Fight Centre

Two fighters compete inside an enclosed cage or ring (many promotions use an eight-sided cage, others a round one) and may strike standing or on the ground, wrestle, clinch and apply joint locks and chokes. Under the Unified Rules of MMA, which most professional events in North America follow, every round lasts five minutes with a one-minute break between rounds. Most fights are scheduled for three rounds, while main events and championship fights are usually scheduled for five. Promotions set their own formats, so check the card.

A fight can end in several ways. A knockout (KO) happens when a fighter is knocked unconscious or cannot continue. A technical knockout (TKO) is a stoppage by the referee, usually because a fighter is taking heavy strikes without defending, and it also covers a stoppage by the ringside doctor or by a fighter's corner. A submission ends the fight when a fighter taps out, or verbally gives up, to a choke or joint lock, or when the referee stops it because the hold is about to cause harm.

If nobody finishes the fight, the judges' scorecards decide it. The other results are a disqualification (DQ) for a serious or repeated rule break, a draw, and a no contest, which is recorded when a fight cannot produce a proper result, for example after an accidental foul early in the bout. Wins by KO, TKO or submission are called finishes.

Under the Unified Rules, three judges sit around the cage and score every round separately using the ten-point must system. The fighter who wins a round receives ten points and the other receives nine or fewer, so the usual score is 10-9. A round that is clearly one-sided can be scored 10-8, and a 10-7 round is very rare. A round that is genuinely even can be scored 10-10, although judges try to find a winner.

Judges weigh mainly effective striking and grappling, meaning the damage and the real threat of finishing a fighter, with effective aggression and control of the fighting area counting for less. Referees can also deduct points for fouls such as an illegal strike. The scorecards are added up at the end: a unanimous decision means all three judges picked the same fighter, a split decision means two picked one and the third picked the other, and a majority decision means two picked one fighter while the third scored it a draw.

A fight stopped early because of an accidental foul that leaves a fighter unable to continue can go to the scorecards as a technical decision once enough rounds have been completed, and the minimum number depends on the rules in use. A few promotions use other scoring systems, such as scoring the whole fight rather than each round, so the scoring method is worth checking before you judge a result.

An event is called a card, and it is built from several fights. The early part is usually called the preliminary card or "prelims" and tends to feature newer or less established fighters. The main card that follows carries the best-known names, and the last fight is the main event. The most important bout is normally saved for last, so the order of fights on the card is a clue to how the promotion rates them. Which fights count as prelims and which as the main card is the promotion's decision, and it can change before the event.

Fighters are matched by weight so that size is not the deciding factor. Each weight class has an upper limit that a fighter must make at the official weigh-in, which usually takes place before the fight day, and fighters often cut weight to get close to that limit. The table below lists the standard men's classes of the Unified Rules. Promotions can also agree a catch weight, a one-off limit between two classes, which is why you will sometimes see a fight listed at a weight that is not one of the standard classes.

MMA grew out of fighters from different martial arts testing themselves against each other, and the modern fighter is a blend. Striking comes mainly from boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai and karate or taekwondo-style kicking: punches, kicks, elbows and knees. Wrestling supplies the takedown, the ability to get the fight to the floor or keep it standing, and control on the ground. Brazilian jiu-jitsu and judo supply submissions, sweeps and the know-how to survive on the bottom.

Fighters are often described by their base. A wrestler might fight with takedowns and top control, a jiu-jitsu fighter looks for chokes and joint locks, and a striker prefers to stay on the feet. Most fighters are now well rounded, so a base style is a starting point rather than a limit. Stance also matters: orthodox fighters lead with the left foot and southpaws with the right, and many fighters are comfortable switching between the two.

A record such as 20-3-1 means 20 wins, 3 losses and 1 draw. N4 splits wins by method where the data allows it: KO or TKO wins, submission wins and decision wins. The finish rate is the share of a fighter's wins that came by KO, TKO or submission, so 15 finishes from 20 wins is 75 per cent. Treat records with care, because a long record can include fights against very different levels of opposition, and a small sample says little.

The tale of the tape is the traditional side-by-side comparison of two fighters: height, reach (fingertip to fingertip with the arms spread), record and so on. N4 shows a tape on the live board and in the Fight Lab, where you can compare any two fighters in the database. The Fight Lab adds a five-axis profile (striking, grappling, submission, endurance and power), deeper fight statistics where the provider has them, and a matchup simulator that turns the numbers into an estimated win share and likely method. That is N4's own analytical estimate, only as good as the data behind it. Face Off is N4's name for head-to-head comparison, and for MMA its link opens the Fight Lab.

Fighters, fights, records and fight statistics come from a connected MMA data provider and update as that provider updates. A dash or "no data" means the provider has no figure, and N4 does not guess. Champions are worked out from title fights in the results N4 stores, with manual corrections, so the list can lag behind a belt change or miss a smaller promotion. Check the promotion itself for the final word on any title.