Jordan Leavitt slams Matt Wiman in a lightweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at UFC APEX on December 05, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Jordan Leavitt used a slam on Matt Wiman to get a great win but are they legal in the UFC?
The latest UFC Fight Night event had a ton of great finishes, even before the main event. Jamahal Hill got a great TKO finish win over the veteran Ovince Saint Preux.
Gabriel Benitez used some knees to defeat Justin Jaynes but the talk of the night was how Matt Wiman got thrown about by Jordan Leavitt.
The Monkey King, as Leavitt is called, needed just 27 seconds to get the win over his rival. He carried Wiman across the Octagon and slammed him to the floor.
Wiman looked in a lot of pain and couldn’t move much and the fight was called off. This was the 12th such win in the history of the UFC and the commentators brought out how dangerous this move actually is.
This slam saw the back of Wiman’s head cannon off the mat. Dominick Cruz even suggested that Wiman could have suffered a concussion, but there was some good news as he was able to walk out without any major problems.
However, the dangers of this move were there for all to see. The UFC does not allow punches to the back of the head but slams are a different story.
The short and simple answer is, yes. Slams are allowed in the UFC and are not illegal. There are only a few things that are illegal in the UFC such as kicking a downed opponent, knee strikes to the back of the head or to a downed opponent and of course, punches to the back of the head.
Eye pokes and groin strikes lead to timeouts for the hurt fighter to recover and get back to the action. Both the UFC commentators, who are also fighters, Paul Felder and Cruz, confirmed that slams are perfectly legal.
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