MMA FUNDAMENTALS
GLOSSARY
READING TIME · 2 MIN
The MMA and scoring terms you'll meet around the app, in plain language. Filter to jump to one.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Agreed / Disagreed | Whether a card, yours or the community's, picked the same winner as the judges in a decision. |
| Clinch | Close-range grappling while standing, fighting for control, strikes or a takedown. |
| Closest split | A fight the community's cards divided most evenly between the two fighters. |
| Community's card | The score most people gave each round, added up. It names the community's pick. |
| Control time | How long a fighter holds a dominant grappling position; a sign of who dictated the round. |
| Decision | A result reached by the judges' scorecards when the fight goes the distance. |
| Effective grappling | Takedowns, reversals, sweeps and positional advances that threaten a finish or set up damage. |
| Effective striking | The cleaner, harder, more frequent strikes that land and do damage. |
| Ground and pound | Striking an opponent from a dominant position on the mat. |
| Guard | The bottom position where a fighter uses their legs to control and threaten the opponent on top. |
| Knockdown | Dropping an opponent with a strike; a strong marker for a 10-8 round. |
| KO | Knockout — a strike that ends the fight immediately. |
| Mount | A dominant top position straddling the opponent's torso. |
| No-contest | A bout ended without a winner, usually after an accidental foul or an overturned result. |
| Octagon control | Dictating where the fight happens; a tiebreaker on the cards, not a headline. |
| Point deduction | A point removed by the referee for a foul, applied after the round is scored. |
| Rear-naked choke | A choke applied from behind; one of the most common submissions. |
| Reversal | Escaping a bad position into a better one, reversing control. |
| Robbery | A decision where the community's card picked a different winner from the judges. |
| Scoring window | When a fight can be scored: from the day of the event to seven days after. |
| Split (community) | How many people had each fighter winning on their own card, shown as a bar under the community's pick. |
| Sprawl | A defensive move that stuffs a takedown and keeps the fight standing. |
| Submission | A choke or joint-lock that forces the opponent to tap out, ending the fight. |
| Takedown | Bringing the fight to the mat from standing. |
| TKO | Technical knockout — the referee, doctor or corner stops the fight without a clean knockout. |
| Unified Rules | The standard MMA ruleset, including the 10-Point Must System, used by most major promotions. |
| Void round | A round after a stoppage, or the one it came in. It doesn't count toward any card; the app marks it DID NOT OCCUR. |
| Walk-off | A finish so decisive the fighter turns and leaves before the referee steps in. |