The Fouls Catalog

The 31 fouls (post-2024 revisions)

The Unified Rules of MMA prohibit 31 specific actions. The list has evolved since 2001 — most recently the 12-to-6 elbow was removed in 2024. The current list:

Strikes

• Headbutting — illegal regardless of intent
• Eye gouging — including fingers extended toward the opponent's eyes (the "Jon Jones extended hand")
• Biting
• Hair pulling
• Fish hooking — fingers in the opponent's mouth, nose, or other orifice
• Groin attacks of any kind — strikes, kicks, knees, or grabs to the groin
• Throat strikes of any kind — including grabbing the trachea
• Strikes to the spine or back of the head — the "mohawk zone" is legal; the back of the head proper is not
• Soccer kicks — kicks to the head of a grounded opponent (legal in PRIDE, some ONE bouts; illegal under Unified)
• Knees to the head of a grounded opponent — legal in PRIDE-style rule sets; illegal under Unified
• Stomping a grounded opponent — legal in PRIDE; illegal under Unified
• Small joint manipulation — twisting individual fingers or toes
• Heel kicks to the kidney — distinct from legal kicks to the body
• Spiking an opponent on their head or neck — including slam takedowns where the opponent lands on the crown

Grappling

• Putting a finger into any orifice — anatomy-related fouls
• Holding the fence or shorts — particularly during a takedown defense or takedown finish
• Holding the opponent's gloves or trunks — preventing strikes by trapping the hands
• Grabbing the clavicle — historical foul, rarely enforced

Conduct

• Throwing an opponent out of the ring or cage
• Timidity — avoiding contact, intentionally dropping a mouthpiece, or feigning injury to receive a recovery break
• Using abusive language toward the referee or opponent
• Attacking after the bell or break
• Attacking under the referee's care — striking an opponent the referee is attending to
• Interference from a fighter's corner
• Attempting to submit by neck crank rather than choke when neck crank is prohibited (specific to lower-level amateur rules)

What happens when a foul occurs

The referee has discretion to:

1. Warning — a verbal warning to the fighter with no score impact. Used for borderline fouls or first instances.
2. Point deduction — the foul-committing fighter loses one point on each judge's scorecard for that round. Used for repeat fouls or moderate impact.
3. Disqualification — the foul-committing fighter loses the bout. Used for intentional fouls that incapacitate the opponent.

In addition, when a foul causes the fouled fighter genuine injury, the referee can grant up to five minutes of recovery time before resuming or stopping the bout.

The grounded-fighter definition (the most-debated rule)

A "grounded fighter" is the opponent of certain illegal strikes. The Unified Rules define grounded as:

Any part of the body, other than the soles of the feet, touching the fighting area floor. A fighter is not grounded if a single hand is briefly placed on the floor to retain balance during a clinch exchange.

This definition has been contested for years. ONE Championship's interpretation is more permissive (a fighter is grounded only if two limbs other than feet are on the canvas), which is why ONE matches feature knees to the head of fighters who have one hand or one knee touching.

The 2017 ABC clarification attempted to standardize, but state commissions adopted it unevenly. The Nevada State Athletic Commission's strict reading was reversed at the New Jersey commission's request, and the rule has been a persistent source of confusion in cross-commission matchmaking.

The 2024 elbow change

The 12-to-6 elbow — a downward elbow strike thrown vertically from above the opponent — was banned from 2001 to 2024 on the grounds that the spiking motion was inherently dangerous. The ABC removed the ban in May 2024 after years of technical-committee review found no statistical evidence the strike was disproportionately injurious compared to other elbow angles.

The first UFC bout to feature a legal 12-to-6 elbow finish came within weeks of the rule change.

Famous foul moments in UFC history

• Matt Hamill vs Jon Jones (UFC: The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale, 2009): Jones was disqualified for repeatedly throwing 12-to-6 elbows. The only loss on Jones's career record; widely considered the rule's most infamous application. Now legal under the 2024 revision.
• Yair Rodriguez vs Korean Zombie (UFC Fight Night 139, 2018): Yair landed a buzzer-beater elbow KO with one second remaining; reviewed for legality and confirmed as a legal up-elbow.
• Joey Beltran vs Igor Pokrajac (UFC 165, 2013): Beltran threw multiple eye pokes — a foul-heavy fight that produced a no-contest after a third poke in round 3.
• Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling (UFC 259, March 2021): Yan landed an illegal knee to a grounded Sterling in round 4. The strike incapacitated Sterling enough that he could not continue; Sterling won the bantamweight title by disqualification. The most consequential foul-call in modern title-fight history.
• Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje (UFC 254, 2020): no foul, but the post-fight celebration where Khabib and his team showed restraint contrasted with the McGregor-Khabib post-fight brawl after UFC 229 — a different kind of "conduct" demonstration.

What the rules don't catch

• Late stoppages: not technically a foul against the fighter, but a referee error. Famous examples: Travis Lutter vs Anderson Silva, Diego Sanchez vs Kevin Lee.
• Eye pokes that don't get called: open-finger gloves make eye pokes statistically inevitable; clear ones are usually called, but partial pokes that disorient the fighter often go uncalled.
• Hand-fighting that crosses into shorts-grabbing: a frequent occurrence in clinch wrestling that referees often miss.

The Unified Rules are the framework, but enforcement is a referee competency issue. The best referees — Herb Dean, John McCarthy (now retired), Mark Goddard, Dan Miragliotta — see violations the casual viewer misses; the worst miss obvious ones.