Learn the fight
Guides
Watching fights gets better fast once you know what to look at. These pages cover how a round is actually scored, and what each style is trying to do when it works.
Start here
How to watch a fight
What to look at, in what order, and which moments actually decide a round. Written for the second or third fight you have ever watched closely.
How MMA scoring works
The ten-point must system, what judges are told to reward and in what order, and why three people watching the same round turn in different cards.
How to score a round at home
A method for scoring along with the broadcast, the order to decide things in, and the four mistakes almost every new scorer makes.
How MMA fights end
Knockout, technical knockout, submission, the three kinds of decision, and the endings that are nobody's win. The method tells you something the result alone does not.
Grappling positions, explained for spectators
What you are actually looking at when the fight hits the mat, in the order a position usually improves — and which direction counts as progress.
How to read a tale of the tape
Height, reach, stance, age and record are the five facts you get before every fight. Some of them predict a lot and some predict almost nothing.
MMA glossary: the words announcers use
Plain definitions for the terms that get said quickly and explained rarely, from checking a kick to a level change.
Fight styles
Nobody fights one pure style. These are the shapes almost every fighter is built out of, and the matchups between them are most of what makes a Bout interesting.
Boxing-based striking
Hands first: angles, counters, and head movement. The style that looks the calmest and is the hardest to learn.
Muay Thai and kickboxing
Eight limbs, long range, and damage that accumulates. The style whose work in round one decides round three.
Wrestling
The style that decides where the fight happens. Less glamorous than striking, and still the single most reliable advantage in the sport.
Brazilian jiu-jitsu
Submissions, scrambles, and the only style that can win from the worst position in the fight. What a casual viewer misses most often.
Clinch and cage work
The least watched part of a fight and often the part that wins it. What is actually happening when two fighters are tangled against the fence.
Pressure fighting
How forward pressure wins fights without landing anything memorable, and the two kinds of opponent it struggles against.
Counter striking
Why the most dangerous fighters in the sport often look like they are doing nothing, and the two ways a round goes wrong for them.
Southpaw vs orthodox
What actually changes when a left-handed fighter faces a right-handed one, and the three shots that decide most of these fights.