Tim Sylvia is unable to continue after an illegal kick by Andrei Arlovski. The fight is ruled a no contest! – image via ONE FC
The ONE Fighting Championship promotion has opted to fully adopt PRIDE rules for soccer kicks following this past weekends ‘Pride of a Nation’ event.
@ONEFCMMA – Effective immediately, ONE FC has adopted full PRIDE rules for soccer kicks. Catch ONE FC: Rise of Kings on Oct 6!
The old open-attack rule only allowed soccer kicks to a downed opponent when the referee signaled that it was okay to do so.
This rule caused some issues this past Friday (August 31, 2012) at the ONE FC 5 event, which saw heavyweight Andrei Arlovski tag Tim Sylvia in the head with a couple of kicks. The referee had not given Arlovski the signal to do so, so the match was stopped and Sylvia was given five-minutes to recover. ‘The Maine-iac’ was unable to do so and the bout was called a “No Contest.”
Fighters will now be allowed to kick, or stomp, a downed opponent as soon as the action hits the ground. These types of attacks are banned under the Unified Rules used in North America by promotions such as the UFC, Strikeforce, and Bellator.