6 UFC Fighters with Most Submissions in Title Bouts

UFC Title Fights are momentous occasions for the promotion. For any fighter to be given the honour of getting the right to challenge for the title, they must have worked their way up their fighting in numerous difficult bouts one after the other, working their way up the roster.

The UFC Title Bout is a moment that any fighter waits for breathlessly so that they have the honour of saying that they competed in a Title Fight in the most prestigious Mixed Martial Arts company in the world. The ultimate goal, for each fighter, is to hold gold in their respective divisions, so that they are recognised as the best fighter in the world in that division at the moment.

When the bout finally arrives, it is a tense moment for both the challenger and title holder, as a few moments in the Octagon will determine their future. So, at that moment, it is important that they specialised in a particular finish so that they can use it in their fight, to end the bout as soon as possible for them.

Among these, there are those fighters who specialised in submission holds. Their capability with submissions have seen them win numerous times in different fights, but when it comes to title fights, it helped them out a lot more as well.

In this list, we will talk about 6 stars who won the most title fights with the use of submissions.

#6 Ronda Rousey - 3 Submissions:

Ronda Rousey may now be a WWE star, but in her prime, she was the woman to bring a huge change and what can now ironically be called a revolution in the world of Mixed Martial Arts. Arriving in WWE during the middle of their Women's Division being changed up, Rousey seems to have a talent for being where the change is happening.

During her tenure in UFC, however, it was she who inspired the start of the Women's Division in the Mixed Martial Arts Titan. She had an undefeated run, holding onto the UFC Women's Bantamweight Title, seeming completely indomitable to anyone who looked at her run in the company. She would eventually be knocked off her perch, with two back to back fights which saw her leave the sport entirely, but for a long while, it appeared that she could not be beaten.

Her three Submission wins for the title in UFC were against big name fighters. The first one was in the fight against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157, and the second came in the very next bout in UFC 168, where she faced and took out Miesha Tate.

Her final win by Submission in a title bout came when she took on and defeated Cat Zingano in an infamous 14 seconds. Her fight against Miesha remains the longest of her UFC career, going into the 3rd round, but she was still able to get her to submit 58 seconds into the third round. Her submission move of choice was the armbar, a kayfabe version of which she still uses in the WWE.

#5 Matt Hughes - 3 Submissions:

One of the biggest legends of the Mixed Martial Arts scene, although retired, Matt Hughes is still on the record books for several reasons. One of those reasons happens to be the fact that he is tied for the 3rd most submissions in a Title Bout in the UFC.

Making his debut for the company from UFC 34, he featured in more than just a few UFC fights, with 22 pay-per-view fights for the company under his belt. During a large portion of his time with the company, he was the UFC Welterweight Champion.

On each of the three occasions that he won in the title bout with a submission, his submission of choice was either the Rear Naked Choke or in one particularly epic fight with Georges St-Pierre, it was with the Arm Bar.

#4 BJ Penn - 3 Submissions:

Yet another person tied in the 3rd position, with 3 submissions in title bouts, BJ Penn is yet another legend of the business to share the record.

Although towards the end of his tenure with the company, he lost more fights than he won, there was a time when the prospect of facing him in the Octagon was something that no one looked forward to.

Each of his title matches, which he won via submission, came from the use of the Rear Naked Choke, which had the opponent tapping to escape. One of those wins, funnily enough, came against Matt Hughes.

#3 Jon Jones - 3 Submissions:

Jon Jones has been the source of much controversy in the UFC. Thought to be one of the top prospects in the company, he, unfortunately, got mixed up with violations of the USADA laws and is currently facing both legal action and a long suspension.

With this in mind, he has had a good run in the UFC so far, with several wins with the Title. 3 of his title bout wins came from submission finishes. His wins came against Quinton Jackson, Vitor Belfort and Lyoto Machida, with a Rear Naked Choke, Americana and a standing Guillotine Choke.

While at this point, he is not in a position where he can talk about when he comes back, his fans will hope that he can come back and break the record, as he still has quite a few years in front of him if he were to be cleared to fight in UFC again.

#2 Frank Shamrock - 4 Submissions:

The last person that you could possibly want to face inside the Octagon at any point in time, is Frank Shamrock. One of the most dangerous men to ever enter the Octagon, he is also the second person on this list to also have been a massive part of the WWE product during the Attitude Era.

With an incredibly varied move set, Shamrock was someone everyone thought twice about facing back in the day, as almost each of the submission wins in title fights came in different ways, with one armbar, one kneebar, and two submissions via punches. His wins came at UFC Japan, UFC Brazil, UFC 17, and UFC 22.

Shamrock remains second on this list, with the only next and final fighter having had more title wins by submissions.

#1 Demetrious Johnson - 5 Submissions:

Demetrious Johnson is one of the most dominant fighters in the UFC to this date, and his record of having held the UFC Flyweight Champion for 12 bouts in a row is proof of just that. He is the only person to have held the championship other than Cejudo as he won it when the title was inaugurated.

Johnson recently lost the title to Cejudo, however, having the title for as long as he did it is natural that he has 5 submission wins in Championship bouts. The wins were against Ray Borg, Wilson Reis, Kyoji Horiguchi, Chris Cariaso, and John Moraga with 4 armbars and one kimura.

He is yet to return to action after his UFC 227 loss, and when he does make a comeback, he is sure to swinging for the fences to get back on top with a Championship once again.

Which current fighter do you think can break this record? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Edited by Rohit Nath