Background: At successive stages of sports competition, judo contestants aim at achieving the best sports result. Each fight can be resolved by an effectively executed attack before the regular time (ippon or double waza-ari) or by a better score for efficient attacks (waza-ari or yuko). The victory can also be achieved for penalties awarded to the opponent (shido) or when he/she is disqualified for infractions of the sports rules of the International Judo Federation. Material/Methods: The research material was based on the analysis of bouts fought by male competitors during the World Championships in 2014 and 2015. Results: The results of the conducted analysis allow concluding that at subsequent stages of sports competition the number of fights decided by efficiently executed techniques evaluated as ippon or double waza-ari decreased, just as the number of fights won through the opponent’s disqualification. On the other hand, the number of decisions based on a better score for efficient attacks and the number of fights in which athletes won due to penalties given to their opponents increased. Conclusions: At all the analysed stages of competitions, one quarter of the bouts was decided by penalties which were a consequence of committed infractions