Most Submission Attempts in a UFC Round

Most submission attempts in a single round, by one fighter or by both combined. Five-minute rounds only: UFC bouts with round-by-round data, 1999–present.

50 record performances
1
James Wilks
James Wilks vs DaMarques Johnson
R1 20 Jun 2009
8
2
Rob Broughton
Rob Broughton vs Vinicius Queiroz
R3 16 Oct 2010
6
2
Jessica Eye
Jessica Eye vs Kalindra Faria
R1 14 Jan 2018
6
4
Raoni Barcelos
Raoni Barcelos vs Raul Rosas Jr.
R4 26 Sep 2026
5
4
Mackenzie Dern
Mackenzie Dern vs Randa Markos
R1 19 Sep 2020
5
4
Louis Smolka
Louis Smolka vs Ben Nguyen
R2 13 Jul 2016
5
4
Tim Credeur vs Nick Catone
R1 1 Apr 2009
5
4
Miguel Baeza
Miguel Baeza vs Khaos Williams
R1 13 Nov 2021
5
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4
Renato Sobral
Renato Sobral vs Kevin Randleman
R2 11 Jan 2002
5
4
Loopy Godinez
Loopy Godinez vs Elise Reed
R1 16 Sep 2023
5
4
Matt Arroyo vs John Kolosci
R1 8 Dec 2007
5
4
Josh Sampo
Josh Sampo vs Ryan Benoit
R2 30 Nov 2013
5
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4
Polyana Viana
Polyana Viana vs Mallory Martin
R1 13 Feb 2021
5
4
Nadia Kassem
Nadia Kassem vs Alex Chambers
R2 18 Nov 2017
5
4
Chris Lytle
Chris Lytle vs Jason Gilliam
R1 7 Jul 2007
5

The most submission attempts ever packed into one five-minute round — by a single fighter, and by both fighters trading threats.

The Most Submission Attempts in a Single UFC Round

Every entry here is one grappler, one opponent and one five-minute window. The list ranks the rounds in which a fighter threatened the finish more times than anyone else has managed inside a single frame — first by one fighter, then by the two-way total when both athletes were hunting.

That five-minute cap is what separates this record from the single-fight version. A fight total rewards volume spread across up to twenty-five minutes, which naturally favours five-round main events; a round total rewards density. The fighter who chains four or five real attempts before the horn ranks above one who logged the same number slowly over a full bout, and a losing effort counts exactly as much as a dominant one.

How these records are measured

An attempt is recorded when a fighter genuinely applies a submission — a choke, an armbar, a leglock — rather than merely gripping for position, and the count is taken from the official statistics for that specific round. Switch between the Single Fighter and Combined tabs to see individual finish-hunting against full back-and-forth exchanges, filter by division, and open any row to read the fight in full.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the record for the most submission attempts in a UFC round?
James Wilks, with 8 submission attempts. Set against DaMarques Johnson at The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom Finale, June 2009. Second: Rob Broughton (6). Measured over UFC bouts with round-by-round statistics recorded on MMA.SOCIAL. A bout with no per-round data cannot appear here.
What counts as a submission attempt in a round?
A submission attempt is logged when a fighter genuinely applies a choke, armbar, leglock or similar hold with intent to finish, and this board counts only the attempts recorded inside one specific round. Grips taken merely for position are not counted, so the leaders here are compressed grappling storms: a chain of real finishing threats thrown before the horn.
Why can one round outrank a whole fight on a grappling list?
It cannot outrank it on raw total, but it measures something the fight list cannot. A twenty-five-minute main event gives a grappler five separate windows to accumulate attempts, so the fight record leans toward long championship bouts. Here every entry is capped at five minutes, so the ranking is decided purely by how fast the attempts came — which lets one wild scramble on an early prelim sit beside a title-fight performance.
Which rounds tend to produce these numbers?
There is no bias built into the ranking; every scored round counts the same and the round number is shown on each row. In practice the biggest counts cluster where a grappler gets an early back-take or a fading opponent starts giving up position late, so both opening rounds and deep rounds are well represented.
Does a round like this usually end with the tap?
Often it does not. A fighter can throw a half-dozen genuine finishing attempts in five minutes and still hear the horn, because defending a submission is a trained skill in its own right and every escape resets the sequence. Open any row to see how the fight ended, and which of these rounds finished the night and which the defender survived.
Most Sub Attempts — Round, MMA.SOCIAL leaderboard: 1. James Wilks (8 sub attempts), 2. Rob Broughton (6), 2. Jessica Eye (6)
Leaderboard - top 10, updated Oct 29, 2026.
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What is the record for the most submission attempts in a UFC round?

James Wilks, with 8 submission attempts.

Set against DaMarques Johnson at The Ultimate Fighter: United States vs. United Kingdom Finale, June 2009. Second: Rob Broughton (6).

Measured over UFC bouts with round-by-round statistics recorded on MMA.SOCIAL. A bout with no per-round data cannot appear here.