7 Illegal Moves MMA Fighters Always Get Away With
5. Offensive Language In The Cage
Okay, so this one might seem a little bit ridiculous. When two guys are locked in the cage with a largely unrestrictive ruleset with the express aim of doing each other physical damage all in the pursuit of victory one would assume that a bit of verbal sparring during the heat of battle is kosher, right?
Wrong.
Well, that is at least according to the unified rules. Foul 21 of the 2017 revised MMA ruleset states:
Use of abusive language in the fighting area. The use of abusive language is not allowed during MMA competition. It is the sole responsibility of the referee to determine when language crosses over the line to abusive.
As it is explicitly left up to the referee's discretion, this rule is rarely implemented despite fighters like Conor McGregor, Anderson Silva, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and, of course, the Diaz brothers regularly taking the opportunity to talk sh*t during their fights.
One of the rare occasions in which this rule was actually enforced was at UFC 437 when Nick Diaz fought Robbie Lawler. As Diaz proceeded with his signature taunts, referee Steve Mazzagatti warned the Stockton native for talking during the fight, leaving Joe Rogan bemused on commentary.