When Is It Ok To Tapout

There should be no confusion who is the winner of a fight. There should be no replay necessary to be sure about the outcome. When a fighter is placed in an arm bar that may be career jeopardizing then there is no doubt they have tapped. As we all saw on Silva vs. Sonnen fighters in a choke are slightly apprehensive to tap. It was possible that Josh Rosenthal could have been fooled by Sonnen’s confused look and allowed the fight to continue. That is because there is little danger in a choke it is just uncomfortable. If you are stuck in a choke if you can hold on and continue to do anything you can you may even make it long enough that the ref stands you up. There is the good possibility that you may escape the attempt. Sonnen was close to getting out but had done something that resembled a tap and had hopes of continuing. He was not even sure why he tapped himself. After the fight when Josh Rosenthal came to him he said “I believe you”. There is no reason to have to believe someone else on whether you tapped or not.  This was also on display during Lesnar v. Carwin, you could see in his eyes that he did not want to tap, but he had no choice? He could have tried anything possible for many moves there is a counter. Even if the counter is something unorthodox that you just come up with on the fly. If you are getting paid to try and be the champion you should continue to do whatever you can until it is just physically impossible as seen by Ricardo “Big Dog” Almeida. He was placed in an uncomfortable position and was going over his options in his mind until he was out. No confusion there, no replay needed. There was no reason to go to the replay it was obvious to everyone that he had lost and the fight was over.  The vigor with which a fighter taps during arm bar and choke are completely different. During a choke they tap as if they are trying to fool someone into letting go and then proceeding on, without the ref noticing in hopes of continuing the fight. The fans start booing because they are unaware of what is happening. They don’t tap as urgently as when there is risk of one of their tools being snapped in half. They never leave a question in the minds of the ref, the fans, and the fighters. With an arm or leg being bent into unnatural positions and serious injuries on the line it takes no time to figure out.  The fans can see the end of the fight when someone gets knocked  out or when they are put to sleep.