8 UFC Records That Will Be Broken (And 8 That Won't)
10. WON'T - Highest Submission Win Percentage (Min. 5 Fights)
Record: Royce Gracie - 100%
Next Best: Gunnar Nelson - 87.5%
Now this one does have a little asterisk with it, but bear with me.
There is absolutely no disputing that 10 of Royce Gracie's 11 UFC wins were all finished via various submissions. However it's his fourth fight at UFC 2 (yes, he fought four times on one night!) that is a little contentious in the record books.
Against Patrick Smith, Gracie ended the fight after laying into his opponent with a flurry of punches while on the ground. Smith tapped out, a towel was also thrown in and the ref stopped the bout, all within about three seconds.
The fight was announced as a submission via punches. However, some record the fight as a submission win, and others as a TKO due to the punching aspect. Let's not even deal with the towel situation.
Anyway! Because it's called a submission via punches, it's going down as a submission in my book, making his incredible UFC career a submission clean sweep in the victory department.
His 11 subs from 11 wins took the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu legend to three of the UFC's first four tournament victories and a place in MMA history.
Three other fighters have a submission percentage north of 80%, the highest of those being the Icelandic grappler Gunnar Nelson, who has finished seven of his eight wins through submission, but no one will likely get near Gracie's perfect record.