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While everyone loves a brutal knockout in MMA, sometimes the art of a slick submission is equally, if not more, impressive. There are only a handful of ways to knock someone out, while the list of submissions we’ve seen used inside the Octagon – from armbars to leglocks to chokes – is massively extensive.
As the sport of MMA has developed and fighters have become more well-rounded, submissions have admittedly become harder to achieve at the elite level – the days of UFC fighters being novices in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, for instance, are long gone – but 2018 has still seen some memorable ones; from triangle chokes to guillotines.
Some fighters though have perfected the art of submission to the point where they’re utterly deadly from seemingly any position, and they’re able to catch even the best fighters in a fight-ending hold. Here are the 5 fighters with the most submission wins in UFC history.
#5 Frank Mir – 8 submission wins
Former UFC Heavyweight champion Frank Mir – now plying his trade in Bellator and close to the end of his career – ranks as undoubtedly the best submission-oriented Heavyweight in promotional history. Over his 15-year tenure inside the Octagon, Mir was able to win via submission on an impressive 8 occasions – meaning half of his UFC wins came by tap out.
Perhaps most impressively, Mir was never an expert at a single submission. 6 of his 8 victories were achieved via different forms of submission hold, with only the armbar and kimura being used on multiple occasions. The former champ tapped out Tank Abbott with a toehold, Brock Lesnar with a kneebar, and even used an ultra-rare shoulder lock to finish Pete Williams.
The point that marks Mir in true infamy however is this one; it’s rare that a submission is used to outright break a limb in the UFC, usually because the fighter on the receiving end taps out before that point. Mir though has broken the arm of his opponent on three separate occasions in UFC action – snapping the arms of Tim Sylvia and Roberto Traven with armbars, and breaking Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira’s arm with a kimura.
Few Heavyweights really perfect the art of submission, but Mir was an obvious exception.
#4 Nate Diaz – 9 submission wins
Nate Diaz might be more famed for his ‘Stockton slap’ these days and admittedly, it appears at times that the Californian would prefer to use his boxing skills to win his fights than his grappling arsenal, but it’s hard to dispute Diaz’s place amongst the great submission artists of the UFC. The Lightweight and sometime Welterweight has 9 on his ledger, more than far higher acclaimed BJJ experts inside the Octagon.
When he first emerged into the UFC back in 2007 in fact, Diaz was practically known as a pure grappler. He won his first four fights via tap out, although his first – in the final of The Ultimate Fighter V – came due to a shoulder injury to opponent Manvel Gamburyan. It was only as his career went on – largely in the years following his brief move to 170lbs in 2010 – that he began to use his boxing skills more than his grappling.
Even then, it was always Diaz’s Gracie jiu-jitsu that he tended to fall back on to win fights. His legendary 2016 victory over Conor McGregor came after a tired McGregor made the ill-advised decision to go for a takedown. Diaz simply swept the Irishman, mounted him and then choked him out. As Diaz claimed, it was hardly a surprise.
Nor was the method of victory, as a matter of fact – of his 9 submissions, 8 have been achieved by some variant of a choke, with the lone exception being his 2011 armbar victory over Japanese legend Takanori Gomi.
#3 Demian Maia – 9 submission wins
When Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Demian Maia signed with the UFC in 2007, he wasn’t just bringing an impressive MMA record – 6 wins, zero losses and 3 submissions – with him. He was bringing one of the most stellar grappling records too, as he’d won the famed Abu Dhabi grappling championships earlier in the year to cap off a stellar list of achievements.
Over the years that have followed, Maia’s grappling prowess has always set him apart from his fellow Middleweights – and eventually Welterweights. Since his arrival in the UFC, he’s won by submission 9 times, meaning almost half of his 19 Octagon wins have come via tap out. In his initial run, he finished 5 straight fights via submission – earning comparisons to the legendary Royce Gracie.
In a fascinating fact, Maia is one of the few UFC fighters to have never won a fight via strikes – his lone TKO win came in 2012 over Dong Hyun Kim when the Korean fighter was forced to quit due to muscle spasms. Essentially, throughout his career, he’s tried to live up to the creed that he stated when he arrived in the UFC – to submit his opponent without hurting them, but without them hurting him either.
Tell that to Rick Story, though – Maia choked him out in 2012 and the submission was compared to someone squeezing juice from a fruit!
#2 Charles Oliveira – 10 submission wins
Most hardcore fans of MMA would probably try to argue that Charles ‘Do Bronx’ Oliveira has never quite lived up to the massive potential he appeared to display when he burst into the UFC back in 2010. That’s why it comes as a surprise to learn that he’s actually got the second-most submission wins in UFC history under his belt.
Now a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Oliveira began training in the grappling-based art when he was just 12 years old, and apparently won his first title in the sport as a white belt around two years later. By the time he made his UFC debut, he was 12-0 in MMA, and had already claimed 5 tap out victories.
Since then, he’s tapped out 10 different opponents over the course of his 8-year UFC career, ranging from 155lbs to 145lbs. Like Frank Mir, he’s a master of a variety of submissions, as he’s used everything from the more common rear naked choke and guillotine choke to rarer holds like the anaconda choke and the ultra-rare calf slicer.
Interestingly though – and in a testament to his reckless style of fighting – Oliveira is the only man on this list who’s also been forced to submit in some of his losses. He was tapped out by Jim Miller via a kneebar in 2010 and guillotined by both Anthony Pettis and Ricardo Lamas in 2016.
#1 Royce Gracie – 11 submission wins
Okay, so it’s a well-known fact that practically every fighter that Royce Gracie faced inside the Octagon – with the odd exception like Ken Shamrock and Kimo Leopoldo perhaps – had little to no knowledge of the art of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Most of them had practically no clue about any form of grappling, in fact. But Gracie’s record of 11 submission wins has still stood the test of time, meaning his legend still holds sway today.
And so while the early UFC events weren’t the Bloodsport-esque tournaments that some modern-day retellings would have fans believe, it wasn’t like Royce was fighting complete tomato cans. While the likes of karate expert Ron van Clief and professional boxer Art Jimmerson were always way out of their depth with Gracie, legitimate tough guys like Kimo and Gerard Gordeau – as well as the legitimately skilled Shamrock and Dan Severn – all fell to Royce’s jiu-jitsu.
Let us not forget either that Gracie was usually fighting at a massive size disadvantage to his opponents –a natural 170lber, Royce faced off with true heavyweights in Severn and Kimo and still managed to force them to tap. Unsurprisingly, none of his submissions were flashy fare either – chokes and armbars mainly, although he does remain the only UFC fighter with a gi-based submission on his record.
While you can question his opposition and point out that he was fighting at a time when few others understood grappling, there’s still no denying the influence of Royce Gracie. It’s because of him that the likes of Diaz and Oliveira are able to use flashy submissions to win their fights today – and so it’s fitting that somehow, he still tops this list – despite his last UFC submission win being well over two decades ago.
