{"id":165493,"date":"2025-09-24T06:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165493\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T06:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T06:07:08","slug":"dana-white-signs-dwcs-fighter-who-won-via-submission-despite-opponent-not-tapping-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/165493\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White Signs DWCS Fighter Who Won via Submission Despite Opponent Not Tapping Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

That decision left plenty of debate, but for Dana White<\/a>, there was no hesitation. Post-fight, the UFC boss stated, \u201cEvery time you touched him with the right hand, you hurt him. Then you pulled off the submission. 15 fights, 15 professional fights and only 22 years old, I see a very bright future for you, my man. Come on over here.\u201d <\/p>\n

He then called Tobias over, and Laura Sanko sealed the moment with, \u201cRafael Tobias, welcome to the UFC!\u201d The words confirmed what Tobias had been chasing: a UFC contract. One finish, and the dream was now real.<\/p>\n

Now, shifting our focus over to the finish, it\u2019s not the first time a verbal submission has occurred inside the Octagon, as we now take a look at what it actually means.<\/p>\n

Rafael Tobias\u2019s DWCS contract-winning performance drums up confusion about \u2018verbal submissions\u2019<\/p>\n

At UFC 305, a heavyweight clash between Valter Walker and Junior Tafa ended in chaos. Walker snatched a heel hook late in the first round, and as he cranked the submission, Tafa screamed in pain. Referee Steve Percival immediately stepped in, declaring the bout over via \u2018verbal tap-out.\u2019 Walker celebrated. Tafa, however, was furious. He refused to accept the stoppage and even slapped Walker in frustration once the fight ended.<\/p>\n

So why did the referee stop it?<\/a> According to the unified rules of MMA, a verbal tap occurs when a fighter either says they cannot continue or makes audible sounds\u2014like a scream\u2014that clearly signal pain or submission. In the eyes of officials, a scream is the same as tapping with your hand. Even if the fighter insists otherwise, safety takes priority.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t an isolated case. Back in 2019, Claudio Silva defeated England\u2019s Danny Roberts in a similar fashion. Silva locked in an armbar, and the referee heard Roberts scream. The fight was stopped, despite Roberts protesting that he hadn\u2019t submitted.<\/p>\n

The controversy grew so heated that veteran referee John McCarthy stepped in to clarify, as he wrote on X, \u201cA scream of pain is to be considered a verbal tap by the referee. But, it must be a scream. I used to tell fighters all the time I will let you grunt, groan, or summon the gods of stupid strength with a Arrrggghhhh, but don\u2019t scream out like you just turned into an 8-year-old.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Rafael Tobias at DWCS, the confusion mirrored these past examples. While Jair de Oliveira never tapped with his hands, the referee ruled his reaction a verbal submission, securing Tobias the win and, ultimately, a UFC contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That decision left plenty of debate, but for Dana White, there was no hesitation. Post-fight, the UFC boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-165493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}