8 of the Dirtiest Moments in MMA History

There is a lot to love about mixed martial arts and its history. It's the ultimate battle of wills. 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.

These eight moments span the past couple decades, with some of the dirtiest moments in the sport's history featured.

The B/R crew of Chad Dundas, Nathan McCarter, Steven Rondina and Jonathan Snowden have come together to sift through the muck of MMA's tortured past. So, to the unwashed masses, welcome to this look back at the cream of the crop of MMA's loathsome moments.

Gilbert Yvel Knocks out a Referee

Let's kick this off with one of the most notorious "bad guys" in MMA: Gilbert Yvel.

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.

No matter if an official is doing a poor job or if a fighter is frustrated, there is no cause to deck a referee. There is no reasonable expectation for the official to be prepared for such an occurrence. But that is exactly what Yvel did 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.

Yvel's reputation was well earned through moments such as that, and he should have considered himself lucky that he did not get banned from major promotions and regulated areas for his history of nefarious work.

-- Nathan McCarter

Gerard Gordeau Partially Blinds Yuki Nakai

For many, Gerard Gordeau is held in a positive light because of his involvement as the finalist opposite Royce Gracie at UFC 1. But for others, he is the owner of one of the most disgusting and gruesome fouls in the sport's lifespan.

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. But to hear Gordeau tell the tale, as he did in an interview with Sherdog.com in 2014, Nakai was not fighting and the bout should've been stopped. So, 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.

Nakai would continue in the tournament that night, beating professional wrestler Craig Pittman before being defeated by Rickson Gracie in the finals.

What perhaps makes Gordeau's foul even worse is that, all these years later, he has absolutely no remorse for his tactics. In that 2014 interview, Gordeau says he told the referee to stop the fight or else he would "put out" his eye. And he did. Reprehensible.

-- Nathan McCarter

Rousimar Palhares

Felipe Dana/Associated Press

For a fighter, leg locks are one of the scariest things that can happen during an MMA bout. Sure, nobody has ever died from a toe hold or been knocked unconscious by an ankle lock, but there isn't a sports fan alive that doesn't know how devastating a knee injury is and how long its effects can linger.

These techniques are so destructive that, in many gyms, fighters don't drill them out of fear of tearing a ligament or popping a tendon. That would have made 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.

There are, quite frankly, too many examples of Palhares' extracurricular limb-twisting to pick from. UFC fans got their first taste of it in 2010, when he was suspended for 90 days for cranking Tomasz Drwal's leg. He was cut from the UFC three years later when he did the same thing to Mike Pierce. He went to World Series of Fighting not long after but was released after once again refusing to relinquish a hold in his fight against Jake Shields (this time with a side of eye-gouging).

As time went on, story after story and video after video came out of Palhares doing the same thing in regional-level MMA, BJJ competitions and even on unsuspecting training partners in the gym.

Palhares, for his part, has made a fool of himself at every single turn. In 2015 he was suspended by the Nevada Athletic Commission for two years at a hearing that saw him condemned by his own surprise expert witness. He found work on the European circuit without much trouble but lost in his first right, and he made dubious complaints afterwards about illegal strikes from his opponent.

These days, he is competing in Russia's Fight Nights Global promotion. While he is yet to land in hot water overseas for this, he has spread his wings over the last year and found new ways to be the center of controversy.

-- Steven Rondina

Gary Goodridge's Unorthodox Groin Attack

International Vale Tudo Championship

Watching the 1997 fight between Gary Goodridge and Pedro Otavio is like being transported back to a simpler time. In his UFC days, Goodridge listed his martial arts style as "arm wrestling." Otavio's nickname was "the Pedro."

Every thing about this is 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.

As you can see, they called it no holds barred for a reason.

-- Jonathan Snowden

Josh Koscheck Eye-Pokes His Way to Victory

Jae C. Hong/Associated Press

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.

With MMA's traditionally timid officials, there was no risk of Koscheck losing points while, at a bare minimum, curbing opponents' aggression with his outstretched fingers. You might not like it, but it was both technically and tactically brilliant.

-- Steven Rondina

Bryan Caraway's Fish Hook

Gregory Payan/Associated Press

Bryan Caraway was never the most likable personality in the sport, and on June 7 2014, he went all-in on being a heel.

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.

-- Nathan McCarter

Wes Sims Stomps Frank Mir’s Face at UFC 43

Ah, the blood-and-guts era of the early 2000s UFC, when even the fighters who showed up to compete inside the Octagon often couldn't be bothered to learn the rules beforehand. Take Wes "The Project" Sims, for example, who rolled into UFC 43 with a 6-1 (1) record, but with an obviously limited understanding of what would be allowed and what wouldn't during his debut matchup against Frank Mir at Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas.

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.

Afterward, theirs became a story of divergent careers. Mir used the victory to springboard to a heavyweight title shot, where he defeated Tim Sylvia via a gruesome arm-break to become champion at UFC 48.

Sims, meanwhile, set about living up to his nickname. He went 0-3 during his Octagon run and would spend the bulk of his MMA life bouncing around smaller organizations. He briefly resurfaced for a stint on season 10 of The Ultimate Fighter in 2009 but lost his first fight on the reality show as well.

In 2010, Sims scored a match with Bobby Lashley in Strikeforce, but he was defeated by first-round TKO. He was also scheduled to fight former UFC heavyweight champ Sylvia in the organization, but the Ohio Athletic Commission ultimately refused to sanction the bout.

Sims' most recent fight was in 2016, where he lost by first-round armbar and moved into semi-retirement with a record of 24-15-1 (2).

Mir is still at it. After a legendary career in the UFC, he crossed the aisle to Bellator in 2017 and will fight Fedor Emelianenko as part of the promotion's heavyweight grand prix in April 2018.

— Chad Dundas

Mike Kyle Continues Assault After Illegal Strikes, DQ

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.

The chief of which happened at WEC 20 on May 5, 2006, 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. It wasn't Kyle's first or last brush with the dark side of MMA, but it was the most clear-cut sickening example.

--Nathan McCarter