7 Illegal Moves MMA Fighters Always Get Away With
4. Outstretching Their Fingers
Unlike boxing and Muay Thai, MMA gloves allow an athlete to outstretch their fingers during stand up fighting to offer a wider range of techniques that can be implemented on the feet.
The open-handed strategy can be used to great success in aiding a fighter transitioning from striking range into the clinch, something Daniel Cormier has done so successfully during his career.
Maintaining an open hand with an arm outstretched also allows fighters to maximise their reach, and prevent an opponent from closing the distance to infight. The gold standard for this is Jon Jones, who has been consistently criticised throughout his career for punishing opponents who attempt to get past his abnormally large reach with the threat of being poked in the eye. Jones is clearly aware of his reputation for the illegal tactics, however, having posted, then hastily deleted, an Instagram video mocking those who criticised his fighting style.
More recently, referees have been doing a better job at warning fighters who commit the foul, but still not regularly enough to stop it happening all together whether inadvertent or not. One only has to look at the eye poke that Daniel Cormier caught Stipe Miocic with at UFC 226 before knocking him out to know just how devastating the result of a flagrant eye poke can be if not recognised by the referee.