The rules are abundantly clear: in mixed martial arts, a fighter is not permitted to deliver an elbow in a downward motion (ceiling to floor). Nor is a fighter allowed to strike an opponent behind the back of the head. Malaipet did both in the closing seconds of the first-round against Thomas “Wildman” Denny Friday in the main event of ShoXC: Elite Challenger Series on SHOWTIME, and was disqualified.

The telecast, which featured five fights, aired at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the west coast) from Chumash Casino Resort at Santa Ynez, Calif.

“I’m sorry because I came here to fight, but this is MMA and you have to follow the rules,’’ said Denny, who could not continue after he was nailed by three blatant elbows to the back of the head. “I may have been dazed but I wasn’t knocked out. One thing I could not do, however, was move my neck.’’

Knowing his advantage on the ground, Denny took Malaipet to the ground in the opening seconds and kept him there for more than four and a half minutes of the initial five-minute session.

At one point in the 160-pound fight, it appeared that Malaipet would get choked out, but he rallied to work his way out of it and managed to continue. Denny quickly locked him up again and tried to take matters back to the ground. A frustrated Malaipet then committed the three flagrant fouls.

Denny (26-16), of Victorville, Calif., was given a few minutes to recover, but when he couldn’t the fight was called at the 4:51 mark. “Malaipet was tough because I thought I had him with the rear naked choke,” Denny said. “But I will definitely fight him again. I was totally dominating.’’

Picture by Tom Casino

In other televised bouts, scheduled for three, 5-minute rounds:

• Conor Heun (7-2), of Hollywood, Calif., won an unpopular, unanimous decision over Marlon Mathias (5-2), of Brazil.
• Jaime Fletcher (9-3), of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., recorded an upset points victory over Aaron Rosa (10-2), of San Antonio, Texas.
• Shane Del Rosario (4-0), of Irvine, Calif., scored an opening-round knockout over Analu Brash (1-2), of Kula, Maui.
• Mark Oshiro (10-1), of Honolulu, Hawaii, knocked out previously unbeaten Chris Cariaso (6-1), of San Francisco, in the first round.

Non-televised results:

• Crowd favorite Kenny “The Poet” Johnson (1-0), of Los Angeles, did all the right stuff in his pro debut as he manhandled Michael Penafiel (2-3), of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., en route to winning a unanimous decision by the scores of 30-27 three times.
• Steve Gable (1-0), of San Clemente, Calif., scored a 2:47, first-round TKO over Eric Jones (0-2), of Los Angeles.
• Lyle Beerbohm (5-0), of Spokane, Wash., submitted (rear naked choke) Vince Guzman (2-3), of Los Angeles, at 3:26 of the second.
• Devin Howard (1-0), of La Habra, Calif., impressively submitted (rear naked choke) Mark Kempthorne (1-5), of Vandenberg, Calif., at 2:53 of the first.
• Brandon Tarn (1-1), of Los Angeles, submitted (rear naked choke) Jason Williams (0-1), of Rancho Cucamonga, at 1:05 of the second.