When picking the best fight, knockout, and submission of January 2017, the submission category was for sure the toughest to narrow down a winner. Was it Diego Brandão’s beautiful helicopter-armbar finish over 20-1 grappler Murad Machaev? Or was it Valentina Shevchenko’s unexpected (and brutal) armbar finish of Julianna Peña?
Those two seemed to be the most discussed, but it seems as though people have already gotten some of the fights in 2017. UFC Fight Night 103 took place on January 15 in Phoenix, Arizona. The undercard featured an intriguing heavyweight fight between veteran Alexey Oleynik and prospect Viktor Pešta.