The 10 Dirtiest MMA Fighters Of All Time

Despite MMA initially being a sport with very few rules, there have always been fighters who found a way to break them regardless. Now that there are more rules to break, fighters are disqualified a lot more than they used to be. Not only this, but points are now taken away from fighters who seriously infringe, or make a very large infringement during a contest.

Fighting dirty has and will always be used in combat sports, especially when a lot of infractions happen because of a genuine accident. Groin strikes are a typical and continuous problem in MMA when a low kick is thrown and the opponent moves either backwards or forwards in to the shin of the kicker. Various other infringements are also natural reactions for fighters such as grabbing the cage when you are being taken to the ground.

In short, it can be difficult to distinguish genunine accidents from gamesmanship, so fighters are often given the benefit of the doubt for minor infractions.

Dirty fighters are loved by few, but hated by the majority of fans. This is because finding ways to skirt the rules to win is beyond most peoples sense of morality. Whilst some people may consider using rough and unconventional tactics “dirty” – this is not what this article is about. Below are a list of fighters who regularly flout rules and sometimes go well beyond this, with their actions resulting in fines, suspensions and sometimes even life changing injuries for their opponents.

Lastly, many fighters have done horrific things in their personal lives outside of the cage. These incidents do not make them dirty fighters, but sometimes the two go together as you will recognize some names on the list.

The Dirtiest MMA Fighters Ever

#10 – Jon Jones

Whilst Jones is well known for his personal troubles in day-to-day life, there is also no doubt that he is one of the greatest fighters the world has ever seen. However, he is also well known for his dirty tactics and is well known for being a serial eye-poker. Perhaps most frustratingly is that Jones has never been penalised for poking his opponents in the eye – something which is instrumental in deciding who wins a fight.

Jones claims “I don’t believe it’s dirty. It’s something that I do instinctually, it’s something that I need to work on. It’s just something that happens.” Regardless of whether you believe this or not, it seems Jones has made no effort at all to change the way he fights as he continues to get away with at least one eye poke per fight. In his championship fight against Glover Texeira, he managed to poke his opponent in the eye on 3 separate occasians.

#9 – Renato Sobral

If the skills of Renato Sobral was as large as his ego, there is good chance he would have been UFC light-heavyweight champion, a feat which he almost acheived regardless of his dirty tactics.

At UFC 74, Sobral refused to release an anaconda choke on his opponent after he had tapped, causing him to go unconscious. He was still awarded the win, but fined $25 000 and subsequently released from the UFC. Afterwards Sobral claimed his opponent David Heath “had to learn respect” and “deserved that”.

#8 – Keith Hackney

Somewhat of a cult figure, Keith Hackney is primarily known for repeatedly punching Joe Son in the groin at UFC 4. In a now comedic clip, Hackney punches Son in the groin around 20 times, made all the more hilarious by the fact that these punches were actually legal and Son is wearing bright red speedos.

The clip is actually celebrated since Son is serving life imprisonment for a torture charge and murdered his cell mate in 2017. Hackney is one of the few dirty fighters on the list who people actually appreciate.

#7 – Cheick Kongo

Kongo is notorious for nothing other than groin shots, an area of fighting that he is a specialist in. No doubt, a very accomplished fighter regardless of his dirty tactics, Kongo is yet another fighter who seems to show no remorse for his actions. In relation his fight against Crocop, Kongo claimed “the last knee to the balls, it wasn’t an accident”, having performed this “technique” through the entire fight and hit this area at least 4 times.

Kongo has many other incidents of kneeing to the groin, holding his opponents shorts and also kneeing a downed opponent in the head. Astoundingly, Kongo was only deducted a single point from all of his fights despite his huge number of infringements.

#6 – Jamie Varner

A fighter with ridiculously loose jaw muscles, or perhaps just spits out his mouthpiece whenever he feels he is in trouble. Not only this, but he has called illegal shots on himself when he feels like the fight is not going in his favor.

When it comes to the mouthpiece Varner is a serial offender, having spat it out in 3 different fights. Not only this, but every time the mouthpiece of Varner came out, it was when he was rocked and looking very hurt.

Varner has called his own timeouts to the referee on more than one occasian, so clearly feels like he makes the rules when inside the cage. A fighter that based his whole strategy around gaming the officials and trying to make his opponents lose points, it’s no wonder than Varner was booed by fans in almost every fight he took part in.

#5 – Mike Kyle

Mike Kyle is a man with a long rap sheet of cheating and hurting opponents after the bell in various MMA promotions. His first recorded incident is eye poking opponent Krzysztof Soszynyski so badly that their fight had to be stopped and ended in a draw.

In his very next fight, Kyle soccer kicked opponent Brian Olsen in the head whilst downed and continued to punch him in the head long after the bell, he had to be pulled away by the referee and was subsequently suspended. This incident repeated itself later in Kyle’s career as he was DQ’d for doing exactly the same thing against Travis Wiuff despite having already won the fight and proving this was no accident.

Lastly, in UFC 47, Kyle was in a deep guillotine by Wes Sims and bit his chest to get out. This was proven in the aftermath since the bite marks were very visible on the chest of Sims. In the post-fight interview, Kyle did not deny this and claimed “He’s a dirty b****** anyway”, cementing his legacy as one of the dirtiest fighters in history.

#4 – Rousimar Palhares

A name that strikes fear in to those that value their knee ligaments. Palhares is a grappling based MMA fighter who does not seem to understand that tapping means the fight is over. He is a man who does not value the referee or the opponent, but decides when enough is enough himself.

In his career Palhares has not let go of a kimura on Jake Shields which saw him stripped of the WSOF championship, as well as being fired from the UFC for not letting go of heel hooks on 2 different occasians.

For those that are not familiar with submission grappling, both of these submission holds can cause serious and career ending injuries. The aforementioned kimura will break a shoulder joint, where as the heel hooks will rip knee ligaments apart requiring surgery to repair them.

After being caught in 3 different fights, it’s clear that Palhares has no care for any of his opponents and is mentally unstable.

#3 – Branko Cikatic

Not many people will remember Cikatic as he was one of the earliest MMA fighters in Japan. A Croatian kickboxer, Cikatic has success knocking out several high level opponents competing in mixed and strange rulesets during the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Cikatic has 2 diqualifications under kickboxing rules having hit 2 different opponents after the bell. In addition to this, he was given a no contest in PRIDE 1 after kicking his opponent whilst on the floor. He had not learnt his lesson by the time PRIDE 2 had rolled around where he would not let go of the ropes when instructed to do so by the referee and finished off with some illegal elbows to the back of Mark Kerr’s head

#2 – Gilbert Yvel

Quite clearly a man with severe anger issues, Yvel is only the 2nd dirtiest fighter since he hasn’t caused life changing injuries to an opponent, but otherwise is deserving of number 1 spot. The past behaviours of Yvel have been so bad that he had to have hearings with various state governing sports bodies in order to compete.

His first major rule breaking incident happened when he bit an opponent during a fight. Not long after this, Yvel was disqualified yet again, this time for eye gouging UFC legend Don Frye.

Lastly, Yvel has attacked a referee after he didn’t agree with his decision to break up a clinch. A strong left hook from Yvel left the referee on the floor, where he gave him a kick for good measure.

#1 – Gerard Gordeau

It’s arguable that Gordeau is the worst offender since he intentionally blinded Yuki Nakai in one eye during the now legendary vale tudo tournament in Japan during 1995. Gordeau has been interviewed since the incident and shows no remorse for what he did, shockingly he states “I’d do it again” – which shows the type of person he is. If it wasn’t for Yuki Nakai hiding this secret for so long, it’s likely that the MMA world would not be where it is today.

Gordeau is no stranger to controversy in other areas of MMA either, performing a roman salute at UFC 1, which he claimed was a savate salute. In his fight against Royce Gracie at the same event, Gracie claims his ear was bitten by Gordeau in order to escape a submission. This comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen his match against Yuki Nakai.

In short, Gordeau is without a doubt the biggest scumbag in martial arts, which is really quite an achievement considering he has the likes of Palhares and Mike Kyle to compete with.