Explaining the legal status of body slams in MMA

If you’re curious to the legality of body slams in MMA then you may not know exactly how they work. Whilst there are a lot of rules in place regarding slams, the truth is that most people aren’t very educated on what is legal and what isn’t. This is why it’s a bit of a grey area and isn’t always enforced as a strict rule.

In this article, we’ll be looking at whether body slams are legal in MMA and if so why this is. We’ll also be talking about what constitutes being legal and what is illegal when it comes to slamming the opponent.

UFC rules on body slams

In the UFC, it’s permitted to body slam your opponent, provided that you don’t drop them directly on their neck or head. This move is sometimes referred to as a piledriver and you may have witnessed it in professional wrestling.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why this kind of slam is illegal. Simply put, if you’re slammed hard onto your head then it could easily break your neck. This could result in paralysis or even death. Even though MMA may seem pretty hardcore at times, it’s not a full blown barbaric bloodsport and there are rules in place.

This also means that in the UFC, it’s legal to body slam, provided the opponent lands on any area of their body other than their head or neck. Typically, most legal body slams will land people on their back or their side (shoulders). This still has the potential to knock someone out but is deemed legal. An example of this could be seen when Jordan Leavitt knocked out Matt Wiman at UFC Vegas 16. This was fully legal and won Leavitt the fight.

PRIDE rules on body slams

Although the UFC is the main MMA promotion, it’s not the only MMA promotion and different places have different rules. For instance, in ONE soccer kicks are allowed whereas they’re banned in most other promotions.

Regarding PRIDE’s rules on body slams, all forms of slamming were deemed perfectly legal. This meant that you could happily slam someone on their neck and continue fighting without disqualification. One example of this was seen when Kevin Randleman hit a suplex on Fedor Emelianenko in a PRIDE bout. Although this hurt Fedor, he staggeringly continued and actually went on to win via armbar.

Regardless of the result, these sorts of slams are incredibly dangerous which is why they’re now banned in most MMA promotions and countries. It’s important to remember that PRIDE was founded in the 90s when MMA was less regulated and more dangerous, so it’s not too surprising that this promotion had fewer rules or care for personal safety.

The grey area of body slams in MMA

Despite the UFC having clear rules in place when it comes to legal slams, they often go unpunished. In fairness, this grey area is often hard to enforce and is a difficult call for referees to make in the heat of the moment. This is especially the case if the referee has a poor view to begin with.

For instance, when Rose Namajunas lost to Jessica Andrade at UFC 237, she was definitely slammed onto her neck. This prompted many fans to get the result canceled or overturned in favor of Namajunas due to an illegal move. Nonetheless, the win stood and Andrade got the victory.

Sometimes, if someone is slammed onto their neck and shoulder, it could be interpreted that it’s not a spinal slam. Therefore, it may be deemed as acceptable. As MMA doesn’t use video technology to reverse decisions, this is why mistakes can happen. It’s not just Namajunas who has fallen foul to an illegal slam either. Over the years, various UFC fighters have also lost because of them. For the most part though, they’re typically very rare to begin with.

How to body slam in MMA

As a general rule, there are a few positions that allow fighters to hit body slams. These are the following:

• High crotch takedown

• Blast double leg takedown

• Body lock takedown

• Suplex

• Triangle or armbar escape

• Closed guard escape

As seen, a number of these are from takedowns. For instance, if you get under someone’s body with a high crotch, you could easily finish by slamming them to the ground. Whether this is finished in a legal way really depends on your own technique, as well as a degree of luck.

Similarly, a lot of people will slam to escape submissions or positions whilst grappling. For instance, if you slammed someone who had you in an armbar from closed guard, you may be able to hit their back off the mat and escape during the following scramble. However, if you tilted them downward to finish the slam then this could turn into an illegal neck spike.

Conclusion

Although body slams are probably some of the most dangerous moves in MMA, thankfully they’re very rare, to begin with. It often involves a huge strength gap between two fighters which typically doesn’t happen within the same weight category. Aside from this, slams can also be done when one fighter is significantly better at grappling compared to their opponent.

As seen, the rules on slams are quite clear. However, they are difficult to enforce which is why they can often be controversial and lack consistency.