During the early days of mixed martial arts, when rules were still being written and refined, one man’s devastating performance would forever change how the sport was regulated. That man was Gan “The Giant” McGee. He was a towering 6’10” heavyweight whose knee strikes were so effective that they forced athletic commissions to ban them entirely.
The story begins in New Jersey during the first sanctioned MMA matches in America, overseen by the boxing commission. As McGee recalls, the rules meeting was surreal – officials were literally acting out scenes from Van Damme movies to justify certain prohibitions.
“They make up this rule like no 12 to 6 elbow, no downward elbows, and they’re explaining why and they basically act out the scene from Kickboxer,” McGee remembers. “I’m like, that’s a movie. That’s not like, have you ever watched a fight?”
But it was McGee’s fight against Brad Gabriel that would create lasting change. The commissioners had explicitly told contenders that knees to the head of grounded opponents were legal.
“They’d be like, ‘You can throw knees to the head of a grounded opponent.’ And then they’d be like, ‘Don’t do it too much.’ Like, what’s the rules? Can I throw knees to the head of a grounded opponent? Yes or no? They’re like, ‘Yes, you can.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m throwing knees.'”
McGee did exactly that, utilizing his massive frame and wrestling background to devastating effect. He took Gabriel down and unleashed a barrage of knees to his grounded opponent’s head. The commissioners, watching this legal but terrifying display of violence, were horrified by how brutal it looked on camera.
The athletic officials’ reaction was swift and decisive. What they witnessed that night – a 6’10” heavyweight methodically kneeing a helpless opponent – was deemed too dangerous for the sport they were trying to legitimize. The optics were simply too violent for a commission trying to present MMA as a regulated, safe competition.
“I went out and I fight and I took the guy down and kneed him in the head a lot, and just a lot of knees, and they thought it looked scary. So then it became a rule that you couldn’t knee the head of a grounded opponent,” McGee explains matter-of-factly.
This rule change would become known as the “Gan McGee Rule” among insiders. It was codified into the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts and remains in effect today across all major promotions, including the UFC. What makes this particularly significant is that McGee wasn’t trying to be malicious or excessive – he was simply following the rules as they were explained to him and using his natural advantages.
The irony wasn’t lost on those present. Here was a former college wrestler who had transitioned to MMA, using fundamental techniques that were completely legal under the stated rules, only to have those very techniques banned because of how effective and scary they appeared when executed by someone of his size and skill level.
McGee’s influence on MMA regulations didn’t stop there. He was also present during the discussions that led to the controversial 12-to-6 elbow ban, making him arguably one of the most influential contenders in terms of rule-making, despite never winning a UFC championship.
