John Albert: High-Level Fighters Know When to Tap

John Albert, on “Beatdown,” discussing his fight with Erik Perez, which was stopped by referee Kim Winslow when Perez applied an armbar:

“She just was trying to protect the fighter, and that’s pretty much it. I didn’t say tap, I didn’t yell tap, I didn’t scream in pain. I initially grunted when he was on his hip and torqueing my arm pretty good. He had it real tight and it was on that verge of breaking, but as soon as I put his hip to the mat, there was no more grunting. I was working my way around, stepping and she just came in and stopped it, which was unfortunate. ... I had tools -- I had my feet, my hands and my mouth to choose whether or not I wanted to submit. ... You’ve got to understand, when you’re in a lock position, you have all the tools to choose whether or not to fight. We’re at the highest level of the sport. We’re at the highest level of athlete we can be and we understand the sport. It’s not like we have never fought before and we don’t know what’s going on with our arm. We’ve been training for years. We’ve been fighting the top-level guys. We understand what’s going on, and I understand my body. I know if I want to fight the next day, I’m not going to let my arm break. That’s pretty much it. I’m a humble guy. I have no problem admitting a loss. I have no problem admitting a win if that’s how the sport is. It’s a sport. I was not ready to lose that fight and I would have been more than happy to tap if he was going to break my arm.”