UFC 2016 Awards: Cage Pages Submission of the Year

Holly Holm had the world on her shoulders, coming off of her knockout of Ronda Rousey. People never gave Meisha a chance, and after four rounds, Holm looks on her way to secure her first title defense and send Tate back to the drawing board. Mid-way through the final round, Tate took the back and threw up a Hail Mary RNC and pulled it off, winning her the title and ending the hype of Holly Holm. If there was a category for Comeback of the Year, this would be the winner of that as well.

Who could possibly stop “The Notorious” Conor McGregor? Stockton’s own Nate Diaz did. Even with the short notice, McGregor did a great job of talking using his metaphors involving wild animals, trying to embarrass and humiliate Diaz, and having all of the hype in the world…..only to fall to a Diaz who was coming off a vacation, having no camp, but one of the realest fighters to ever fight in the Octagon. Diaz’s “Kill or be killed” mentality is one of a real fighter. All the McGregor fans came out with every excuse possible including talking about Nate like he’s a heavyweight. Get outta here with that stuff. Conor ran into a real badass and that’s it. He could do fookin nuttin!

It wasn’t the sexiest submission, but it was a shocking result. As a huge Conor fan, I had thought he was invincible and this incredible moment was devastating and shocking.

Down in the fight, Tate needed her fifth-round rear-naked choke to secure the women’s bantamweight title. Although the year didn’t end up going completely Tate’s way, her submission of Holm was unforgettable.

Similar to Rousey’s inverted armbar in 2015, Dern’s rear-naked choke/omoplata was the perfect combination of creativity and difficulty that has fans excited to see Dern compete in 2017.

No words can define that submission, it was a hybrid supercool lock.

Not only was 2016 the year of titles changing hands, it seemed to be the year of the rear-naked choke. This women’s bantamweight title fight at UFC 196 satisfied both of those occurrences, as Miesha Tate took then-champion Holly Holm into the fifth-round, and locked in an RNC that put Holm to sleep, securing her the title.

McGregor was a clear favorite in this fight, but with a shock takedown attempt from McGregor, Diaz reminded fans that his BJJ is world class with a slick RNC.

For the second consecutive time, Rothwell used the gogo choke for the win. This time, he submitted one of the best grapplers in the heavyweight division, Josh Barnett, in the second round at UFC on FOX 18 in Newark. It was the first time Barnett was submitted by an actual submission.

MVP’s toe hold estima lock thingy against Jeremie Holloway because I’ve never seen that before in MMA.

When you invent a submission in the cage it’s a good chance you’re going to win this award. Twisting Stewart’s body into a pretzel, she pulled off something similar to an Imanari choke but it had never been done from the opponent’s back before.

Forget Miesha Tate and Nate Diaz’s career changing rear naked chokes, because female BJJ phenom Mackenzie Dern made those look simplistic at best when she pulled off an omoplata into a rear-naked choke finish against Montana Stewart in October. How fans are forgetting this submission I will never know.

Just because it was on Barnett who is known as a catch-wrestling wizard.

Conor was dominating the entire match a minute before tapping. Diaz defended a weak takedown attempt and tried multiple submissions. He stayed on the ground to make him tap and pull off a big upset.

This was the choke heard ’round the world. “I’m not surprised motherf***ers.”

Tate’s RNC to dethrone Holly Holm was huge. She needed a finish to win the belt and she pulled it out.

Miesha Tate’s come-from-behind victory in the final round of her title fight with Holly Holm was amazing. Her gutsy execution in that fifth round gave hope to any fighter down in a fight, showing that if you give it your all for the entirety of the bout, good things can happen. Her rear-naked choke may not have been the most technical sub of the year, but for her to hang on to it despite a valiant, flipping effort from Holm, it deserves our recognition. To put the next big thing (at the time) in women’s MMA unconscious, that was incredible.

Holly Holm went and shocked the world by beating Ronda Rousey. Most of us expected she’d hold on to that belt for a while, and for most of her first title defense against Miesha Tate at UFC 196, it appeared we were right. Then Tate locked in a late rear-naked choke, and took Holm out. Tate became the second fighter to hold both the Strikeforce and UFC women’s bantamweight titles – though it wouldn’t last long. Still, as a trailblazer, it was a huge moment.

Just when you think you’ve seen everything MMA has to offer, Mackenzie Dern pulls off an omoplata then turns it into a rear-naked choke while keeping the omoplata in place. The sheer flexibility and skill-level required to pull that off is just unfathomable.