MMA Junkie's Submission of the Month for November: Arman Tsarukyan's choke

With another action-packed month of MMA in the books, MMA Junkie looks at the best submissions from November 2025: Here are the five nominees, listed in chronological order, and winner of MMA Junkie's Submission of the Month award for November.

At the bottom of the post, let us know if we got it right by voting for your choice.

Nominee: Daniel Marcos def. Miles Johns at UFC Fight Night 264

Daniel Marcos rebounded from his first promotional loss when he viciously put Miles Johns to sleep with with a second-round choke.

Marcos (18-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) had a strong Round 1, then got the job done in Round 2. Johns (15-5 MMA, 6-5 UFC) refused to tap to a rear-naked choke and went unconscious before the referee saved him from the fight-ending squeeze.

Nominee: Henrique Madureira def. Eriglent Prizreni at OKTAGON 80

Henrique Madureira had a serious trick up his sleeve vs. Eriglent Prizreni. In the opening round, he got in position to wrap and tie up his legs around his opponent's neck from the backside, all while they were still on the feet.

Madureira (9-7) managed to lock in the inverted triangle choke and arch his weight down to bring Prizreni (3-1) toward the mat, and by that point it was too late to escape and elicited the tap out to end the featherweight bout just 70 seconds after it began.

Nominee: Asu Almabayev def. Alex Perez at UFC Fight Night 265

Asu Almabayev took advantage of Alex Perez leaving his neck open and snatched the submission finish.

After a competitive flyweight fight for more than 10 minutes, Almabayev (23-3 MMA, 6-1 UFC) landed a wheel kick that seemingly shook Perez (24-10 MMA, 6-6 UFC) a bit, and moments later forced him into a sloppy takedown attempt. He was there for the taking, and Almabayev jumped into a guillotine choke that was tight and forced the tap early in the second round.

Nominee: Kyoji Horiguchi def. Tagir Ulanbekov at UFC Fight Night 265

After more than nine years between UFC stints, former Bellator and RIZIN champ Kyoji Horiguchi showed he's elite in his return to the octagon when he ended Tagir Ulanbekov's winning streak.

Horiguchi (35-5 MMA, 8-1 UFC) was given a hard against the streaking Team Khabib product Ulanbekov (18-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC, but rose to an incredible level of talent when he hurt his opponent with strikes then sealed the deal with a rear-naked choke in the third frame.

The winner: Arman Tsarukyan def. Dan Hooker at UFC Fight Night 265

In their lightweight main event in Qatar, Arman Tsarukyan submitted Dan Hooker in the second round.

Once the fight hit the mat, Hooker had no answers and was forced to either go out or tap from an arm-triangle choke – he chose the latter at 3:34.

Tsarukyan (23-3 MMA, 10-2 UFC) timed his first takedown attempt well, but Hooker (24-13 MMA, 14-9 UFC) did well to keep the fight standing. However, Tsarukyan blasted him with a few hard strikes after the separation. A moment later, Hooker attempted to reverse a clinch by jumping on a choke, but Tsarukyan was able to reverse and take side control, closing out the round with some ground and pound.

With about four minutes remaining in the second, Tsarukyan had Hooker on his back, working from full guard. Tsarukyan steadily landed heavy elbows, and then postured up for a few big punches. With two minutes to go, Tsarukyan slid into full mount, and began isolating an arm for the arm triangle. The squeeze got tighter and tighter, and Hooker had no choice but to tap.

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Submission of the Month for November 2025: Tsarukyan taps Hooker