- mickumix
- 5th Degree Black Belt
- Member Since 2014.11.08
My MMA Rankings
Top 8 Fighters who pulled dirty tricks inside the cage
Two fighters entering a cage or ring to see who will come out on top. But along with the good comes the bad. Sometimes, the very bad. MMA's past is littered with a wide array of miserable characters looking to nab the upper hand at every point. Fence-grabbing to prevent takedowns? That is on the light side of cheating. Applying a copious amount of vaseline to slip out of grappling exchanges? You won't find that here.
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1
- Gilbert Yvel
- "The Hurricane"
- 41-16-1, 1 NC
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Yvel simmered down in the latter stages of his career, which included a 0-3 stint in the UFC, but in his younger days, he was dirty. Dirty with a capital D.
Yvel owns three disqualifications on his professional record. They all come from different methods: biting, eye-gouging and, finally, knocking out an official. It's the last one that really takes the cake. He did it in 2004 at Fight Festival 12.
The referee interjected himself in between the fighters multiple times. Yvel grew frustrated with the process. Then, out of nowhere, he plastered the referee with a left hand that sent him to the mat. And to top it off, Yvel kicked the man while he was down. It was an egregious and shameful moment.
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2
- Gerard Gordeau
- 2-2-0
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Gerard Gordeau Partially Blinds Yuki Nakai.
In April 1995, Gordeau had his last professional MMA fight in Vale Tudo Japan against Yuki Nakai.
Nakai grappled with Gordeau throughout the bout. He wanted to get the fight to the ground and submit him. Naturally, Gordeau was on the defensive. Gordeau says his opponent wasn't fighting so the bout should've been stopped. Then, he took matters into his own hands.
Or, rather, took his thumb to the eye of Nakai, leaving Nakai without sight in that eye permanently.
Nakai still got Gordeau to the canvas with a heel hook and made him tap out.
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3
- Rousimar Palhares
- "Toquinho"
- 19-12-1
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For many rules he broke... And the ones he is going to break.
Rousimar Palhares, a submission specialist with a focus in kneebars and heel hooks, a terrifying fighter all on its own. Add to that a willingness to keep torquing even as an opponent taps and a referee tries to break his grip, though, and you get one of the dirtiest fighters of all time.
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4
- Gary Goodridge
- "Big Daddy"
- 23-22-1
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Watching the 1997 fight between Gary Goodridge and Pedro Otavio is like being transported back to a simpler time.
Everything Sounds delightful.
Once the bell rings, however, things took a turn. After several minutes of very 1990s action, Pedro secured top position on Goodridge. Gary, as you might expect, defended. But, while trying to push "the Pedro" off of him, the UFC veteran got his foot stuck in Otavio's trunks.
That was not an error.
He got his foot stuck inside the man's trunks. Where his, um, equipment was resting. Worse, he left it there.
And that's when things really got weird.
Soon Goodridge, not content to merely crowd the man, squeezed with his toes. It was, perhaps, the sport's first and last testicular claw.
Eventually the bout devolved into a series groin attacks, with Goodridge winning by submission thanks to repeated attacks to the nethers.
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5
- Josh Koscheck
- "Kos"
- 17-11-0
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An average mixed martial artist has one good tool. He'll have a potent cross counter or a heavy top-control game, but he won't necessarily have all the skills or savvy to either utilize it consistently or use it in a transitional way. Only a handful of extraordinary talents—the Fedor Emelianenkos and Jon Joneses—have truly moved beyond that.
Fighting dirty is no different. Your average dirty fighter will employ one or two tricks, throw them out on occasion and do little more. Josh Koscheck, in that way, is the Fedor of fighting dirty, managing to seamlessly blend deliberate cheating into his overall MMA game.
While Koscheck's most memorable moments as the UFC's top heel are things like the phantom illegal knee during the Paul Daley fight and all his childish shenanigans on the first season of The Ultimate Fighter, he had an extraordinarily versatile eye poke that repeatedly led him to victory.
On its own, Koscheck's eye poke was extraordinary and was set up in a number of ways. Sometimes, he would paw with his lead hand and flare his fingers if the opponent stepped forward. Sometimes, he just stood with his hand open and arm outstretched, inviting opponents to walk eyeball-first into his fingernails. And in the case of his fight with Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, he would just straight up intentionally poke somebody in the eye.
What really set him apart, however, was how he set up combinations off his eye-pokes. His open left hand was often followed up by a big right and, if the referee was slow to halt the action, a flurry as his blinded foe covered up and turned away.
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6
- Bryan Caraway
- "Kid Lightning"
- 20-9-0
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on June 7 2014, Caraway was meeting one of the sport's young stars, Erik Perez. "Goyito" was opening up the main card against the American, which was a sign the UFC was giving him a platform to shine. Instead, Caraway took that platform to highlight how cheating prospers.
One of the oldest rules, even in the days of "no rules," was to not fish-hook your opponent. That is, not to stick your fingers in their mouth and hook their cheek. In the first round of this fight, Caraway decided to break that rule.
Caraway had taken Perez's back, and Perez was trying to break the hold by uncrossing Caraway's feet. As Perez was accomplishing his task, Caraway fish-hooked Perez to maintain back control as they grappled.
It may have been seen as a mistake if not for Caraway clearly holding it as they moved. He made no immediate attempt to pull his fingers from Perez's mouth.
Perez was able to escape the round despite the foul, but Caraway would still finish the fight in the second. Who knows what, if anything, would've changed without the foul. Caraway got away with breaking one of the oldest rules without incurring any penalty.
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7
- Wes Sims
- "A Whole Show"
- 24-15-1, 2 NC
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A product of Mark Coleman's Hammer House Team, Sims came out of his corner and stormed past Mir's attempt to touch gloves only to have the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace take him down. After wriggling out of an armbar attempt by Mir, Sims reared up and—with his hands braced on top of the fence for added leverage—stomped the downed Mir's face multiple times.
What followed was mass confusion in the arena, as Sims celebrated as though he'd won, only to ultimately be announced as the loser due to disqualification. In what would set the stage for Sims' bad-boy image throughout a colorful, if not overly successful career, he professed a misunderstanding and even a disdain for the UFC's rules. In his defense, such stomps were allowed in international organizations like Pride FC at the time.
Just not in America. Or in the UFC. Apparently nobody told Sims that.
A rematch was arranged seven months later at UFC 46, and Mir handled Sims with ease, knocking him out in the second round after a series of knees and punches.
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8
- Mike Kyle
- "MAK"
- 23-19-1, 2 NC
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Mike Kyle is an oft-forgotten dirty competitor. The American Kickboxing Academy fighter stood out with his power, but his hot-headed temper would lead to moments that were too awful to forget.
On May 5, 2006, he fought against Brian Olsen.
After a brief scramble to get up, Kyle connected with a kick to Olsen's dome. If everything had ended there, Kyle perhaps could have played it off by being caught up in the heat of the moment. It's not the first or last time a similar instance has happened.
While it was a clear foul, Kyle's intentions could have simply been timing him for when he was off the mat. But it didn't end there.
As Olsen crumpled to the mat, Kyle continued with ground-and-pound. As the referee intervened to pull him off, Kyle continued to hit Olsen.
It was a disgusting display that could have been a lot worse than it ended up being, but luckily the official was able to get Kyle off the unconscious heap that was Olsen's body.
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