In MMA, Is Refusing To Submit Disrespectful?

What about the time Joe Riggs caught Jason Von Flue in a triangle choke, and the latter flipped the bird before tapping out? It wasn’t the most appropriate message to send to younger audiences, but at least Von Flue conceded defeat in the end.

It may not be MMA, but an example from jiu-jitsu competition will help illustrate my point. At the 2004 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Mundials, in the Absolute Division final, Ronalda "Jacare" de Souza fought Roger Gracie. Gracie caught "Jacare" in an armbar and broke his limb when the latter didn't tap. However, "Jacare" was able to "evade" Gracie for the rest of the fight, and consequently won the match via points.

There are many fans in the jiu-jitsu community who believe that the match should have been stopped and Gracie awarded the winner, because he got "Jacare" in a submission which ended up breaking his arm.

Putting your opponent in a submission is the purpose of jiu-jitsu competition, and when the fighter can't escape, shouldn't he tap and concede victory? But there are also those who believe that "Jacare" won the fight, so it really depends on one's own interpretation of the rules and what criteria constitute the winner of a match.

Frank Edgar was on his way to a decision victory over Tyson Griffin before getting caught in a kneebar with one minute left in the third round. Edgar held on and won the fight. But did he prove that he was a better fighter than Griffin? After all, Edgar was saved by the bell after being put in an inescapable situation. If there was no time limit (like in the early UFC days) Edgar would have had to tap and lose the fight.

A similar incident occurred between Josh Barnett and Antonio “Minotauro” Noguiera, when the latter was put into a kneebar but was also saved by the bell. Barnett received the decision victory, but he was also the one who got Nogueira into a position where only the clock could rescue him, and for all intents and purposes, Barnett won that fight (it can be argued that Griffin “beat” Edgar as well, not officially, but technically speaking).

So did Edgar, Noguiera, and "Jacare" show themselves to be better competitors, even though they were “submitted?” I am not suggesting that fighters should tap out every time they get caught in a submission, but I am trying to analyze fights from a purely combat-oriented perspective with an eye on what defines who the true winner of a match is, despite what the scorecards might say.

And if you get saved by the bell, from a certain point of view, you “lost” the fight.

Of course, fighters should do everything they can to escape a submission, but I am talking about a refusal to tap (when they aren't able to escape) which seems futile, unnecessary, dangerous, and which is at odds with the martial spirit within which MMA is supposed to be practiced (at least ideally).

There is no need for heroism and broken limbs in the cage, and safety needs to be paramount. Most fighters cannot afford to get injured and sidelined, and they are allowed to submit at any moment during a fight, for their own good. And MMA is still in its infancy, so we surely don’t need a serious incident inside the cage from somebody playing the role of the tough guy.

On the other hand, mixed martial artists really shouldn’t be holding submissions after the other fighter taps out, but that goes without saying, and could serve as the subject matter for an article on its own. But here I just wanted to raise awareness about an issue that plagues modern MMA and remains a sticking point in the discussion about ethics and sportsmanship in contemporary athletic culture.

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