MMA Rules: Rules of a UFC fight explained

Let’s start off by making an important clarification:

The UFC is an MMA promotion, which contracts the best fighters in the world to perform infront of their audience, by putting on fights. (need more information? Here’s a guide on what is UFC)

MMA, which stands for Mixed Martial Arts, is a sport that takes place between 2 professional fighters. So, the UFC puts on mixed martial arts fights between fighters, but there are also other promotions like the UFC, such as Bellator or ONE FC.

The rules of the UFC have evolved a lot over the years. At first, UFC events in the early 90’s had almost none at all. Fighters were allowed to headbutt each other, and they didn’t even need to wear gloves! However, as time has gone on, and the UFC has evolved to capture a wider audience, its ruleset has also changed.

Ever since the year 2000, the UFC has adopted what is called ‘The Unified Rules of MMA‘ for all their events.

Every state athletic commission in the United States Of America today abides by the Unified Rules Of MMA.

There are 2 main reasons why rules have changed so much over the last 20 years or so. Firstly, in order to better protect fighters from permanent or damaging injuries. Secondly, to make the sport more appealing to a mainstream audience.

Back in the 90s, mixed martial arts events were seen as barbaric due to their ‘no holds barred’ fights. It was always going to be difficult to get MMA events onto household TVs if the athletes were headbutting each other, eye gouging or punching each other in the groin. No parent is going to want that on the TV when their kids are watching…

What are these rules then? The Unified Rules Of MMA cover quite a few different aspects of legitimate sport fighting. So, it’s going to be easier if we split them down into a few parts. Let’s start with what happens in a usual fight!

A usual fight

Let’s start simple, with a usual fight. 2 fighters who belong to a promotion, like the UFC, will sign a contract to fight each other. They will then usually (but definitely not always) have a couple of months to train for the fight.

If their opponent is well known, then their opponent will train specifically to expose the weaknesses they think their opponent has. Their team , such as their striking coach, grappling coach, and head coach will make them a gameplan to use on fight day, which they hope will make their fighter victorious.

If the fight is between 2 famous fighters, or it is for a Championship title, then these fighters will usually have press obligations, like attending a press conference where media members and fans can ask them questions about the upcoming fight. This usually helps to build suspense and excitement for the fight, which sells more tickets to the event.

The day before the fight, each fighter must ‘weigh-in’. This means they have to step on the promotion’s official scale and weigh below the weight they agreed to fight at (we’ll discuss weight in more detail, later in this article). If both fighters come in ‘on weight’ meaning they weigh below the limit, then the fight is on!

Now for the fight itself… both fighters will enter the cage with no protection on other than 4 oz padded gloves, a cup to protect their groin, shorts and a mouth-guard to protect their teeth.

The fight referee will start the match and we are underway.

The 2 fighters are then allowed to use any tactics or techniques which fall within any mixed martial arts discipline. This means they can use moves in; Kickboxing, Wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling, Sambo, Boxing, Judo, Muay-Thai etc. etc. the actual list is huge! It is supposed to allow for as many fighting disciplines as spossible, that way the match is simulating a real fight. Unlike boxing, where you can only use your hands, or Jiu-Jitsu, where you cannot strike your opponent.

Competing athletes can also use almost any part of their body to fight. They can usually use; hands, feet, legs, knees, elbows and shoulders. However, as we’ll discuss later, not all of these are allowed at all times.

Fouls

Fouls can be committed both inside and outside of the actual fight itself. So let’s break it down again.

A foul happening inside an actual fight usually means one fighter has attempted to cheat to gain an advantage, however, the fouls are not always purposefully. On top of that, it’s very difficult to tell whether a fighter ‘meant’ to commit a foul or not and they’re unlikely to admit to it even if it was on purpose. So, what are the fouls?

if you want an official list of all the fouls, then here’s a full list of fouls in the rulebook. We’ll cover off the most important and common ones here.

One of the most common fouls that a fighter commits is kicks to the groin. In an MMA fight, it is forbidden to strike the groin area with any part of your body. However, the reason this foul happens so often in a fight, is because many fighters will attempt to kick their opponent in the stomach, or on their inner thighs. If they miss, there is a large chance they will hit the groin area, which hurts.. a lot…

When the groin strike happens, the referee will (hopefully) see it and call a pause in the fight. The opponent who was hit is given up to 5 minutes to recover if they want to keep fighting, however, most fighters only take around 30 seconds before saying they are ready to go. If this happens repeatedly, the referee may decide to take a point away from the fighter who can’t keep his kicks away from the groin.

Other common fouls include grabbing the fence, hitting your opponent in the back of the head, and kneeing a downed opponent.

Grabbing the fence is illegal because it prevents your opponent from performing a takedown on you, where they would have the advantage of being on top of you; a position which elite fighters can do a lot of damage with.

Strikes to the back of the head are absolutely illegal as it can damage the spinal cord and do serious long-term damage to the fighter.

Knees to the head of a downed opponent has also been outlawed in the Unified Rules Of MMA. An opponent is considered ‘downed’ when “any part of the body, other than a single hand and soles of the feet (are) touching the fighting floor area.” So, if a fighter has both hands on the floor, then it would be illegal to knee them in the head. This rule is often broken (usually by accident) as in those split seconds in a fight it can be difficult to tell whether your opponent has both hands on the floor or not.

Fouls which are not committed very often, but exist in the rulebook include;

• eye gouging
• Hair pulling
• Fish hooking
• Punches to the throat
• Spitting
• Headbutting
• Biting
• Spiking an opponent on their head
• Downward striking elbows (12 to 6 elbows)
• Eye poking
• Stomping on an opponent
• Holding an opponent’s gloves or shorts
• Ignoring the instruction of the referee
• Hitting an opponent after the bell rings to end the round
• Using abusive language

Outside of the actual fight, it is also possible to be found guilty of a foul.

Using performance enhancing drugs like steroids is completely illegal in the UFC. The UFC uses USADA as their official anti-doping organisation, to make sure none of their fighters are using steroids before their fights. This would give those fighters an unfair strength and, or, speed advantage over their opponents.

USADA run tests on every active UFC fighter, at completely random times and places, to make sure no-one is using performance enhancing substances. If a fighter is flagged by USADA, usually through a urine test, then that fighter will probably be given a suspension.

A suspension can last years, as is the case of former UFC Bantamweight Champion, TJ Dillashaw, who was given a 2 year suspension.

A fighter is also not allowed to use grease or lubricants just before a fight, which may make them become slippery to hold. Former UFC Welterweight & Middleweight Champion Georges St-Pierre was accussed of using grease on his body just before his fight against BJ Penn.

Fighters must also use only the approved fighting gear to compete, and cannot modify what goes into their gloves or shorts, in case they attempt to gain an advantage by tampering with the equipment.

How A Fight is Scored

The Unified Rules Of MMA lay out a full list of fight scoring criteria, which are to be used to score the outcome of any MMA fight.

Fights can end in a variety of ways:

• Knockout (KO) – The losing fighter was knocked unconscious and the fight was therefore stopped.
• Technical Knockout (TKO) – The losing fighter had taken enough damage that they were no longer intelligently defending themselves, and the fight was stopped.
• Submission (SUB) – The losing fighter was caught in a choke, or a hold, and they tapped out to signal giving up or they went unconscious from a choke.
• Disqulification (DQ) – One fighter was disqualified because they won via a purposeful foul or the fight was called off by the referee due to cheating
• No-Contest (NC) – The outcome of the fight is declared a no-contest when an accidental foul is used to win a fight
• Decision (DEC) – A decision victory can get complicated but it is where a winner is decided by the 3 judges who have scored the fight.

Decision victories need further explanation, as they can get complicated. The criteria those judges use to score a winner will also help you to understand when a winner is likely to be chosen.

Judge decisions can take the form of:

• Unanimous decision Victory – All 3 judges score the same winner
• Majority decision Victory – 2 judges score the same winner, 1 judge calls it a draw
• Split decision Victory – 2 judges score the same winner, 1 judge chooses the other fighter
• Majority Draw – 2 judges score the fight a draw, 1 judge picks a winner. The end result being a draw
• Split Draw – 1 judge chooses one fighter, 1 judge chooses the other fighter, 1 judge calls it a draw
• Unanimous Draw – all 3 judges score the fight a draw

So, how do judges score a decision, and how do they all do it using the same fair criteria?

That answer can be found in the fight scoring guidelines .

For those of you who just want the general gist, read on.

Judging is based on the 10 point must scoring system. Meaning that in any 1 round, the winner of the round will be awarded 10 points, and the loser of the round will get a maximum of 9 points. Each fight in the Unified Rules Of MMA is judged on a round by round basis, and fighters are not judged on the overall performance of their fight.

As of 2017, the most important aspect of a fight that judges look at for judging a round winner is ‘effective striking / grappling’. This means that judges are looking for which fighter is making the best use of punches with heavy impact, or cumulative impact by hitting their opponent many times. They are also looking to see which fighter is executing the most takedowns, submission attempts, and generally any effective move to try and finish the fight.

If no fighter has shown an advantage in striking or grappling in the round, then the judges wil look at the next most critical aspect of the fight which is effective aggressiveness. This refers to a fighter making active attempts to finish the fight. However, judges only score this if the attempts are effective. Judges will not reward fighters for aimlessly chasing around their opponent or swinging wildly with no impact.

If both fighters are still evenly matched in aggressiveness, then plan C will look at ‘cage / ring control’ as a final back-up to judge a winner. This refers to which fighter is dictating the pace and position of the fight.

Now the judges must give the round a ‘score’. Based on what the judges have seen in the round, they can give the following scores:

• 10-10 round – Both fighters were equally matched and no clear advantage can be given.
• 10-9 round – This is the most common outcome of a round. One fighter won the round, but only by a close margin (they still win the round).
• 10-8 round – A slightly more rare score. One fighter won the round in dominant fashion and took clear control of the round. possibly injuring their opponent very badly or very often
• 10-7 round – This is extremely rare to see, and it is a score given when one fighter has utterly overwhelmed their opponent. It requires one fighter to both dominant the striking / grappling plus deliver significant damage impact to their opponent. If a round has been scored 10-7 then officials would be very sensitive to stopping the fight in the next round unless something turns around drastically.

At the end of a fight, if neither fighter has been rendered unable to continue, then it is up to the judges’ scorecards to decide a winner.

One other part of the ruleset is for the judges & referees themselves! Both judges and referees must qualify for certain criteria if they are to judge elite MMA fights, you can find that list here of Judge & Referee Requirements

Weight

Another part of the MMA ruleset has to do with weight of the fighters. Here is where you can find the official Unified Rules Of Weight Classes.

It was decided that fighters should be split into categories who compete against each other, based on weight. This is because weight, or mass, is a natural advantage in a fight. Some people may wonder why height doesn’t determine the different competing classes in MMA. However, height is not neccessarily an advantage, especially when both fighters are on the ground.

MMA classes are therefore split into various different weight groups. In the UFC, they go as follows for the men’s divisions:

• Flyweight (up to 125 lbs)
• Bantamweight (up to 135 lbs)
• Featherweight (up to 145 lbs)
• Lightweight (up to 155 lbs)
• Welterweight (up to 170 lbs)
• Middleweight (up to 185 lbs)
• Light Heavyweight (up to 205 lbs)
• Heavyweight (up to 265 lbs)

Every MMA fighter must choose which division to fight in, and if they want to become a Champion, they must beat enough of the division’s top talent to get a title shot against the Champion, who they must beat to take the title.

A lot of fighters will try to fight below their natural weight class, as they believe they will have an advantage against smaller, and lighter, fighters. However, some fighters have found more success moving up weight classes, as their bodies respond better to being heavier e.g. Rumble Johnson finding success moving up to Light Heavyweight, or Thiago Santos moving up to Light Heavyweight.

Before each fight, every fighter must ‘weigh in’ (as we discussed above). This means they must not weigh more than the weight limit of their class, and what some people don’t know is that they also must not weigh less than the bottom weight limit of their class. It’s almost never happened that a fighter weighs too little to fight. This is because weight is an advantage so all fighters try to get as close to the upper weight limit as they can without crossing it.

Unfortunately, many fighters ‘miss weight’ just before their scheduled fight as they don’t get their weight cut right. You can find information on what a weight cut is right here, it’s actually quite dangerous, but very interesting to learn about.

The MMA community has regular debates about the dangers of weight cutting, as some fighters end up being rushed to hospital before a fight, as they become dangerously dehydrated.

Medical Requirements

For a long and potentially dull reas of the full medical requirements each state requires fighters to fulfill, check out the Medical Requirements By Commission