Why is Wing Chun not allowed in MMA?

So, why is Wing Chun not allowed in MMA promotions such as the UFC? Firstly, many aspects of Wing Chun are actually legal and allowed in MMA. Arguably, the closest thing to a modern Wing Chun fighter is Tony Ferguson who uses close-combat punches and elbows to devastating effect whilst fighting.

However, there are a few techniques from the art that are banned from MMA for safety reasons. The idea of MMA is to have a competitive, but safe fight within a sporting arena. Wing Chun however had much more bloody origins and was based around survival in a self-defense scenario. Basically, the two are very different and what may be fair on the streets, is deemed unacceptable and illegal in the cage. With this said, let’s take a look at what is illegal in MMA but is taught in Wing Chun.

Eye gouging is illegal in MMA

Eye gouging is taught in Wing Chun and is also a highly effective tool whilst fighting. Of course, this should not be used in every fight as it has serious consequences such as prison. Not only this but it can easily blind the opponent and damage them for life. Because of this, it is banned from MMA and fighters are well-drilled on its legal status. In fact, MMA takes eye safety very seriously. Even accidental eye pokes in MMA can lead to points being deducted and they are highly frowned upon.

In some cases, even the MMA gloves are designed to stop fingers straightening out with eye safety in mind. Apparently, getting poked in the eye can cause severe distortion in terms of distance. Obviously, when fighting distance management is a big deal so even after getting one eye poke, your vision can change massively. Remember, this is just eye pokes too…eye-gouging is seen as far worse. If someone was to try gouging in an organization such as the UFC, they would most likely be fined and banned for life. As a result, it just doesn’t happen and is highly taboo.

Throat grabbing is illegal in MMA

Another technique that is taught in Wing Chun is grabbing the throat. Taught for use in a deadly street fight or self-defense situation, this is seen as very dangerous. The idea of grabbing the throat is similar to eye-gouging. By using your fingers, you make a claw-like grip and try to rip out the trachea. The result could be instant death if it was done with enough force. Again, this move is banned from MMA for equally obvious reasons as eye-gouging is. In short, the aim of MMA is to have a clean fight. These moves aren’t clean and are in fact very dirty.

Similarly to eye-gouging, the MMA gloves are designed to limit the movement of your fingers. Once again, this means that even if you wanted to use this technique in a cage, it would be very difficult. From a practical perspective, there are certain techniques that are highly limited whilst wearing MMA gloves with hand-wraps. This doesn’t just apply to Wing Chun either. Moves like wrist locks are almost impossible in MMA, and even rear naked choke holds are more tricky with gloves.

What is legal from Wing Chun?

Other than the aforementioned, the good news for Wing Chun fighters is that practically everything else is legal. This means you’re free to use your arms to punch and block as much as you want. Similarly, kicks from Wing Chun are also perfectly fine. In fact, it could be argued that the oblique kick was taken from Wing Chun. As you may have gathered from the oblique kick article of ours, the move is somewhat taboo.

The idea of the oblique kick is to stomp downward onto the knee of the opponent. This has massive potential to seriously cripple the knee of the opponent and cause breaks or tears to ligaments such as the ACL. Whilst all kicks are legal in MMA whilst standing, some are clearly more dangerous than others. As said previously, eye gouging and throat tearing can be considered dirty techniques. In the leg world, the oblique kick can also be considered dirty albeit it’s fully legal. A big fan of the oblique kick is the UFC champion Jon Jones. Jones has often used this kick to harm the knees of his opponent’s to gain the upper hand whilst fighting. This is just one example of how effective Wing Chun can be in MMA.

What does this say about Wing Chun?

As the title suggests, some people believe that Wing Chun as an entire move set is illegal in MMA. However, this is simply not true. The idea of this article was to highlight that it’s not as simple as an entire system being banned. Instead, you could claim that around 95% of Wing Chun is actually legal in MMA. However, its most deadly moves are banned for health and safety reasons.

This brings us to an entirely new debate around the effectiveness of Wing Chun. Sometimes, uneducated viewers will claim that Wing Chun is ineffective. However, as seen by the likes of Tony Ferguson and Jon Jones borrowing from Wing Chun, this simply isn’t the case. Further, the fact that some of its moves are also banned also shows how effective it can be in a combat situation. This argument is often used by fans of a certain martial art to claim that their style is better than MMA. However, in the case of Wing Chun, some of its moves are genuinely banned which says a lot.

Having said this, it’s a little unfair to critique Wing Chun in an MMA setting. This also goes for analyzing MMA in a street fight setting. By and large, there’s a lot of crossover between the two and most moves will be effective in different areas. Nonetheless, there are some things that you would or wouldn’t do in MMA and Wing Chun respectively, so dismissing either can be seen as quite ignorant.

In summary, Wing Chun is mostly legal in MMA. However, due to some of its moves being too violent and illegal in all areas of life, some of its techniques are banned. Not only this but we can all agree that whilst eye-gouging and throat tearing may be effective and useful in a life or death situation, there is no place for these moves in a sporting environment.