What is a technical decision or a no contest in MMA?
When an accidental foul or a clash of heads leaves a fighter unable to continue, the fight is ruled a no contest if it ends early, or goes to the judges' scorecards as a technical decision if enough of it has been fought.
How it works
Under the Unified Rules the line is two completed rounds of a three-round fight, or three completed rounds of a five-round fight. Before that line the result is a no contest (NC): nobody wins, and the fight is listed as a no contest on both records. After it, the judges' cards decide a technical decision, scoring the completed rounds and, under most commissions' rules, the round in progress. Even cards make a technical draw. If the foul was intentional and the hurt fighter cannot go on, the fouling fighter is disqualified instead.
A result can also become a no contest after the fact, for example when an athletic commission overturns a win because of a failed drug test.
Worked example
An accidental eye poke in round 1 of a three-round fight leaves a fighter unable to continue: no contest. The same poke in round 3, with all three judges' cards favouring fighter A, gives A a unanimous technical decision.
Good to know
The exact thresholds and how a partial round is scored are set by each athletic commission or promotion, so they can differ outside the Unified Rules.
Where to see it on UFCalendar
Get it from the API
The same data is served as JSON by the MMA Fight Data API. The endpoints that carry it:
GET /v1/fights/{id}One bout with corners, result (winner, method, round, time), referee and bonus flags.
GET /v1/eventsCompleted cards newest-first, each with the full card and every result.
GET /v1/fights/{id}/scorecardsJudges' scorecards for any bout: every official, their score for each round, card totals, decision type and point deductions.
UFC fight results in the Fight API →