
Winner: Griffin
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
No one gave Griffin a chance in this fight and he took it to Shogun Rua like he was delivering him a pizza. Griffin fights never disappoint, even when he loses, and this was no exception. Others say his best fight was his win over Stephan Bonner but that's a distant second to this classic upset.
23. Brock Lesner vs Frank Mir 1
Event: UFC 81 2/2/2008
Winner: Mir
Winning Move : Kneebar
There's never been any love lost between these guys. When Lesner was making the move from pro wrestling to MMA, Mir let everyone know he thought Brock was a fraud. But Lesner was no Bob Sapp. He was as highly-decorated as a collegiate wrestler as he was a fake wrestler.
Lesner initially took Mir down but was penalized for striking to the back of the head. Yes, there are rules in the UFC! After a reset and a point deduction, Lesnar took Mir down again with the intention of going back to ground-and-pound. Mir attempted an armbar. Lesnar shrugged it off. Mir was one move ahead and caught Lesnar in a kneebar. Cue the Wu-Tang, that's the mystery of chess boxin' right there.
22. Antonio Nogueira vs Mark Coleman
Event: Pride 16 9/24/2001
Winner: Nogueira
Winning Move: Combination - Triangle Choke + Armbar
The Hammer was coming off six straight wins including the Pride 2000 championship. The dude looked unbeatable. Minotauro was 12-1-1 at the time. If this fight was a kung-fu movie, it would've been called Anaconda in Bull's Shadow.
Nogueira used Coleman's aggressiveness against him and sank in a triangle. When Coleman pulled back--which is always the wrong move--Nogueira doubled up with the armbar. It was either tap or get your arm put in a cast. Coleman tapped.
21. Rickson Gracie vs Masakatsu Funaki
Event: Colosseum 2000 5/26/2000
Winner: Gracie
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
Rickson Gracie is like a Sword of Sharpness in Dungeons & Dragons. You don't come across one often. He retired from fighting with a perfect record of 11-0 and was widely considered the best of the seven Gracie brothers. Between '94-'00 he was the man in Japan.
This was his last professional fight. It was held at the Tokyo Dome and broadcast to 30 million people. His opponent, Funaki, was treated to the typical Rickson treatment: slammed, mounted, punched, rolled over, choked out. Enjoy that 401(k), Rickson. You earned it.
Look over there, is that a unicorn?
20. Toby Imada vs Jorge Masvidal
Event: Bellator Fighting Championship 5/1/2009
Winner: Imada
Winning Move : Inverted Triangle Choke
This is another submission some people say is the best ever. Our problem with that is simple: It happened in the BFC. Sure it's all upside down and unpredictable and the fighters were battling, but it's the BFC. That's like saying the best basketball players play overseas... wait a minute.
Regardless, Bellator's a bush league. We've establisahed that. It's still a damn impressive choke. Impressive enough to make the top 20.
19. Nick Diaz vs Takanori Gomi
Event: Pride 33 2/24/2007
Winner: Diaz, though ruled technically as a No contest
Winning Move : Gogoplata
The story of this fight... You can't make this stuff up.
Diaz undressed Gomi with punches in round one. In round two, the fight went to the ground and Diaz slapped on an exotic choke that's seldom seen. Two enthusiastic thumbs up for creativity. But wait, there's more, and it's not an extra Slap Chop.
After the fight, it was revealed that Diaz's pre-fight drug test came up positive for staggering amounts of weed. The drug commission believed he got high before the fight and that gave him an unfair advantage because it numbed the pain. Wow, that's the chronic, son. Diaz denied the allegations but the victory was vacated and ruled no contest.
18. Chan Sung Jung vs Leonard Garcia
Event: UFC Fight Night 4 3/26/2011
Winner: Jung
Winning Move: Twister
This is another rare submission. In fact, this was the first time we saw it done. We can't even explain why or where it hurts.
The guy who pulled it off goes by the nickname, "the Korean Zombie" which is equally frightening and confusing. You don't hear much about the fighting skills of the walking dead but apparently they're well-versed in submissions.
17. Demian Maia vs Ed Herman
Event: UFC 83 4/19/2008
Winner: Maia
Winning Move: Triangle Choke
It's hard to find any fault with this. That's Demian Maia, folks. If you play his game he will transition from submission to submission to submission to submission and eventually you will get caught. Poor Ed Herman. This highlight is going to be on the Internet forever.
16. Anderson Silva vs Dan Henderson
Event: UFC 82 3/1/2008
Winner: Silva
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke (12:30 mark)
This was the fight that made people start saying the Spider is the pound-for-pound king. In his previous six UFC fights, he won five with strikes and one by submission. He was the reigning middleweight champ.
So here comes Henderson, a wrestler with punching power, whose game plan was to take Silva down and rough him up. That worked in round one but in round two Silva touched up Henderson with strikes and took him to the ground.
Remember that movie Momento? That sums up Henderson's night. He forgot Silva was a black belt in BJJ under Nogueira. Silva manuevered Henderson into a bad position, took his back and choked him out. Since then, people have been calling Silva the greatest of all time.
15. Fedor Emelianenko vs Kevin Randleman
Event: Pride Critical Countdown 2004 7/20/2004
Winner: Emelianenko
Winning Move: Kimura
Kevin "The Beast" Randleman never could defend against submissions but, in this fight, it didn't seem ilke he would have too. How Fedor survived getting slammed on his head with so much velocity, we will never know. But he did and, seconds later, Randleman was nursing a severely dismantled arm. For his trouble, Fedor remained undefeated.
14. Roger Huerta vs Clay Guida
Event: The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs Team Serra Finale 12/8/2007
Winner: Huerta
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke (12:00 mark)
Anytime Clay "The Carpenter" Guida is fighting, we're watching. He gives 110% every time out. This match was fast paced from start to finish and the fighters were covered in blood. Guida was beating "El Matador" (Huerta) convincingly for three rounds before Huerta dug deep deep deep in the magic hat and pulled out this choke. It goes down in the books as one of the greatest comebacks of all time.
13. Mark Coleman v Dan Severn
Event: UFC 12 2/7/1997
Winner: Coleman
Winning Move: Side Choke
When Mark Coleman stepped on the scene at UFC 10 the term "Ground and Pound" didn't exist. If that style was Luke Skywalker, Coleman would be it's father. When he faced "The Beast" (Severn) at UFC 12 he was already the reigning 2-time champ. Severn was also a former champ who had mowed down several great fighters. This was a heavyweight super fight. By the time Severn tapped from this side choke he was 3" taller.
Coleman was the first wrestler to truly incorporate striking and submissions into his game. Every wrestler since has used his technique as a blueprint for their style.
12. Frank Mir vs Pete Williams
Event: UFC 36 3/22/2002
Winner: Mir
Winning Move: Mir Lock
You know you're a bad ass when you have a submission named after you. The Mir lock, which no one had seen before this fight, torques the shoulder and will make your opponent cry like a poor kid on Christmas. Just ask Pete Williams. He tapped like he was playing Whack-a-Mole and then retired from fighting. That was nine years ago. His arm is still in a sling.
11. Matt Hughes vs Frank Trigg 2
Event: UFC 52 4/16/2005
Winner: Hughes
Winning Move: Rear Naked Choke
There was always bad blood between these dudes. This was the second time they fought. Hughes taped out Trigg with a rear naked choke the first time and then repeated that in fight two. The endings were almost identical. Trigg did bring it. In this match, Hughes had to survive near submission and a near KO to win the fight.
10. Nate Diaz vs Kurt Pellegrino
Event: UFC Fight Night 4/2/2008
Winner: Diaz
Winning Move : Triangle Choke
Ever heard that saying, "It ain't braggin' if it's true"? Nate Diaz, brother of Nick Diaz, is all about that.
We know, we know, you're supposed to act like you been there before. But in this case, the choke was so well played, we're going to let it slide.
9. Marloes Coenen vs Miesha Tate
Event: Strike Force 7/30/2011
Winner: Tate
Winning Move: Arm Triangle Choke
Marloes Coenen was Strikeforce's bantamweight champ. Fourteen of her 19 victories came by submission. Before the fight, Tate made it clear she was going to take Coenen's title. Coenen made it clear she didn't appreciate Tate's opinion.
The fight went back and forth with Coenen slightly ahead and Tate appearing to be weakening. But in the fourth round Tate snuck Coenen into a side choke and forced her to tap for the first time in her career. Insert bad virgin joke here _______.
8. Brock Lesner vs Shane Carwin
Event: UFC 116 7/3/2010
Winner: Lesner
Winning Move : Arm Triangle Choke
People don't give Lesnar much credit for his skills and in this fight he proved he was more than the biggest guy in the weight division. In the first round, Carwin, who is also gigantic, had Lesner grounded and pounded but somehow Lesnar survived. In the second round Lesnar used his wrestling to set up the choke. Carwin turned red like a pair of Toro Bravo's and had to tap out.
7. Georges St-Pierre vs Matt Hughes 3
Event: UFC 79 12/ 29/2007
Winner: St-Pierre
Winning Move : Armbar
It was 1-1 going into fight three. Hughes took the first by armbar. GSP took the second by TKO. This fight would determine if there was a changing of the guard in the welterweight division. In his most dominant fight to date, GSP treated Hughes like a rag doll, tossing him all over the octagon. In round two, Hughes was so contorted by GSP's armbar he had to verbally tap... as in yelling to the ref, "I quit! Uncle! You win! Dear God, make it stop!"
6. Antonio Nogueira vs Mirko Crocop
Event: Pride Final Conflict 11/9/2003
Winner: Nogueira
Winning Move : Armbar
Fedor was injured that year so Pride matched up Crocop and Nogueira for the Interim Heavyweight Championship. Crocop, a feared striker, was undefeated and hinted, in retrospect, that he was looking past Nogueira. It should come as no surprise that he was taken to the ground and submitted by armbar. As always Nogueira survived some horrific punishment to secure the victory and become the champ.
5. BJ Penn vs Matt Hughes 1
Event: UFC 46 1/31/2004
Winner: Penn
Winning Move : Rear Naked Choke
Hughes was a living legend at the time. His record stood at 35-3 with a 13-fight winstreak. No one could touch him in the welterweight division. Penn was a lightweight and when it was announced he was moving up to fight Hughes, Hughes called Penn disrespectful.
If you want to be the man, you have to beat the man. Never was that demonstrated more emphatically than when BJ "The Prodigy" Penn snuffed Matt Hughes at UFC 46.
4. Royce Gracie vs Dan Severn
Event: UFC 4 12/16/1994
Winner: Gracie
Winning Move: Triangle Choke
Gracie had to pull out of the previous UFC due to injury from a fight with Kimo. When he returned for UFC 4 the family name was on the line. The Gracies hadn't lost a match since 1951 when Joyce's dad (Helio) lost by Kimura to Masahiko Kimura--the guy the lock was named after.
Severn was a seasoned 250-pound wrestler. Gracie weighed 178. Severn was on top of Gracie the entire time and it didn't look good for the smaller man. But BJJ is like booze at a holiday party. It makes things look different than they are. If you let it get to you, you will slip up and find yourself in a compromising situation. Severn, you overdid it homes, you had to much to drink. He tapped. The Gracie family pushed it's win streak to 43(years)-0.
3. Chris Lytle vs Dan Hardy
Event: UFC Live 5 8/14/2011
Winner: Lytle
Winning Move: Guillotine Choke
This is one of the greatest MMA stories of all time. Neither fighter was a champ. It wasn't for a title and it wasn't on pay-per-view. Lytle only had two championship fights in his 54-fight career and they were in inferior leagues. He was known as a well-rounded fighter who always put on an amazing show. Hardy also had a reputation as a crowd pleaser.
At the weigh in, Lytle informed UFC boss Dana White this would be his last fight. His kids were getting too old. He didn't want them to see him fighting and he had aspirations of getting into politics.
A technical brawl ensued. Both men were bloodied and going into the final seconds of the final round, the fight was still up for grabs. Lytle won a last-second scramble and forced Hardy, who rarely taps, to quit and we can't wait to see the dramatic biopic reinacted on the big screen. That's Oscar material.
2. Fabricio Werdum vs Fedor Emelianenko
Event: Strike Force 6/26/2010
Winner: Werdum
Winning Move: Triangle Choke
Much to the chagrin of Rickson Gracie, Fedor was undefeated for a long time and he had way more wins under his belt. It seemed likely he would also make it to retirement without a loss. But last June, Rickson was poppin' bottles like the '72 Dolphins.
At a Strikeforce event in San Jose, Werdum caught Fedor in an unlikely traingle and ended the longest current winning streak in MMA. File that under: Greatest Upset of All Time.
1. Anderson Silva vs Chael Sonnen
Event: UFC 117 4/ 7/2010
Winner: Silva
Winning Move: Combination - Triangle Choke + Armbar
Before fighting Sonnen, the Spider defended his middleweight title against Demian Maia in what could be described as a beautiful nap. For his next fight, an outraged Dana White pitted Silva vs Sonnen, a brash trash-talking wrestler with a record of 25-10-1.
Sonnen talked more shit than anyone has ever talked before a fight. Every time he was interviewed it was like he was reenacting that scene from The Karate Kid where the bully tells Danielson, "Your karate's a joke!" Sonnen went as far as to say Silva's black belt in BJJ was the equivalent of a Happy Meal toy. That's disrespectful to the rap game.
To Sonnen's credit, he came to fight. He was beating Silva handily with striking and takedowns going into the fifth, and final, round. He hit Silva more times in that fight than he'd been hit in his entire UFC career. Sonnen was pitching a shut out on the level of: this is going to be the biggest upset in MMA history.
With two minutes remaining, and fighting off his back, a battered Silva dialed up a triangle choke and Sonnen--who had been beaten by other fights with this move--found himself trapped between Silva's legs like a fart at a board meeting. He couldn't escape and was forced to tap out.
Silva later revealed he had a rib injury and was advised by his doctor not to fight. Riiiiight. More unbelievable, Sonnen tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.