Sherdog’s 2023 Submission of the Year

What makes a “Submission of the Year?” Every year across the globe, hundreds of fights end by submission: in dingy nightclubs as well as packed arenas, employing techniques that range from sublime elegance all the way to bone-snapping brutality, yet only a few stick in our minds. What sets those special finishes apart, if previous Sherdog Year-End Awards are any indication, is a mixture of two elements: impressive technique, and high stakes or historical relevance. For example, our 2017 “Submission of the Year” saw Demetrious Johnson launch Ray Borg into the air and somehow secure an armbar on the way down, a mind-blowing bit of aerial ballet that looked more like a professional wrestling finisher than a practical application of jiu-jitsu—in an Ultimate Fighting Championship title fight, no less.

While high-level MMA in 2023 may not have offered quite the same level of did-he-really-do-that fireworks, there was no shortage of grapplers coming up big on the biggest stages. Among the vote-getters in our poll, Abdoul Abdouraguimov opened the year with a bang, hitting a clutch kneebar on Rafal Haratyk with less than 30 seconds on the clock to snatch victory from the jaws of almost certain defeat in their middleweight title fight at Ares FC 11 in January. It was a harbinger of things to come, as many more belts would change hands via submission before the year was out.

UFC 285, which took place on March 4, featured a trio of candidates for “Submission of the Year.” Undefeated welterweight contender Shavkat Rakhmonov notched his biggest win to date in the feature fight, throttling Geoff Neal with a standing rear-naked choke to cap off a fantastic back-and-forth battle. In the main event, Jon Jones announced his return to the sport after three years away by tapping out Ciryl Gane with a first-round guillotine choke to claim the UFC heavyweight title. All of the drama would have to come from Jones’ comeback and new status as a two-division champ, however, as he made the fight itself look shockingly easy, folding the massive Frenchman like an ironing board at the base of the fence in two minutes.

In between those two worthy entries, Alexa Grasso challenged Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title. Shevchenko was the promotion’s longest-reigning champion—and arguably its most dominant, regardless of weight or gender. While Grasso was considered a deserving contender, the champ as usual entered the cage that night as the prohibitive favorite, as high as -1000 on some books. The best Grasso could hope for, the conventional wisdom dictated, would be to acquit herself well in defeat, pushing Shevchenko to at least break a sweat as previous challengers such as Taila Santos and Jennifer Maia had done.

For most of the fight, that is exactly how it played out. Grasso’s vaunted boxing, mixed with effective leg kicks, gave Shevchenko trouble in the early going. The champ made adjustments, leaned on her perennially underrated wrestling and grappling, and was up either two rounds to one or three to nil entering the fourth frame.

What had been shaping up to be yet another routine title defense for “Bullet” against another valiant challenger turned in an instant into something else entirely when Shevchenko threw a slow spinning kick late in the round. Grasso, already too close to be in the effective range of the kick, closed the rest of the distance in a flash and jumped on Shevchenko’s back, hauling her to the canvas and sinking both hooks in one smooth motion. By the time the crowd erupted Grasso was already applying a rear-naked choke on the champ, who was facedown on the canvas.



Shevchenko did her best to defend, bucking and twisting to try and get Grasso off of her back while fighting the choke with her hands, as they rolled to their backs. In the end, the challenger’s arm did not even need to get under the chin. Grasso locked up the hold and squeezed with all her strength as the T-Mobile Arena exploded, and seconds later, the tap came. Shevchenko’s title reign, and her nine-fight win streak, had come to an end due to what had effectively been a face crank.

It was one of the signature moments of 2023 in mixed martial arts: a sensational submission, capping off a massive upset in one of the most entertaining events of the year. While the official result reads as either “Submission (Face Crank)” or “Submission (Rear-Naked Choke),” neither truly does justice to the lightning-strike speed of Grasso’s finishing sequence on one of the best ground fighters in the sport. It was absolutely electrifying, and it is Sherdog’s 2023 “Submission of the Year.”