I was watching UFC The best of 2010 and i came across the Sonnen vs Silva fight. It was the 4th round and if you've been living under a rock since 2010 then Silva won via triangle. But this is when it it starts to annoy me,( I'm not a Sonnen nut hugger) having some free time i looked up the rules to an actual ''tap''. I couldn't find a website that has actual MMA rules, well apart from Wikipedia. Maybe i didn't look long enough but i found some forums on other sites and everyone had their own opinion to how many taps was needed. Back to the Sonnen fight fight he only tapped the once as seen on the gif. I've always thought that a fighter need to tap the mat/opponent 3 times or more to signal that he was quitting.  

via i37.tinypic.com

I started to think when has their also been a tap and hasn't it counted or not. Fedor lost to Silva is another 1 where he only taps the one time. 

via gifsoup.com

Then I came across this story about. It was about the Sakuraba vs Royce Gracie fight. Apparently Sakuraba was making a fool out of his opponent by tapping on numerous occasions but only tapping twice.

Royce vs Sakuraba

So if someone could shine some light on how many times a fighter needs to tap to be counted as eligible then maybe it would clear the air on the subject.