Results are reported in shorthand that hides real distinctions. "TKO round two" covers a fighter who was out on their feet and one who was pulled out by a doctor between rounds. Here is the full set.
Knockout and technical knockout
A knockout is a fighter rendered unconscious by a legal strike. It requires no referee judgement about whether to continue, because there is nothing to judge.
A technical knockout is a stoppage where the fighter is still conscious. It comes from one of several sources: the referee decides the fighter is no longer intelligently defending; the corner throws in the towel; the ringside physician stops it; or the fighter is unable to continue through injury. All are recorded as TKO, which is why the abbreviation tells you much less than people assume.
Submissions
Three varieties, and only one involves a tap:
- Tap out. The fighter physically taps or verbally submits. This is a voluntary concession and is by far the most common.
- Technical submission. The fighter does not tap and is rendered unconscious by a choke, or a joint is damaged badly enough that the referee intervenes. The submission is completed without consent.
- Verbal submission. The fighter tells the referee they are done, common when both arms are trapped.
A submission win is recorded with the hold, which is worth reading — "submission (rear-naked choke)" and "submission (heel hook)" describe very different fights and very different recovery timelines.
Decisions
If the fight goes the distance the judges' cards decide it:
- Unanimous: all three judges score for the same fighter.
- Split: two judges for one fighter, one for the other.
- Majority: two judges for one fighter, the third scores a draw.
- Draw in its own varieties: unanimous, majority, or split, depending on how the three cards fall.
Draws are rarer than they should be given how close some fights are, largely because the ten-point must system pushes judges toward picking a winner in every round.
Outcomes that are not wins or losses
A no contest means the fight did not produce a result: an accidental foul before the halfway point, a fighter unable to continue for reasons neither caused, or a result overturned afterwards — most often by a failed drug test. It does not go in either fighter's win or loss column.
A disqualification is a real win for the fouled fighter and a real loss for the offender.
A technical decision is a genuine result decided on the cards after an accidental foul ended the fight past the halfway point.
Why the method matters
A record of 20-3 tells you almost nothing on its own. Three decision losses in close fights and three knockout losses in eighteen months describe two entirely different fighters at two entirely different points in a career. Method, round, and the gap between fights carry more information than the record itself.