10 Most Unique Submissions In UFC History
7. Omoplata
Who: Ben Saunders vs. Chris Heatherly
When: UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs. dos Anjos
Ben Saunders has a fairly unspectacular record of nine wins and ten losses in the UFC, but he has the distinction of the first Omoplata submission win in company history on his resume.
After four years off in Bellator, Saunders returned to the UFC in 2014 to face Chris Heatherly, a man who would soon suffer one of the nastiest looking submissions of the decade.
A more savage variant of a Kimura or Americana, the Omoplata is a brutal crank on the arm, pulling at any number of ligaments and muscles as the limb is contorted well beyond its natural position.
The hold is a difficult one to get locked in due to the balance involved in holding the right position with your legs and body while the opponent, quite rightly, scrambles to shift out of the modified side guard.
As you can see in the video above, if it's locked in, there's very little - to nothing - that you can do once the arm is stuck.
The visual alone of the elbow being pointed in the wrong direction, and the shoulder being twisted, is enough to make any casual fan of the sport wince.
Saunders made sure to book his place on plenty of highlight reels for years to come with this rare gem.