What is the difference between submission and technical submission?
By Jaren Kawada
In most scenarios, grappling is the hardest concept for new MMA fans to understand. It can be difficult to tell who is doing what once the fighters hit the canvas, but most people understand one thing: tapping out means the fight is over.
A tap-out means a submission and a submission means the fight is over. Simple enough, right? So then, impressed by the win, you look at the fighter's Wikipedia page and see he has 20 submission victories. Except a couple of them say technical submission. What on Earth is that?
It is important to note that a technical submission still counts as a submission victory. The main difference between the two on a fighter's record is the way in which the fight was stopped.
What is a submission in MMA?
Simply put, a submission victory is one where the losing fighter relents due to one of many possible submission attempts. In MMA, this most frequently comes from either a choke or a joint lock. There are multiple ways to submit, but the most common is the traditional tap-out.
In other instances, fighters can also verbally submit, such as Hannah Goldy's armbar win over Emily Whitmire. Verbal submissions usually occur when a fighter is physically unable to tap.
However, an injured fighter may verbally request a stoppage as well, which is also a verbal submission, but would likely result in a TKO loss rather than submission. The official result of the fight all depends on the referee's discretion and whether he believes the stoppage was the result of a submission attempt or not.
What is a technical submission in MMA?
However, a technical submission occurs when the referee calls a stoppage to the fight and awards one fighter a submission win even though their opponent did not submit. This is most commonly seen when one fighter chokes the other unconscious, thus forcing the official to stop the fight.
A technical submission can also be the result of an injury. Andre Muniz was awarded a technical submission over Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza in 2021 because his armbar attempt broke the arm of Souza. If the referee deems the injury to be caused by a submission attempt, the result will be a technical submission.
Most technical submissions are the result of one fighter getting put to sleep, but it actually applies whenever the referee believes the fighter is defenseless. They are usually accurate, but not always. Ben Askren was awarded a technical submission over Robbie Lawler even though Lawler did not tap, but referee Herb Dean believed Lawler was unconscious, thus ending the fight.
Similarly, Ricky Simón was given a controversial technical submission over Merab Dvalishvili back in 2018. The fight went the full 15 minutes, with Dvalishvili seemingly winning a comfortable decision. But for the final minute of the fight, Simón held onto a mounted guillotine attempt, causing Dvalishvili to lay on the canvas for several seconds after the final horn before getting up. After the fight, the ringside officials declared Dvalishvili to be unconscious prior to the end.
TKO submissions
In rare occasions, fighters can tap-out or verbally submit which results in a TKO loss and not a submission. This can be tapping out due to strikes or injury. A rib injury forced Diego Ferreira to submit to Mateusz Gamrot while Georges St. Pierre tapped out to strikes against Matt Serra in the biggest upset in UFC history. While both Ferreira and St. Pierre tapped out, their opponents were awarded with TKO victories.
While all that can be confusing, just think about comparing grappling to striking. A knockout victory (KO) is usually granted when one fighter knocks the other unconscious and completely renders them unable to continue. A technical knockout (TKO) is granted when one fighter overwhelms the other to an extent causing an official stoppage, but is still conscious.
In grappling, similar concepts apply with reverse terminology, as a technical submission is the grappling equivalent to a KO.
A submission win comes when one fighter taps out, while a technical submission is the result of a submission attempt fully succeeding to the point of the opponent being completely unable to continue fighting. Both KO and TKO wins fall under the same category as KO/TKO victories, while submission and technical submissions fall under the submission win category.
In most cases, the term technical submission only applies to fighter records. If one fighter chokes the other unconscious, the ring announcer will likely just announce a submission win and not get into the specific details. At least now you know the difference.
Next. NEXT. 5 of the best submissions this year, so far. dark