7 Illegal Moves MMA Fighters Always Get Away With
3. Strikes To The Back Of The Head
One of the most well-defined fouls in all of combat sports is the prohibiting of strikes to the back of the opponent's head. The reason that almost all codified striking sports prohibit such techniques is that strikes to the back of the head can lead to damage to the vertebrae in the neck which can cause irreparable spinal injuries.
The problem is, particularly during ground and pound, it is difficult for a fighter to consciously avoid the back of his opponent's head, especially while they are moving and trying to escape, meaning that strikes to the back of the head are rarely penalised.
A rare example where a fighter was actually disqualified during a fight-ending sequence for blows to the back of the head came when Erik Silva fought Carlo Prater back in 2012. With Prater attempting a single-led takedown, Silva attacked his opponent with a barrage of punches before referee Mario Yamasaki intervened to stop the fight.
What Silva wasn't aware of was that the referee had adjudged several of Silva's strikes to have hit the back of his opponent's head, and awarded the victory to Prater by disqualification. Yamasaki's decision was so contentious that Joe Rogan made the unprecedented move of interviewing him in the cage after the fight to get the referee's perspective on what had gone down.