An oblique kick is a stamp with the sole onto the front of the opponent's front leg, at the knee or just above it, as they step in. It stops the step, keeps them at kicking range, and gives them something to worry about besides punching.
Watch it on video: how to throw an oblique kick Tap any strike on this page to hear FightFlow call itQuick answer
Orthodox opponent, facing you
Their front knee, and just above it
Your stance
Orthodox: left foot forward, the usual stance for right-handers. Southpaw is the mirror.
Tap a strike to hear the call exactly as FightFlow says it in a round.
Shown against an orthodox opponent, whose front leg is their left. Both stances throw it with the lead leg: an orthodox kicker lands on the front of the knee, a southpaw on the front and inside. The oblique is a Muay Thai kick here, because GLORY and WAKO kickboxing rules ban it.
The oblique works best on a leg that is moving forward or carrying weight. Press play to hear the exchange called out on the figure.
Each exchange is shown for orthodox against orthodox. In the app the calls follow your stance, so as a southpaw you drill the mirror image, aimed at the other side. Tap Hear it and FightFlow calls it three times, at the pace it uses in a round, so you can shadowbox it.
Target
Front knee
Stamp the step.
You
Hold your range, weight on your rear leg.
They
They step in behind the jab. Their front foot comes down in front of you.
Finish
Oblique kick onto their front knee as the foot lands.
A leg that is landing cannot lift to check, and the kick meets the step before the jab arrives. Keep your weight back and your rear hand up.
In the app: Oblique kick
Open in FightFlowStop the pressure, then punch.
You
Jab to the guard.
They
They keep walking forward with both hands high.
Finish
Oblique kick to stop the step, then the cross as your foot lands.
A high guard covers the head, not the legs. The oblique stops their weight, and your foot landing forward loads the cross.
In the app: Jab, oblique kick, cross
Open in FightFlowTrain it in FightFlow
Every exchange above opens straight into FightFlow's Combo Builder, and FightFlow calls it out loud during your rounds in the same voice. 10 free training minutes a day.
“The written Muay Thai rules ban the oblique kick.”
Not the ones we checked: IFMA, WMC, the Lumpinee rules and the ABC's 2024 Muay Thai rules do not explicitly ban it, though IFMA fouls intentional joint hyperextension. The ABC's 2011 Muay Thai rules, which its members voted to accept, made a side kick to the front of the knee a foul; they are now archived. Rajadamnern Stadium's own rules guide, which is not a rule book, calls kicks aimed at the knee joint illegal. Your promotion's rules decide.[1,2,3,4,5,15]
“The oblique kick is illegal in professional MMA.”
Not under the Unified Rules of MMA as of October 2026: the stomping foul covers only a grounded opponent. An ABC committee looked at kicks to the knee in 2009 and kept them legal for professionals. Amateur rules can be stricter: the ABC's archived amateur MMA recommendations prohibit linear kicks to the knee joint. In September 2026, AgentMMA reported that CSAC executive director Andy Foster advocated banning kicks to the knee; no rule had changed by October 2026.[9,10,16,17]
“An oblique kick tears the ACL.”
Nobody has studied what an oblique kick tears. Medical sources link a knee forced backward past straight to ACL tears, PCL tears, damage at the outer back corner of the knee and, in the worst cases, dislocation. "It tears the ACL" is too narrow.[12,14,18,19]
If a kick to the knee leaves the foot cold, blue or a different color, or the knee looked out of place or went out and came back, call your local emergency number (999 UK, 112 EU, 911 US) or go to an emergency department, and do not drive yourself. Do not let anyone push it back in. A knee that pops and gives way, swells fast, cannot take weight or cannot straighten needs to be checked by a doctor soon. So does numbness or tingling below the knee. A knee can look normal and still hide damage to the artery behind it that gets worse over the next few days, so do not wait it out. Do not train or spar on it until it has been checked.[18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25]
This page is general information, not medical advice. If you think you are hurt, see a doctor. Where your gym or governing body has stricter rules, follow them.
The medical and rules statements on this page come only from medical references, peer-reviewed studies and official rule books, each checked against the source text. Fight technique is our own. Last checked October 12, 2026.