MMA in four minutes

Mixed martial arts lets fighters win standing up or on the ground. They can punch, kick, knee and elbow like a kickboxer, take each other down like wrestlers or judoka, and finish the fight with chokes and joint locks from jiu-jitsu. "Mixed" means the best fighters can do all of it.

Almost everything is allowed, but not quite everything: there is a long list of fouls (headbutts, eye pokes, groin strikes, kicking a downed opponent's head and more). See Rules and fouls.

Rounds are five minutes with a one-minute rest in between.

• Three rounds for most fights.
• Five rounds for title fights. In the UFC, every main event is five rounds too, title or not.

A fight that goes all the way is "going the distance": 15 minutes for three rounds, 25 for five.

Most MMA happens in a fenced cage; the UFC's eight-sided one is the Octagon. Some promotions use a boxing-style ring. Fighters wear small open-fingered gloves (about four ounces) so they can grab and grapple, a mouthguard and a cup, and fight barefoot.

The referee enforces the rules, separates fighters when needed and stops the fight when one can no longer defend themselves.

Three judges sit cageside and score each round on their own. If nobody is finished, their cards decide the winner.

The athletic commission (a state or national regulator) licenses the fighters, appoints the referee and judges, runs the weigh-ins and drug tests, and can overturn results.

A card runs from the early fights to the main event, the headline fight, which comes last. The one before it is the co-main event. The earlier fights are the prelims.

Fighters weigh in, usually the day before. Then come the walkouts, the referee's instructions in the center of the cage, and the first bell.

Knockout, technical knockout, submission or the judges' decision, plus a few rarer ways. Tap a card to flip it.