Illegal moves in the UFC and MMA

When MMA first started, it was seen as a brutal bloodsport without rules. Remember, this was during a time when the internet was in its infancy and there were all kinds of crazy rumors about underground fight leagues, martial arts, and fighting.

With this said, it’s not too surprising that the public reacted with fear and annoyance toward MMA. In fact, senator John McCain even lobbied to get it banned and for a time was the UFCs worst enemy. Beyond political grandstanding, it seemed that McCain genuinely hated MMA.

At the same time, some people probably did have a point when it came to the barbaric nature of MMA. This was a time when rules weren’t as strict as today and the safety of fighters was genuinely less respected. Since then, rules have come in and made the sport safer than ever. So, here’s a list of moves that are banned in the UFC.

These rules are based on physically endangering the opponent or simply bad sportsmanship. The result is that if a fighter does these moves, they should be given a disqualification by the ref. Remember, certain MMA promotions have different rules compared to the UFC, so not all rules are universal. So, for any prospective UFC fighters out there, don’t do these!

Strikes to the back of the head or neck

The ancient martial art Dim Mak claims that one of the most dangerous places to get hit is the area between the neck and head, where the spine meets the brain. This isn’t just bullshido nonsense either, you can actually die if you’re hit there with enough force.

Like the liver shot, this is just one of those rare parts of the human body that was designed poorly and is able to be exploited when fighting. When it comes to the UFC, sometimes a fighter will turtle up and cover their head when getting punched. However, this part of their body often remains exposed. This is where fighters can lose from winning positions, by accidentally striking the back of the head, often with elbows or hammer fists.

Honestly, a lot of this decision depends on the ref and their interpretation of the rules. Many will shout “don’t punch the back of the head” to remind the attacker where their strikes should land. Ultimately, it requires a quick judgment call from the ref and is a bit of a grey area.

On the one hand you don’t want to disqualify a winning fighter, on the other hand, the ref doesn’t want to snatch victory away from them if they’re winning and aren’t intentionally aiming for the back of the head. So, sometimes these strikes will go unpunished and are hard to spot in the heat of the moment.

Grabbing gloves, shorts, or the cage

One of the most commonly seen rule breaks in the UFC is grabbing illegal objects. For instance, if a fighter is close to getting taken down, they will defend by grabbing the cage. This means putting their fingers in between the chain links to avoid falling.

Often, this goes unpunished if a ref has a bad view of the hand positions, but really it’s a pretty big deal. If you think about it, the difference between getting taken down and staying on your feet is huge. So, this is why it happens, whether intentional or not.

Sometimes, fighters will also grab the inside of their opponent’s gloves which is often done to defend against rear-naked choke submissions. Again, this can have huge implications for a fight can turn a loss into a potential win. Sadly, this is rarely punished too and points are rarely taken for those doing the action.

Lastly, you’re not allowed to grab the opposing fighter’s shorts. This may sound trivial but it can also be exploited badly if given the chance. For instance, if a fighter has the others arm and tries to submit them, they could defend by grabbing onto the shorts for leverage.

Kicks to a downed opponents

Perhaps one of the most contentious rules in UFC history is the kicks to a downed opponent rule. A grounded opponent is when a fighter has more than two soles of their feet touching the floor. So, this could mean having their palms flat on the ground or their knee touching too. Interestingly, this rule is not in place in other MMA promotions such as ONE FC.

The most infamous example of this was when UFC champion Petr Yan fought Aljamain Sterling where it looked like Sterling purposely stayed down to avoid defeat. This resulted in Yan kneeing Sterling to the head, resulting in a DQ loss whereby Sterling was crowned the new champion.

Because of this, a lot of people demanded changes to the downed opponent rule but this is quite a tricky one to manage. On the one hand, no one wants fighters purposely going down to avoid strikes, on the other hand, it’s a rule for a reason and that revolves around the safety of fighters. Regardless, you’ll see a number of refs have to make some big calls when it comes to grounded opponents and the legalities of the sport.

Piledrivers

The piledriver is a WWE submission whereby the victim is turned upside down mid-air and dropped directly on their head. In the WWE, this is fine as it’s choreographed, but in a fighting scenario, you could easily break someone’s neck or spine during the heat of battle.

This is why piledriver slams are banned in the UFC and it’s pretty obvious why this law is in place. What’s worth mentioning is that you are allowed to slam people, just make sure you don’t spike them on their head. Often, when a fighter is completing a double leg takedown, they will lift their opponent’s entire body in the air, to then slam them back to the ground. So long as the slam doesn’t land with the opponent on their neck, then this is fine. Generally speaking, neck slams aren’t commonly seen in MMA.

Bending fingers & toes

In most MMA promotions, small digit manipulation is illegal. This is basically the term for bending the fingers or toes of the opponent. The reason why this is banned is that it’s pretty easy to break someone’s fingers if they’re bent correctly. For instance, you could grab your entire fist around a single digit and bend it to breaking point. Obviously, four fingers are more powerful than one.

Typically, finger bending is done by people trying to defend their position. An example could be fighting off a rear-naked choke, where survival is key. In desperation, a fighter may grab the opponent’s finger to break a grip or choke. This is bad sportsmanship, but can also hurt the opponent.

Thankfully, most MMA gloves are thick and add padding around the fingers. This makes finger bending very difficult to do because of the gloves, which means this rule isn’t commonly seen. In theory, you could bend the toes but this scenario wouldn’t really make sense in a practical scenario.

Groin strikes

One of the UFCs earlier rules was to allow groin strikes. As a result, you would sometimes see people punching their opponent’s private parts as violently as possible. The reason why this move got banned is twofold. Firstly, it could create severe infertility problems for a fighter which isn’t a nice thought. However, it could also be deemed as unsportsmanlike.

Imagine easily beating an opponent, only for them to kick you in the groin area and quickly capitalizing on this strike. Overall, groin strikes are seen as a cheap move that belongs on the streets. As part of the UFC trying to clean up its public image, groin strikes became banned and the UFC was taken more seriously as a result.

Interestingly, you can still attack the groin by way of submission. The Banana Split submission is also known as the Crotch Ripper and does just that. This involves stretching the opponent’s groin and pulling on the muscle. If the opponent is unflexible, then you may get a submission from this position. This is completely legal, as it doesn’t directly strike the groin which is the key difference.

Biting

An obvious illegal MMA move is biting, which has never been allowed in any promotion. Not only is biting highly dangerous – but it’s also very bad for the public image of MMA. Had bites been legalized, there’s a good chance that people would die whilst fighting.

For those old enough to remember, Mike Tyson infamously bit the ear of Evander Holyfield in their second fight. This got Tyson a huge ban and drew lots of negative attention toward boxing. As MMA has historically had bad press from day one, it’s probably the correct call to ban biting and this expulsion needs little explaining why.

Hair pulling

In earlier UFC events, hair-pulling was legal. This could be used to stall or even hurt your opponent if pulled with enough force. Famously, Royce Gracie armbar’d Kimo Leopoldo in their fight, despite Leopoldo being substantially bigger. It wasn’t always an easy fight for Gracie though who spent a lot of his time on his back, in guard.

At one point, Leopoldo was trying to drop bombs but was stopped by Gracie, who strategically pulled his ponytail back to block the strikes. This was a tactical masterclass but is no longer allowed. Generally speaking, most male fighters don’t have long hair these days, so the rule is mostly void. However, for female fighters – this is a pretty big deal. Obviously, hair pulling is seen as a dirty, cheap move when fighting and makes MMA look bad. So, it’s probably best that hair pulling remains banned.

12-6 elbows

One of the most controversial additions to the list is banning 12-6 elbow strikes. Imagine you’re on a clock and you go from the time 12-6 in a downwards motion. Throwing an elbow in a directly vertical line like this is not prohibited. So, why is this?

According to the legendary ‘Big John’ McCarthy, an early MMA commission banned 12-6 elbows based on old Karate videos. Here, they’d seen Karateka break boards of wood with 12-6 elbows and so they deemed them too powerful and dangerous. Seriously.

If you think about it, dropping elbows at a slightly modified angle, whilst putting all your body weight into it is fully legal, and much more dangerous than landing a 12-6 elbow. Whilst damage can be done by a 12-6 elbow, it’s just not the same. To this day, the 12-6 elbow remains in place – much to the displeasure of MMA fans.

Fish hooks

Fish hooking is the practice of putting your finger into someone’s mouth and dragging them with it. This is not only unhygienic but also a pretty dirty move. In terms of danger, this move isn’t as violent as some of the other techniques put on the list but is still worthy of a ban.

In fact, the person putting their finger in the mouth is probably in more danger than their opponent. The reason for this is in case they accidentally get bitten during the move. Honestly speaking, the main reason for banning this move probably lies in the image of MMA which has often faced the wrath of conservative critics.

Eye gouging

If Fish hooking is illegal in the UFC, then you can guarantee that eye-gouging is also banned. The reason for this is pretty obvious – as ripping someone’s eye out is a crime under any ruleset. This act can immediately blind someone and cause long-term damage.

Sadly, the UFC does suffer from eye-poking which isn’t as dangerous but is still a horrible sight to see. Whilst most eye pokes aren’t intentional, some have claimed that Jon Jones would intentionally eye poke to distort his opponent’s vision. In one bout, Leon Edwards recorded a no-contest after eye-poking Belal Muhammad. Of course, there’s a big difference between eye-poking and eye-gouging and the two aren’t really comparable.

Headbutts

Another move that was allowed in early UFC events was headbutting, which is no longer permitted. Headbutting is allowed in Lethwei, but is otherwise banned in practically all of the other martial arts. The reason for this is that it can supposedly cause concussions and is seen as thuggish.

According to McCarthy, headbutts were made illegal when the UFC moved from cable to mainstream TV. Therefore, this wouldn’t have been in line with their new, improved public image. At the same time, you should always be aware of headbutts when fighting outside of a rule set, because people often neglect them.

Defecation

One of the rarer banned moves from the UFC is defecation. This is the smart way of saying pooping, which is incredibly rare but it has happened. If a UFC fighter is unable to control their bowels, then they will get struck off with a loss.

This reason needs no explanation but the mental image alone is bad enough. What’s even worse is that after the canvas has been wiped down, people often have to continue fighting afterward.

Conclusion

Overall, there are many things in MMA that you can’t do. The reason for this often comes down to personal safety, public image, and even technicalities. Still, it’s worth learning either as a fighter or a fan so you don’t end up embarrassing yourself.

These rules are also a good example of how MMA is different from street fighting. Basically, you should still remember that MMA is ultimately a sport, so it’s not a fight until the death. At the same time, it’s certainly not for the faint-hearted!