5 fighters with the most submission wins in UFC history

#4 Nate Diaz – 9 submission wins

Nate Diaz might be more famed for his ‘Stockton slap’ these days and admittedly, it appears at times that the Californian would prefer to use his boxing skills to win his fights than his grappling arsenal, but it’s hard to dispute Diaz’s place amongst the great submission artists of the UFC. The Lightweight and sometime Welterweight has 9 on his ledger, more than far higher acclaimed BJJ experts inside the Octagon.

When he first emerged into the UFC back in 2007 in fact, Diaz was practically known as a pure grappler. He won his first four fights via tap out, although his first – in the final of The Ultimate Fighter V – came due to a shoulder injury to opponent Manvel Gamburyan. It was only as his career went on – largely in the years following his brief move to 170lbs in 2010 – that he began to use his boxing skills more than his grappling.

Even then, it was always Diaz’s Gracie jiu-jitsu that he tended to fall back on to win fights. His legendary 2016 victory over Conor McGregor came after a tired McGregor made the ill-advised decision to go for a takedown. Diaz simply swept the Irishman, mounted him and then choked him out. As Diaz claimed, it was hardly a surprise.

Nor was the method of victory, as a matter of fact – of his 9 submissions, 8 have been achieved by some variant of a choke, with the lone exception being his 2011 armbar victory over Japanese legend Takanori Gomi.