Think tough guys (or girls) don't tap to chokes? Think again.

To begin, I offer you a list of names.

Matt Hughes, Randy Couture, Quinton Jackson, Vitor Belfort, Dan Severn, Dan Henderson, Pat Miletich, Chael Sonnen, Josh Barnett, Tito Ortiz.

What’s this, you ask? A list of some of MMA’s best and/or toughest fighters? No, it’s just a very brief and very incomplete list of fighters who have tapped out when caught in chokes.

This shouldn’t need to be said, but since so many people are still gloating over the fact that Conor McGregor not only lost to Nate Diaz at UFC 196, but also physically tapped out to a rear-naked choke rather than having the guts to slip into unconscious, maybe it’s worth pointing out.

Tapping to a choke? It doesn’t make you a wuss. And letting yourself be choked out? It doesn’t make you tough.

I thought most of us understood this, but maybe not. Or, an alternative theory, maybe it’s when we see a female fighter like Holly Holm get choked all the way out right before a male fighter chooses to tap rather than nap that our most immature selves come out of hiding, throwing the kind of gender-based taunts wherein “like a girl” is the most grievous insult we can imagine.

It’s dumb, is what it is. People will tell you that tapping is giving up. Which, I mean, technically it is. But most of those same people don’t have a problem with giving up when a fighter is stuck in an armbar or a heel hook.

Nate Diaz and Conor McGregor

Only an idiot would take money out of his own pocket by purposely injuring himself when he had an opportunity to submit and fight another day, right? That’s why we have the submission option in this sport – because we recognize that sometimes it’s necessary and even better to give up.

But chokes are different because you aren’t risking your joints or bones – just your consciousness. That’s true, but purposely getting yourself choked out when you know you’re caught doesn’t prove that you’ll never give up.

At best, it proves that you will never make the final, obvious gesture of giving up. But if you’re stuck in a choke with no defense in progress, no clear path out, and you choose to do nothing and let yourself be put to sleep? That is still a choice. It’s still a form of giving up. It’s just one that allows you to keep claiming that you’ll never give up. (Unless, you know, someone gets you in an armbar or something – that could really hurt!)

As most people who have practiced the grappling arts can tell you, when you’re stuck in a really good choke, you know you’re stuck. You also know if you have a chance at getting out, or if you’re just waiting around until someone – your opponent, the ref, some benevolent bystander – realizes you’ve stopped fighting and gone night-night.

McGregor’s decision to tap might have earned him that extra little bit of ridicule, but after he’d been pummeled with punches and then put in a pretty textbook choke by a very capable jiu-jitsu black belt, I’m not sure what else people expected him to do. If he’d chosen to go out rather than admit defeat, the only real benefit for him would have been sleeping through Diaz’s post-fight victory flex.

For complete coverage of UFC 196, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

view original article >>