Submission

A submission is a fight-ending technique, a joint lock or a choke, that forces an opponent to concede rather than risk serious injury or unconsciousness, and it's one of three ways to win a fight alongside knockout and judges' decision. The defeated fighter signals surrender by tapping, on the mat or on the opponent, or verbally telling the referee to stop it. The sport's most common submissions each attack differently: chokes like the rear-naked choke cut blood flow to the brain, while joint locks like the armbar hyperextend a limb until the fighter caught in it has to choose between tapping and a serious injury. Elite grapplers don't just hunt these positions randomly, they chain them, threatening one submission to force a defensive reaction that opens up a completely different one. More on how submissions actually get finished at Fight Encyclopedia.