An oblique kick is a straight, pushing kick aimed at the front or side of an opponent's knee rather than at the oblique muscles its name suggests. Thrown like a teep or a side kick, it drives the knee backward or sideways against the direction it's built to bend, and it only works on a leg that's planted on the ground — if the target foot is in the air, the kick just shoves the leg back without doing any damage.
What it actually does
Fighters don't throw an oblique kick expecting a knockdown. Its job is to make an opponent's legs unreliable: disrupting a fighter's stance, discouraging forward pressure, and making it harder for a wrestler to load up a takedown entry on a leg that keeps getting hit. A fighter landing oblique kicks early in a round is usually working on a longer-term plan — wear down the opponent's base and mobility over five rounds rather than look for a finish in the moment.
That makes it a range tool as much as a damage tool. A fighter who commits to closing distance has to plant a leg to do it, and that's exactly the moment an oblique kick is most effective. Opponents facing someone who throws it well often become visibly more tentative about pressing forward, which is the whole point even when no single kick looks dramatic on the broadcast. It sits in the same family as the calf kick, another low strike that reshaped modern striking by targeting mobility instead of chasing a knockout directly — but where the calf kick numbs a muscle, the oblique kick threatens the joint itself.
Where it's legal, and why it's controversial
The oblique kick is legal under the Unified Rules of MMA, the rulebook that governs the UFC and most regulated North American promotions. It has never been classified as an illegal strike or a foul, and the UFC has not banned it as of this writing. A handful of smaller promotions elsewhere have restricted or banned kicks aimed directly at the knee, citing injury risk, but the Unified Rules themselves have not been amended.
That hasn't stopped it from being one of the sport's most debated legal strikes. Because it targets ligaments rather than soft tissue, a direct, well-placed oblique kick can cause damage that takes far longer to heal than a typical leg kick to the thigh or calf — torn ligaments instead of bruised muscle. Crowds tend to boo it on sight, reading it as a cheap, unsatisfying way to hurt someone compared to a strike that visibly staggers an opponent, even though it's been a legal part of the rulebook for the sport's entire existence as a regulated discipline.
Jon Jones is widely credited with bringing the oblique kick into the mainstream of the sport, using it as a light heavyweight champion to disrupt wrestlers and clinch fighters trying to close distance on him, most notably in a 2011 title defense against Rampage Jackson. The technique's roots are debated — some trace it to savate, the French kickboxing discipline, while others point to other striking arts — but Jones's frequent and effective use of it at the championship level is what made casual fans aware of the strike by name.
The 2026 push to restrict it
The debate intensified in September 2026, after UFC 331, when Edmen Shahbazyan complained to the referee during his decision win over Brunno Ferreira about Ferreira repeatedly kicking at his knee — a strike that was entirely legal under the current rules. California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster said afterward that the commission needed to formally discuss designating kicks aimed at the side of the knee as fouls, arguing the injuries they cause can take an unusually long time to heal and can leave lasting damage. UFC CEO Dana White publicly backed Foster's position.
The idea has drawn real pushback from fighters. Thiago Santos, who suffered a severe knee injury during a UFC light heavyweight title fight years earlier, has said he doesn't believe the technique needs to be banned. Former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling dismissed the healing-time argument, and other fighters have pushed back publicly on the proposal as well. As of now, nothing has changed: any ban would require amending the Unified Rules of MMA itself and getting individual state and international athletic commissions to adopt the change, a slow process that has not produced a vote or a rule change.
What to watch for
Watching for the oblique kick is mostly about watching stances rather than waiting for a highlight moment. A fighter circling and probing with low, straight kicks aimed at the front leg, especially against an opponent who likes to pressure forward or shoot takedowns, is playing a longer game than it looks like in the moment. If you see a fighter's lead leg start to look stiff, or notice them suddenly reluctant to step forward the way they had been, an accumulation of oblique kicks landing earlier in the fight is a common, underappreciated reason why. It's one of the clearest examples in the sport of a strike that matters more for what it sets up over five rounds than for what it looks like the instant it lands — worth checking a card's fight pages for fighters whose style tags call out kick-heavy or distance-control games before the opening horn.
The takeaway: a strike doesn't have to look impressive to change the outcome of a fight. The oblique kick's entire value is cumulative and structural — it degrades an opponent's base and willingness to press forward over time — which is exactly why it draws boos from fans expecting instant drama and respect from fighters who understand what it's actually doing.