With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from May 2026: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie’s Submission of the Month award for May.
At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.
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Nominee: Kody Steele def. Dom Mar Fan at UFC Fight Night 275
Nominee: Jim Miller def. Jared Gordon at UFC 328
Nominee: Yaroslav Amosov def. Joel Alvarez at UFC 328
Nominee: Song Yadong def. Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Fight Night 277
The winner: Alice Ardelean def. Polyana Viana at UFC Fight Night 276
At UFC Fight Night 276, Polyana Viana submitted – but it appears due to the torque she was inflicting on her own legs. The submission was called a “Capsule lock,” a submission that prior to Saturday’s bout would register few mentions when searched in online search engines. Regardless, the tap came at 4:36 of Round 2 of their strawweight bout.
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The submission occurred when Viana (13-9 MMA, 4-8 UFC) locked in a tight body lock from bottom on Ardelean (12-7 MMA, 3-2 UFC), who was in her guard. As Ardelean sat up, however, the torque of Viana’s own legs against one another resulted in her submission.
Ardelean continued to roll as she extended her winning streak to three. She entered the bout off wins over Rayanne dos Santos and Montserrat Ruiz.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Submission of the Month for May 2026: UFC’s first Capsule Lock
