Revisiting the Top 20 UFC Submissions: A BJJ Look Back
Back in September 2014, the UFC put out a slick highlight reel of its top 20 submissions to date — a quiet lap of honour for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu inside the cage. We flagged the clip at the time…
Words: Jiu Jitsu Style
Back in September 2014, the UFC put out a slick highlight reel of its top 20 submissions to date — a quiet lap of honour for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu inside the cage. We flagged the clip at the time and asked a simple question: what did they leave off? Watched again from 2026, the reel is less a definitive list and more a museum piece — a snapshot of where the UFC's BJJ pedigree was just before everything sped up.
The names on that video are exactly the ones a serious Jiu Jitsu student would expect. Royce Gracie in the early tournament rounds, with the gi and the choke that started the whole conversation. Frank Mir twisting a kimura around Tim Sylvia's elbow joint like he was tying a knot. BJ Penn riding the back of fighters who had no answer for the position. Demian Maia chasing arms with the same patience he brought to every IBJJF match he ever stepped into. Anderson Silva turning a clinch into a triangle on Chael Sonnen with seconds left on the clock. Submissions of that calibre don't age. Twelve years on, they still play exactly the way they did then — clean technique, real consequences, all of them sitting on the foundation laid by a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu academy somewhere along the line.
What the list looks like with twelve more years on it
The fun question now isn't what the UFC missed in 2014. It's what would have to be added if they cut the same reel in 2026. Charles Oliveira would headline it on his own. Between his all-time UFC finish record and a highlight tape stacked with anacondas, guillotines and rear naked chokes, "Do Bronx" has effectively rewritten the conversation about Jiu Jitsu inside the cage. Khabib's neck cranks and triangles in his title run. Brian Ortega's guard work. Islam Makhachev's BJJ-fluent top game. Beneil Dariush and Arman Tsarukyan submitting top contenders on short notice. On the women's side, Mackenzie Dern's invitations into her guard, Amanda Nunes' full submission kit, and a steady drumbeat of armbars and chokes from a division that barely existed on the original 2014 reel.
It's not that the modern UFC has more submissions than the old one. It's that the level of Jiu Jitsu in the room has lifted. Almost every contender now carries a real black belt or a deep grappling background; ADCC names cross over freely; the Ruotolo brothers, Craig Jones and Gordon Ryan have made high-level BJJ legible to a UFC audience that, a decade ago, mostly wanted the knockout reel. The line between elite Jiu Jitsu and elite mixed martial arts is thinner than it has ever been.
What the BJJ student takes from a list like this
For those of us on the mats, the takeaway from any "top 20 UFC submissions" reel is the same as it's been since Royce's first tournament. The submissions that win at the highest level of MMA are not exotic. They're the same rear naked choke, triangle, armbar, kimura and guillotine your coach drilled with you in your first six months of BJJ. What changes is the setup, the timing and the willingness to take the position when it's there. Pull up the old video on YouTube. Watch a modern UFC submission compilation on the same tab. You'll see the same five or six finishes over and over again, dressed in different shorts.
The 2014 clip was a celebration of the first twenty years of Jiu Jitsu inside the UFC. A 2026 cut would simply be a continuation of the same story. The lesson stays put: drill the fundamentals, respect the position, and trust that the technique that finishes a world title fight is, at heart, the technique your coach has been teaching white belts for years.
See you on the mats.
Originally published in Jiu Jitsu Style, 25 September 2014. Refreshed for 2026.