The MMA Top 10 09.03.10: Top 10 UFC Submission Comebacks

Posted by Todd Bergman on 09.03.2010

From Silva vs. Sonnen and Grace vs. Severn to Huerta vs. Guida at the Ultimate Fighter 6's Finale and Lesnar vs. Mir I, 411's Todd Bergman ranks his top 10 Submission Comebacks! Check out the full article to see which fights made the list and why!

Welcome back to 411's MMA Top 10. With the weather quickly changing and football back on the tube, it's a sign that everything in the world is alright. I know that I'm suppose to talk MMA here but I'm pretty stoked about the way that my Reds are playing and with college football kicking off all this weekend, I can't help but talk team sports here for a moment. I'm one of the few people who likes the Bowl system but I will agree that it's broken. However, the plus 1 game has helped but personally I would like to see something of a tournament with the BCS Games added to crown a true National Champion. As far as a prediction for the BCS Title Game, I will go with Boise State, who really doesn't play anyone other then a severely overrated Virginia Tech team this Monday. I really don't want Ohio State to make it but I think that their defense is among the best in the national and should be able to cake roll the weaker Big 10.

I'm going to take Boise State with the shocker to win the title. Kellen Moore is an absolute stud of a QB and doesn't turn the ball over. Pryor might get the Heisman based on his bullshit stats and Kirk Herbstreit's man love for his former university. With all of this said, I'm a massive Florida State fan and I can't wait to see them win the ACC and then win the Orange Bowl. If any of you actually watch college football then let me know what team you are supporting below. Anyway, lets get into the Top 10 this week and it's focus on The Top 10 UFC Submission Comebacks. It's not an easy list to conjure up because there are so many. However, like in the previous week's, I think that I've got a good mix of old and new and some of the in-between. Hope that you enjoy it and lets get into it.

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10) Jon Fitch vs. Roan Carnerio

Event: Ultimate Fight Night 10

This was only the second time that the very underappreciated and much talked about Jon Fitch would appear on UFC TV even though he was 5-0 coming into this bout. His opponent Roan Carnerio was just suppose to be another stepping stone to the former Purdue wrestler. Early on Roan surprised Fitch with a takedown and a near front choke submission. Fitch was in trouble and was lucky to have survive the choke but he spent the rest of the first round trying to regain his breathe and composure. Once the 2nd Round started, Fitch came out like a completely different fighter as he turned the fight in his direction by showing an improved striking technique. Sensing that he was in trouble, Carneiro tried to shoot in on Fitch. An great scramble on the ground lead to Fitch controlling Carneiro's back. Once the fight hit the mat, it appeared that Fitch had broke Carneiro and it wasn't long before Fitch was sinking in the fight ending Rear Naked Choke. Similar to nearly every other submission on this list, it just proves that if you can survive the bad situations, you will have your opportunities to end fights. Fitch took his time and this victory should forever stay on his highlight reel as the wrestler choked out the BJJ Black Belt in come from behind fashion.

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9) Pete Sell vs. Phil Baroni

Event: UFC 51- Super Saturday

Not much was expected of Pete Sell as he stepped in on short notice for an injured Robbie Lawler against the "New York Badass" Phil Baroni. Lawler had injured his elbow in training and while Sell would be making his UFC debut with a total of 5 pro fights, he showed that solid conditioning and a vast toolbox of submissions can snatch a win away from the jaws of defeat at any given second. For the better part of two rounds, Baroni controlled & outworked Sell. While Pete did take the fight on short notice, Baroni was the one who gassed out early in the 3rd Round that allowed the Matt Serra trained fighter to seek his opening. Baroni successfully took Sell down but his impaired state of thought, given his conditioning, forged the way for Sell to catch Phil in a tight guillotine choke. It was all that she wrote for Phil as he tapped out to the submission after a brief conversation from referee Mario Yamasaki & Pete Sell regarding the conscious or unconscious state that Baroni might have or might have not been in.

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8) Paul Taylor vs. Marcus Davis

Event: UFC 75- Champion vs. Champion

I've got to admit that there are a few MMA fighters that I cannot stand and one of them is Marcus Davis. I'm really not sure what it is about the guy but it's really hard to say a whole lot of positive things about him. However, this article isn't about liking a fighter and therefore, I've got to acknowledge his great submission victory in this fight. The fight from the start was a high octane slugfest that quickly turned into a ground battle because of Taylor's head kick that nearly knocked Davis back to the land of the Leprechauns. I'm really not sure how Davis survived but I do know that the head kick legitimately knocked out Davis and Paul's ground shots actually woke Marcus up. On a hope and prayer, Davis was able to snatch an arm and twist his hips and lock on an arm bar victory for the "Irish" fighter. Had only Notre Dame football been so lucky in the last couple of years.

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7) Stefan Struve vs. Denis Stojnic

Event: UFC 99- The Comeback

Not many people have seen this bout from UFC 99 but I strongly encourage you to do so if you love beat downs, blood, and submissions. Clearly ranking off of the Muta charts when it comes to blood flow, Stefan Struve was busted open from a brutal assault that Stojnic busted out early in the second round. Many people at the time didn't know that Stojnic, who was very disappointing in an earlier fight with Cain Velasquez, was a high level striker training out of the Golden Glory gym. Like most in this list there came a time when stamina played a factor and that was after the assault in which Stojnic made the mistake of following Struve to the ground. That mistake would cost him a victory in this fight as the crimson masked Struve fought off a near Doctor's stoppage and a pretty deadly Bosnia fighter to win the fight. Do yourself a favor and buy this on the UFC site or get the DVD because Joe Rogan's comments about the cut are neither worth the cash alone.

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6) Roger Huerta vs. Clay Guida

Event: The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale

Whether you like him or not, you have to respect the heart & passion that Clay Guida brings to the Octagon on any given night. The weeks leading up to the fight had fans discussing this bout much like a title bout. Many fans thought that Guida would run through Huerta because of Huerta's high profile ability of being protected by the UFC up till this point. The great thing about this fight is that no matter how you personally feel about each guy, you had to love the fight. The fight in itself was another classic case of a wrestler dominating a striker. Guida threw Huerta around the cage and landed some pretty big strikes even though Guida is hardly known as a power puncher (I'm not saying that he isn't and if you don't believe me as dos Anjos). One punch in particular was the sick sounding right that caught Roger as he was getting back up from the ground. That punch quickly sent Roger back to the ground and Guida continued his assault.

Since this is a Comeback Submission article, it's obvious that Huerta comes back at some point and boy did he. Sensing that the fight was clearly going to way of Guida, who had won the previous two rounds. Huerta was in desperation mode and quickly found out how to stop a rabid caveman. Guida slow started to telegraph his takedowns and Roger waited for the last possible second before he landed an senses shattering knee to the face of Guida that dropped Clay. 10 seconds later and Roger had sank in the fight ended submission and claimed one of the most exciting come from behind wins in UFC history.

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5 Tie) Big Nog vs. Tim Sylvia

Event: UFC 81- Breaking Point

On the same night that Brock Lesnar & Frank Mir nearly tore the bar down, Big Nog staged another improvable comeback at the hands of Tim Sylvia. I must admit that when I did my MMA Breakdown on 1260 AM, a Fox Sports Affiliate here in Indianapolis, I picked Sylvia to win based on his striking and Nog's previous performance against Heath Herring. For the better part of 2 and ½ rounds, my prediction was correct as Sylvia battered Nogueira around the Octagon with strikes and surprising takedown defense. Several times in round one and two, Nog was very close to being stopped and maybe it should've been given the end result on Nog's face post fight. With that said, all of the punishment in the world couldn't prevent that textbook sweep to choke that Nog placed on Sylvia in the third round.

When the legacy of Antonio Nogueria is written, the Cro Cop fight in PRIDE & this fight against Sylvia will be a prominent feature of the article. Given his last performance against Cain Velasquez, it's hard to tell if Nogueria's end is near but on this night, he gained a lot of fans for his tremendous heart and laid claim to being one of two fighters to say that he has held a major title in PRIDE & the UFC. If the end is near, then a trip to the UFC Hall of Fame will soon follow the Brazilian should be in order.

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5 Tie) Chris Leben vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama

Event: UFC 116- Lesnar vs. Carwin


By a show of hands, how many of you thought that Leben was going to win by submission in this fight? For that fact, how many of you thought that Leben was going to win after watching the first two rounds? It appeared that taking two high profile fights within a month of each other was wearing on Leben in the first two rounds. However, it was his opponent Akiyama that was feeling the effects of the titanic struggle that was occurring. Leben, using his Rocky like strategy of taking the physical beating from his opponent until they tire, was working like a charm. At the start of the 3rd Round, the cameras showed each fighter and Leben was jumping up and down while Akiyama had his hands on his knees.

While Akiyama was tired, he still managed to plant Leben on his ass with a beautiful right and did some ground damage. However, it wasn't till after the fight that we found out that Akiyama didn't respect the ground game of Leben. That pivotal fact came into play as Akiyama got insanely careless and found himself caught in a textbook triangle choke. Leben, much like Anderson Silva set up the choke with some short elbows from the bottom. Akiyama, stunned by the elbows, moved his arms up by his face and that's the opening that Leben needed to complete the comeback. This fight along with the Aaron Simpson performance has won Leben a bunch of new fans and his future is looking bright. Personally, I was in favor of Leben vs. Wandy as the next coaches of TUF but it appears that this won't happen. I'm really hoping that it won't happen but it looks like Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard will both coach the next season and likely fight for the title on the TUF Finale. Sounds crazy right? Well maybe fighting for the title on Spike is but seriously, that title fight is a no draw title fight. Also, didn't Dana promise us something after the Silva title fight against Maia?

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4) Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar I

Event: UFC 81- Breaking Point

I will forever remember this fight because it was one of the few times that I actually went to a bar and watched the event instead of ordering on my own. The build up to this fight split the MMA community down the middle. Mir was the MMA veteran and had a great deal of support from the MMA community even though he wasn't the most respected fighter. To some, Mir was the guy who got a lot of publicity for basically beating tomato cans. Brock Lesnar was the former WWE Superstar who was coming off a failed attempt at making the Minnesota Brett Favres…I mean Vikings. The UFC to their credit did a tremendous job of talking about Lesnar's actual wrestling credentials instead of just playing up the WWE nonsense. I will say that when the UFC cameras showed Stone Cold in the crowd, the bar crowd marked out like a bunch of 8 year olds. I will admit that Stone Cold is a legit bad ass and if you follow him on Twitter, a pretty cool cat.

The fight itself was pretty controversial as Lesnar was bringing the pain on Mir until ref Steve "The Moustache" stopped the fight because Lesnar landed a punch or two to the back of the head after a warning from Steve. I will say that I completely agree with what Steve did because Lesnar's punching more then likely carry more power then others, so the ref had to be a little more careful in this situation. You also figure in that Steve didn't want Lesnar to go ape-shit with illegal punches given Brock's lack of experience within a high pressure MMA fight.

Anyway, after getting his ass kicked for a few minutes, Lesnar made a critical mistake of basically placing himself into a leg submission and Mir took advantage of it. For what it's worth, both guys have greatly benefited financially and professionally from this fight. Their UFC 100 re-match was one of the highest grossing UFC pay per views of all time and time will tell if these two will complete their fight trilogy in the future. Obviously, I can't rank this fight #1 because of the "controversy" but it's a fight that got a lot of new faces in front of the TV set and brought a lot of annoying people into the sport as well.

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3) Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg II

Event: UFC 52- Couture vs. Liddell 2

Two weeks ago, I did a Top 10 revolving around Matt Hughes. I thought that I did such an amazing job breaking down that fight that I would re-write what I had previously said about that fight here. Coming into this bout there was an insane amount of intensity based on their previous encounter in which Hughes submitted Trigg via Rear Naked Choke at UFC 45. Adding to that intensity was the pre-fight stare down in which Trigg stepped closer to Hughes, which prompted Hughes to shove Trigg. Mike Goldberg said something stupid that followed the stare down, luckily the fight matched the pre fight talk & stare down.

A minute into the fight, Trigg nailed Hughes with a twig & berries shot but referee Mario Yamasaki completely missed it. Trigg acting like a complete douche bag refused to acknowledge the illegal shot and went in for the kill. Trigg promptly took Hughes' back and tried to sink in a fight ending Rear Naked Choke. What happened from here is something that has become a defining moment in UFC & MMA history. Hughes told us at the UFC 90 Q&A that for the first time in his career he got mad. Well getting mad meant that Hughes would proceed to pick Trigg up and carry him the entire distance of the Octagon and slam him down like Trigg owed him some money. From there, it was a mere formality because Trigg was gassed & Hughes was pissed. A deadly RNC finished the fight and gave Matt Hughes one of the best comeback wins in UFC history. Whether you like Matt Hughes or not, you have to love this comeback from a blatant illegal shot.

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2) Royce Gracie vs. Dan Severn

Event: UFC 4- Revenge of the Warriors


There's nothing funny about having your ass kicked by a sweaty, mustached man for nearly 15 minutes before mounting your comeback submission victory but that's exactly what Royce did in this fight. Outside of Ken Shamrock, Royce Gracie hadn't fought anyone that could negate his BJJ other then the powerful wrestler known word wide as "The Beast." Severn was a budding pro wrestling star over in Japan and was spending his evenings working as a caterer. UFC 4 was also the first time that major league asshole Senator John McCain tried to shut down the show by contacting the Tulsa D.A. and the pay per view companies but due to a huge rise in pay per view buys, the show went on as scheduled.

This was only the beginning of the problems for this show as there was only 12 minutes left for broadcast and the main showdown between Severn & Gracie was yet to go on. Severn, didn't care about any sort of time limit as he took Gracie down and held him there until most of the pay per view feeds went black. Those who weren't insanely irate at losing the feed, weren't particularly about Severn avoiding and holding down the BJJ Wunderkind either. The crowd didn't know what to think because Gracie had never taken this long to submit his opponents. Was this mustached, nut hugging tights wearing, wrestling monster, the kryptonite to the BJJ phenomenon? Well in a word, no. Minutes after the nearly every PPV feed went dark, Gracie proved to be the better man as his use of the rubber guard landed him another submission victory.

This time the victory came from a sensational triangle choke. Severn and those in attendance were once against surprised at the ability of Gracie to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. I remember this event because our feed at my buddies house didn't go black but ordering the event through the massive satellite in the backyards company was a hassle and turning the satellite to G5 (if you aren't in at least your 20's, you have no clue what the hell I'm talking about) took nearly 10 minutes. All in all, it was a great night and something that I will always remember.

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1) Anderson Silva vs. Chael Sonnen

Event: UFC 117- Sonnen vs. Silva


Not many people thought that Chael Sonnen would be able to back up the months worth of trash talk that lead up to this monumental UFC 117 showdown. Many writers, including myself thought that Sonnen was talking so much trash because he was scared. The finish should've been an easy conclusion given the fighting abilities of both but on this night, Anderson Silva had to prove that he was an all around fighter and just not a flashy striker. Much of Sonnen's talk leading up to the fight talked about how Silva was going to have to win this fight off of his back because he was going to get taken down repeatedly. For the better part of 4 ½ Rounds, Silva was on his back and getting dominated to say the least. Sonnen mixed up his takedowns and waited for Silva to over commit with his strikes. It was a beautifully executed game plan by the Team Quest fighter. The ending appeared to be a lock as Sonnen was cruising to a decision win.

Well that was until the only real thing that has plagued the career of Sonnen. That "thing" was his lack of submission defense when he gets a little too comfortable with his wrestling. The same "thing" happened in the Babalu, Maia, Jeremy Horn (2x), Filho and an earlier Forrest Griffin fight. I'm not going to say that this is something that you can predict given that each fight is different but it appears that if you are going to beat Chael Sonnen, you better know how to secure a triangle choke from the bottom. The technique that Silva used was also a lot different then most of those other submission defeats against Sonnen. This one was out of complete desperation and really out of left field when you think about it. The beating was so one-sided in conjunction from the actual finish that Dana White has awarded Sonnen an immediate rematch in 2011. Will the same thing happen again? I seriously doubt it but Sonnen definitely deserves another shot to try to finish the job.

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So there is the Top 10 Submission Comebacks in UFC history. I hope that you enjoyed the list and make sure you come back next week for The MMA Top 10 as I take on a list that revolves around the Top 10 Knockouts in UFC History. Enjoy the first weekend of College Football. Remember to support your local MMA and keep your tapping hand strong.