Suloev Stretch

Last updated: June 25, 2026

What is the Suloev stretch?

The Suloev stretch is a leg attack that combines two things grapplers usually keep separate: back control and a leg lock. The attacker stays glued to the opponent’s back, then traps a single leg and pulls it straight until the hamstring reaches the edge of its range. Past that point, the muscle starts to tear, and the opponent taps.

What makes it unusual is where it comes from. Most submissions taken from the back aim at the neck, with the rear naked choke being the obvious example. The Suloev stretch ignores the neck entirely and punishes the leg instead. It tends to appear at a specific moment, when the bottom fighter posts on their hands and feet to shake the attacker off, and leaves a leg straight and exposed.

The pain arrives from two directions at once. The main target is the hamstring, the large muscle along the back of the thigh, which is forced to lengthen under load. The knee is also bent and loaded in a way that resembles a kneebar. That blend of muscle and joint pressure is why opponents rarely last long once it is locked in.

How the Suloev stretch works

Back control sets everything up. The attacker sits behind the opponent, usually with a seatbelt grip across the upper body and one or both feet hooked inside the thighs. From there, the standard escape for the bottom fighter is to tripod, posting on hands and feet to lift the hips and slide the attacker off the back.

That escape is exactly what the Suloev stretch punishes. When the opponent tripods, one leg straightens and comes within reach. The attacker grabs near the heel, keeps the leg trapped, and extends it away from the body while driving the hips down. The hamstring lengthens, the knee bends backward, and the opponent runs out of room.

Commentators often call the finish a kneebar, and there is some truth to that, because the knee does take real pressure. The bigger effect lands on the hamstring. Kenny Robertson, who hit the move at UFC 157, described it in plain terms: when an opponent tripods up to shake the attacker off, you reach down and lift the heel.

Suloev stretch vs kneebar

Most people meet the Suloev stretch through confusion. They watch a fighter twist up a leg from the back, hear the commentator say kneebar, and assume the two are the same thing. They overlap, but they are not identical.

A kneebar hyperextends the knee as its primary goal, straightening the joint past where it wants to go. The Suloev stretch puts most of its force into the hamstring, with the knee pressure as a side effect. Position separates them too. A kneebar is usually finished after the attacker falls back and isolates a leg, while the Suloev stretch keeps the attacker fixed to the opponent’s back the whole time.

The move also gets mixed up with the banana split, a wrestling-rooted submission that pulls the legs apart. The banana split is normally attacked from the turtle position or a cross-ride with one hook in, not from full back control.

Technique	Position	Primary target	Typical setup
Suloev stretch	Back control, both hooks	Hamstring, knee secondary	Opponent tripods to escape the back
Kneebar	Leg entanglement, attacker falls back	Knee joint	Isolating one leg and extending the hips
Banana split	Turtle or cross-ride, one hook	Groin and hamstring (split)	Opponent turtled, legs spread apart

Where the name comes from

The move is named after Amar Suloev, an Armenian fighter from the early MMA era who competed in the UFC, Pride, and other promotions. He first landed it in 2002 against Paul Cahoon at 2 Hot 2 Handle 5 in Rotterdam, submitting Cahoon in about a minute.

The name itself came later. MMA journalist KJ Gould attached the label “Suloev stretch” to the technique in 2013, after Kenny Robertson used a near-identical attack to submit Brock Jardine at UFC 157 and earned a Submission of the Night bonus. Before that, writers had no settled name for it and usually filed it under kneebar or hamstring stretch.

The technique reached a mainstream audience in September 2018. At UFC 228, both Aljamain Sterling and Zabit Magomedsharipov finished opponents with it on the same night, which put the once obscure attack in front of a huge crowd and locked in the name for good.

Is the Suloev stretch legal?

Legality depends entirely on where someone competes. In MMA, it is fully legal, which is why it has turned up in the UFC several times. Under ADCC submission grappling rules, it is also allowed without restriction.

IBJJF competition is murkier. The Suloev stretch is not named directly in the IBJJF rulebook, so its status comes down to how a referee reads it. Because it carries kneebar-style pressure on the knee, and kneebars are restricted to brown and black belts under IBJJF rules, a lower belt who attempts it risks a disqualification. Sources disagree on exactly how it gets treated, so the safe move is to check the specific ruleset before relying on it in competition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the Suloev stretch a kneebar?

Not quite. It applies some of the same pressure to the knee, but its main target is the hamstring. Commentators often call it a kneebar as shorthand because the two look similar from the outside.

Does the Suloev stretch hurt?

Yes. It stretches the hamstring toward its tearing point, and fighters who have felt it describe the muscle giving way almost instantly. It can cause a real hamstring tear when the opponent does not tap in time.

Who invented the Suloev stretch?

It is named after Amar Suloev, who landed it in 2002. Kenny Robertson developed a similar attack on his own during his college wrestling days and brought it to the UFC in 2013.

What position is the Suloev stretch attacked from?

Back control. It works as a counter to the tripod escape, the moment when the bottom grappler posts up to shake the attacker off and leaves a leg straight.

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Sources

1. FloGrappling. “The Suloev Stretch at ADCC Trials: What Is It and How Does It Work?” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.flograppling.com/articles/7666456-the-suloev-stretch-at-adcc-trials-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work
2. Bloody Elbow. “UFC 157 Judo Chop: Kenny Robertson’s Suloev Stretch kneebar submission against Brock Jardine.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/2/24/4023928/ufc-157-judo-chop-kenny-robertsons-vs-brock-jardine-kneebar-submission-amar-suloev-stretch
3. The Body Lock. “The Suloev Stretch: Breaking down the notorious submission hold.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://thebodylockmma.com/mma/the-suloev-stretch-breaking-down-the-notorious-submission-hold/
4. Sonny Brown. “The Suloev Stretch Submission Breakdown.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://www.sonnybrown.net/the-suloev-stretch-submission-breakdown/
5. Wikipedia. “Kenny Robertson.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Robertson
6. Wikipedia. “UFC 157.” Accessed June 2026.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_157

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