The best and worst moments from UFC 228

#3 Best: Two rare submissions highlight the undercard

Aljamain Sterling delivered one of two rare submissions on the card

It’s hard to narrow down a third ‘best’ moment from a show like UFC 228 as there were so many fun moments – from the brutal knockouts from Geoff Neal, Darren Stewart and Abdul Razak Alhassan, to the surprising returns to form for legends Diego Sanchez and Jim Miller. But in the end, you can’t argue with fun finishes, and super-rare submissions are always up with the best of them.

We’ve only ever seen the move known as the ‘Suloev Stretch’ – a kneebar variant from back control that also targets the hamstring – once in the UFC before, by Kenny Robertson on Brock Jardine way back in 2013 at UFC 157. Somehow though UFC 228 gave us not only one version of the submission hold but two – as if the second fighter to deliver it had been inspired by the first!

Aljamain Sterling – who calls himself a ‘human anaconda’ – delivered first in an exciting preliminary fight that ended up being aired on the pay-per-view main card too. In a back-and-forth match with Cody Stamann that was filled with fun scrambles, ‘Funk Master’ finally bust out the rare hold in the second round – after first attempting what would’ve been a UFC-first full nelson submission. It appeared that Stamann was badly hurt, too – perhaps a case of tapping too late.

And then on the main card, vaunted prospect Zabit Magomedsharipov used essentially the same move to finish off the overmatched Brandon Davis. Davis wasn’t quite as hurt as Stamann was, but aesthetically, Zabit’s variation was somehow even more impressive as he also controlled Davis’s right leg while targeting the left with the submission.

Both moves were a thing of beauty and to see two of them on the same card will probably never happen again. Bravo to both men.