Issue 083
December 2011
When it comes to bone-busting arm submissions it’s the fighter’s responsibility to tap out, not the referee’s job to stop the fight
Mario Yamasaki
UFC referee
An MMA referee for 12 years, Mario has black belts in judo and BJJ and refereed the jiu-jitsu Pan-Am Games
Iconic police detective Dirty Harry, played by Clint Eastwood, says a line from one of his movies in which he states: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” Dirty Harry couldn’t have said it any better and this quote sets the stage for this month’s column where we talk about arm breaks.
I have recently come back from a conference, attended by other referees and key regulators of the sport of MMA, where I was asked what I would do if a fighter was being placed in an arm submission, and wasn’t going to tap. I explained that I would allow the fighter’s arm to break. I know many of my colleagues who are referees have had similar discussions which have created a similar stir, and can make some in the industry cringe.
I know this appears to go against the mandate of the role of the referee, where our responsibility is to ensure the safety of the athletes. However, keep in mind that the fighter has the choice to surrender to the submission, through either a verbal or physical tapout. It is one of the cases where we allow the safety of the fighter to be determined by his or her own actions.
Herb Dean decisively made the right call when he stopped the fight at UFC 48 when Frank Mir broke Tim Sylvia’s arm. Dean recognized what had happened immediately by not only looking at the deformed arm, but also by hearing the arm snap. Frank Mir won the fight because he had submitted Sylvia, by what is referred to as a “technical submission.”
The term technical submission has been passed around by some athletic commissions, and by some others in the industry. However, it isn’t one that gets used a lot, and from my discussions with the regulators, participants and fans, it seems simple enough but still isn’t easy to understand. The term is used to describe any submission that is applied to its complete execution.
For example: A fighter goes unconscious during a rear naked choke, or an arm breaks while an arm lock is being applied. So in essence the submission is running its full course and doing what it is designed to do, without getting stopped by the fighter tapping out. It isn’t something that generally happens a lot, and when it does a referee can be criticized for not taking action sooner. After all, the primary mandate of the referee is to ensure the safety of the fighter, so why didn’t the referee do something to prevent this from happening?
Most audiences believe a submission is when someone taps out, because this is what they are used to seeing. In almost all cases, a fighter will recognize when they are in trouble and initiate a tapout. This happens because fighters are used to training in environments where they respect their training partners, and the technique, and tap out when a submission is applied. In training and in sport, it increases the longevity of the athlete, and it is what makes MMA one of the safer combat disciplines.
In terms of history, MMA was based around martial disciplines that have been tested in real world combat from centuries past. Warriors needed skills that could prove useful in battle where they could quickly disable and break a limb or create trauma to any part of the body. A warrior wasn’t looking for a tapout: they were looking to kill or maim.
Fighting in war and fighting in sport are two different things. In sport you depend on training partners and you need to gain their trust and support if you want to develop as an athlete. Hence, tapping out in the training environment is showing respect for the technique, and it allows you to continue to develop as a fighter. You can’t train and fight when you are injured, or if you are injuring other athletes. It is simple as that.
Keep in mind, the only person that knows how much pressure an arm can take when a submission is being applied is the fighter himself. Even then some fighters have been wrong at guessing their maximum stress because bones and ligaments can break and tear unpredictably.
I have witnessed some fights where I felt it was impossible for a fighter to resist a submission only to have them escape.
In UFC 83 two Canadians went to battle: Jason ‘The Athlete’ MacDonald was fighting Joe Doerksen. Doerksen had control of MacDonald’s arm and had it twisted behind his back in a modified kimura. However, despite Doerksen having a very deep submission, MacDonald never submitted. MacDonald eventually reversed this position, and managed to unleash a barrage of elbows on Doerksen to end the fight, with a win. The point being is that MacDonald is the only person who knew what his limitations were. If a referee stopped that fight believing MacDonald was finished, when he was still fighting a submission, it would have been a disservice to the fighter, who went on to overcome the submission and eventually win the fight.
As a referee I am monitoring the fighter who is being placed in a submission. I am going through the possible range of motion of all submissions in my mind, looking for the fighter to tap (verbally or physically). That being done, I also recognize that if the fighter chooses not to submit then that is their choice. If something happens to their arm, the referee will move in to protect the fighter and the fight is over by technical submission. Once again, a man’s got to know his limitations.
