Submission of the Year: Anthony Hernandez vs Rodolfo Vieira

Ariel Helwani, on his show The MMA Hour, named Hernandez vs Vieira as the Submission of the Year.

On February 1^st, 2021 the UFC 258 featured a bout between Anthony Hernandez and Rodolfo Vieira that saw Hernandez submitting Rodolfo Vieira via an arm-in guillotine choke in the second round. Although Vieira, a recent ADCC champion, was already a favorite, the odds of him losing and that too, to a submission, was one of the greatest upsets in the history of MMA. Coming into the fight, Vieira was a -470 favorite and the odds of him losing via submission were at +3000. This also became the first time an ADCC champion was submitted in the UFC:

After surviving the first round, @Ilovebamf just submitted multiple-time BJJ world champion Rodolfo Viera 🤯

Stream #UFC258 on ESPN+ ➡️ https://t.co/HFHv2Np6bq pic.twitter.com/9AK9l1T6xy

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 14, 2021

While Vieira made sure to start off aggressive in the beginning, taking the fight to the ground and showing his grappling dominance by going for submissions right from the first round. Hernandez managed to survive the assault, and after getting back on his feet, landed a couple of decent strikes that made Vieira respect the distance. Having continued the strategy for the remainder of the round, Hernandez managed to damage a gassed-out Vieira who started showing signs of slowing down. The beginning of the second round saw Hernandez going for headshots before locking in a guillotine and dropping down to the guard position to get the tap.