5 times a fighter blatantly cheated to win a fight in the UFC

As the old saying goes, “if you’re not cheating, you’re not trying”. That isn’t always true of course, but in the world of the UFC, it’s definitely been the case on at least a handful of occasions. Regular UFC referees like Big John McCarthy, Herb Dean and Marc Goddard do an excellent job, but they’re only human and even they miss some big calls every now and then. And of course, that isn’t getting into the subject of cheating outside the cage with performance-enhancing drugs.

While it could be argued that a couple of the fighters on this list didn’t go out of their way to cheat, the way they won in these specific fights was definitely helped – or outright caused – by a break of the hallowed rules of the Octagon. Here are five times that a UFC fighter blatantly cheated to win inside the cage.

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#1. Yoel Romero: vs. Tim Kennedy at UFC 178, 2014

Controversy has always followed former Cuban Olympic wrestler Yoel Romero throughout his UFC career, whether it’s the incident that saw him apparently soil himself during a fight with Derek Brunson, that interview after he’d knocked out Lyoto Machida in which he seemed to rant against gay marriage, or his positive test for PEDs following his win over Jacare Souza. Most controversial by far though was his fight with Tim Kennedy at UFC 178, otherwise known as ‘Stoolgate’.

Romero had taken the first round of the fight, but in the second Kennedy began to make a comeback, and with seconds to go, the Army Ranger landed a pair of uppercuts on the Cuban that seemed to knock him senseless. Romero went down, but ended up being saved by the buzzer, and was practically carried to his corner, where he slumped onto his stool. With ten seconds to go before the third round, Kennedy was up and ready...while Romero remained slumped.

As Kennedy’s corner protested, it appeared that the hold-up was due to ref Big John McCarthy demanding that Romero’s cornermen wipe some Vaseline off his body, but the Cuban’s crew were stalling on this, allowing their fighter an extra thirty seconds of valuable recovery time. And despite the rules stating that a fight should end with a TKO should a fighter be unable to answer the bell, McCarthy let it go and the round started late.

About a minute later, Kennedy was unconscious courtesy of a barrage of punches from a refreshed Romero. Kennedy’s corner – and the crowd – were naturally furious, but the win was allowed to stand by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. While Romero obviously didn’t try to cheat, his corner clearly did and it was their actions that allowed their fighter to pick up a massively important victory.

#2. Andrei Arlovski – vs. Marcio Cruz at UFC 66, 2006

Andrei Arlovski's questionable tactics allowed him to beat Marcio Cruz

Grabbing the fence is one of those rules that we see broken at most UFC events, and plenty of people get annoyed at the fact that a referee rarely takes a point away for such an infraction, preferring a mere warning. Usually, though, the fence grab is a defensive move – mostly used to prevent a takedown – and so given that it’s being used by a fighter on defence, it doesn’t tend to lead to anything resembling the end of a fight. That was different for Andrei Arlovski at UFC 66.

Arlovski – with his back to the wall following two losses to Tim Sylvia – was matched with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu whiz Marcio ‘Pe De Pano’ Cruz in a classic match of a striker against a grappler. And understandably, Cruz – an MMA novice with just three professional fights – decided to take the fight to the ground right away. He shot in on Arlovski and when he was unable to take him down, made the decision to pull half-guard before diving on an attempted leglock. Arlovski defended this with an illegal blow – a kick to the face of the downed Cruz – and referee Herb Dean stepped in to call a timeout.

In a questionable – but understandable – move, however, Cruz begged Dean to let the fight continue from the same position, feeling he had an advantage. When the restart came though, Arlovski hit him with a right hand and then gripped the fence tightly to prevent Cruz rolling into a kneebar before raining down some more blows to knock the Brazilian out. It was probably an instinctive move, but Arlovski still clearly broke the rules – twice – en route to his win and despite having a decent case for an appeal, Cruz took the loss and moved on.

#3. Michael Bisping – vs. Jorge Rivera at UFC 127, 2011

Michael Bisping has always loved to play the heel for the UFC fans, particularly in the USA, but this was arguably the fight that saw the fans’ hatred of him peak. Faced with journeyman Jorge Rivera at the second UFC show in Australia, Bisping came into the fight as angry as he’d ever been following a flurry of Youtube videos by Rivera that mercilessly taunted his country, his fighting style, his family and basically everything about him.

It was expected that the Brit would fight with a chip on his shoulder, and that proved to be true. After an early takedown from Bisping, Rivera scrambled to his knees, and evidently, the red mist descended over ‘The Count’ as he reared back and hit his opponent with a huge knee strike to the head – a move that’s illegal, and always has been illegal in the UFC. Referee Marc Goddard stopped the fight immediately and deducted a point from Bisping, but the damage had been done – Rivera was gutsy enough to continue but he was clearly concussed from the blow and succumbed to a second-round TKO.

If winning largely due to an illegal blow wasn’t bad enough, Bisping proceeded to spit at Rivera’s cornermen and then taunted him by yelling “Go home loser!” rather than the usual gracious hug or handshake. While the post-fight anger – and even the illegal move – was almost understandable given how badly Bisping had been antagonised, it certainly didn’t endear him to the fans and he remains a hugely polarising character to this day.

#4. Brock Lesnar – vs. Mark Hunt at UFC 200, 2016

Brock Lesnar's win over Mark Hunt was tainted with the stench of PEDs

PEDs are undoubtedly a huge problem in the world of MMA and I could’ve selected from a huge number of infamous fights here – Josh Barnett vs. Randy Couture, Jon Jones vs. Daniel Cormier, and Ben Rothwell vs. Brandon Vera all come to mind – but since the UFC has been attempting to clean up the sport with their partnership with USADA, only one bout really comes to mind – Brock Lesnar’s win over Mark Hunt at UFC 200.

Lesnar had of course been gone from the UFC since 2011, and given his status as a WWE superstar, he wasn’t expected back in the Octagon anytime soon. But evidently, the thought of leaving the sport off the back of two bad losses was eating at Lesnar, and he managed to cut a deal with WWE brass to return to the UFC for a one-off fight at UFC 200. The only problem? He’d have to submit himself to intensive drug testing from USADA. And even his opponent, Mark Hunt, didn’t believe he was clean, accusing Lesnar of being “juiced up” during the build to the fight.

Unfortunately for Hunt though, the UFC was so desperate for Lesnar – a huge draw – to return that they managed to find a loophole in the USADA rules and allowed him to bypass the four-month testing period usually required to fight. Instead, Lesnar took a few pre-fight tests and then beat Hunt by decision. A few weeks later the truth emerged – Lesnar had failed two pre-fight tests for a banned estrogen blocker. Although the result of the fight was eventually overturned, it still stung with Hunt – who subsequently hit the UFC with a lawsuit as he felt that they were complicit in Lesnar’s cheating. The suit is currently ongoing.

#5. Vitor Belfort – vs. Rich Franklin at UFC 103, 2009

Vitor Belfort used illegal punches to the back of the head to stop Rich Franklin

I could quite easily have written about Belfort’s testosterone-fuelled victories over Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson in 2013 here, but given that at the time, testosterone replacement therapy was totally legal, that wouldn’t be totally fair. So instead I’ve gone for one Belfort victory that came via completely illegal means and somehow largely went ignored – I’m talking about his win over Rich Franklin at UFC 103.

The fight was Vitor’s big return to the Octagon following four years in the wilderness, and the idea was that with a win, Vitor would earn himself a title shot at Middleweight champ Anderson Silva. In a strange move, the fight was to be contested at 195lbs rather than 185lbs, but that was a small detail. It was a close fight to call, but in the end, it turned out to be a blowout – Belfort finished the former champion knockout in the first round. Except for the majority of the punches, he used to separate Franklin from his consciousness were clearly illegal blows to the back of the head.

Franklin was first hurt by a cuffing left to the back of the head, but as he’d moved his head into such a position, it’s understandable that referee Yves Lavigne chose to let that one go. What was more unforgivable was his decision to ignore three, possibly four clear shots to the back of the head as Franklin was on all fours – shots that finished off ‘Ace’ for good. Given the typical accuracy of Belfort’s shots you have to wonder if the placement was intentional – and given other fighters such as Erick Silva have been disqualified for similar things, you have to wonder how Vitor got away with it.