Is Daniel Cormier right that 'there's no suing in fighting'?

What are the limits, if any, to trash talk in combat sports?

In his November 24 YouTube video, former two-division UFC Champion and current fight commentator Daniel Cormier makes a declaration to his viewers: “There’s no suing in fighting.” What prompted this statement was the third and final segment of the video, which focuses on the feud between Sean Strickland and Ian Machado Garry. The feud, which has taken over social media, was also the video’s most replayed segment and the segment after which the video was named: “Daniel Cormier REACTS to Sean Strickland and Ian Garry controversy: ‘there’s NO SUING IN FIGHTING!’” 

13:20 into the video, Cormier begins to explain the context of the feud, maintaining as close to an unbiased position as possible. He personally knows everyone involved and he’s not interested in taking sides, he says. What he is interested in is addressing Machado Garry’s threat to take legal action against Strickland.

“Like I said when Logan Paul tried it, there is no suing in fighting,” he says. “You cannot try to sue [anybody] in fighting. You’ve got to just go at them in a different way. It’s the way it is.”

The finality in his statement piqued my interest—not in relation to the feud, per se, but because of how he applies it to combat sports as an unspoken—but widely followed—rule specifically regarding trash talk. 

Trash talk, of course, comes hand-in-hand with sports: this is a given. Each sport has its own code of conduct that outlines the boundaries of trash talk, with consequences that range from 15-yard penalties to technical fouls—code violations that may result in an ejection, a point forfeiture, or even a loss. But in combat sports, where fighting promotions and organizations also have their own codes of conduct for contracted fighters to follow, why is it that personal attacks are so common? Is it the expected violence, and the promotion that comes with this violence, that make these attacks so acceptable?

A Brief History Lesson

Before the rise of social media, fighters traditionally addressed their targets in spaces that guaranteed media coverage: press conferences, weigh-ins, pre- and post-fight interviews.

There’s Mike Tyson, standing in the ring after his 38-second fight with Lou Savarese, calling out Lennox Lewis: “I want your heart. I want to eat his children..”

There’s Prince Naseem Hamed, sitting on the side of the ring after his fight with Jose Badillo. Like Tyson, he calls out his next opponent—who just so happened to be there, ringside. Hamed drapes his arm over Kevin Kelley and says, “He’s right in front of me, and I can honestly tell you that I’m gonna knock him spark out.”

And who could forget the Greatest? When he still went by Cassius Clay, Muhammad Ali had already perfected the art of trash talk. When asked by an interviewer to predict how many rounds it will take for his opponent, Henry Cooper, to fall, Ali said, “Well, Henry Cooper’s nothing but a tramp. He’s a bum. I’m the world’s greatest. He must fall in five rounds.”

Back then, fighters had to make the most of their screen time for these callouts, simultaneously celebrating their victories and issuing challenges to other fighters, making sure to insult them in both.