MMA StatBook

Most submission attempts in UFC heavyweight history

Frank Mir and Stefan Struve share the UFC heavyweight records for most submission attempts with 21 submission attempts.

UFC fights only. Updated October 20, 2026.

#FighterSubmission attemptsFights
1 Frank Mir 21 27
1 Stefan Struve 21 24
3 Aleksei Oleinik 15 17
4 Gabriel Gonzaga 11 22
5 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira 10 11
6 Rob Broughton 9 3
7 Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 8 6
7 Jailton Almeida 8 9
9 Ciryl Gane 7 14
10 Randy Couture 6 14
10 Pete Williams 6 8
10 Ricco Rodriguez 6 7
10 Ben Rothwell 6 17
10 Fabricio Werdum 6 18
10 Valter Walker 6 6
16 Kevin Randleman 5 5
16 Josh Barnett 5 10
16 Andrei Arlovski 5 42
16 Alexandr Romanov 5 10
20 Mark Coleman 4 4
20 Harry Moskowitz 4 2
20 Scott Adams 4 1
20 Branden Lee Hinkle 4 2
20 Matt Mitrione 4 14
20 Christian Morecraft 4 4
20 Sean McCorkle 4 3
20 Luis Henrique 4 5
20 Serghei Spivac 4 16
20 Jake Collier 4 8
30 Maurice Smith 3 7
30 Vitor Belfort 3 5
30 Kimo Leopoldo 3 3
30 Ron Waterman 3 4
30 Wes Sims 3 3
30 Marcio Cruz 3 4
30 Brad Imes 3 3
30 Jeff Monson 3 6
30 Christian Wellisch 3 4
30 Cheick Kongo 3 18
30 Antoni Hardonk 3 8
30 Cain Velasquez 3 15
30 Mirko Filipovic 3 11
30 Ruan Potts 3 3
30 Alistair Overeem 3 20
30 Juan Espino 3 3
30 Ryan Spann 3 4
47 Kazushi Sakuraba 2 2
47 Joey Roberts 2 1
47 Marco Ruas 2 1
47 Ian Freeman 2 6
47 Renato Sobral 2 1
47 Paul Buentello 2 6
47 Tom Murphy 2 1
47 Dan Christison 2 2
47 Colin Robinson 2 2
47 Brock Lesnar 2 8
47 Dan Evensen 2 2
47 Mike Ciesnolevicz 2 1
47 Tim Hague 2 5
47 Mike Russow 2 6
47 James McSweeney 2 2
47 Gilbert Yvel 2 3
47 Travis Browne 2 17
47 Shane del Rosario 2 2
47 Brendan Schaub 2 11
47 Nikita Krylov 2 2
47 Francis Ngannou 2 14
47 Marcin Tybura 2 25
47 Dmitry Sosnovskiy 2 1
47 Chris de la Rocha 2 4
47 Maurice Greene 2 8
47 Rodrigo Nascimento 2 8
47 Tom Aspinall 2 10
47 William Knight 2 2
47 Alexander Volkov 2 19
47 Vitor Petrino 2 4
47 Mario Pinto 2 4

Related records

How we count: results and statistics are from official UFC fight data. Strike and takedown numbers only exist for fights where the UFC recorded them.