Mixed martial arts has come a long way since its beginning in the way of rules, but one fighter, the legendary B.J. Penn, would like to revert to at least some of the rules that were around in the beginning of the UFC.
In the early days of the organization, there were no judges. Fight outcomes were determined by finishes in the form of either knockouts or submissions. There weren’t fighters who got in the cage with the intention of laying on top of their opponent to “score points.”
Of course, the sport has grown into a much more skill based sport today, but the truth is that the average fight today may be less “exciting” for the casual fan than what they were getting during the “bare-knuckle brawl” days.
Not only that, but there weren’t even traveling championship belts that were defended from event to event. Sure, there were tournaments held and the winner was considered a “champion,” but he didn’t have to live in fear of defending that title. Because of this, they were less likely to go with a “lay and pray” technique that may be more effective, but produce less entertainment for the fans.
Penn believes that these two concepts from the early days of the UFC would be a step back in the right direction for creating fights that are more aesthetically pleasing.
“Get rid of the belts, get rid of the judges—first thing, right off the bat,” Penn begins. “Any fight that goes to a decision should just be an automatic draw.”
The legendary Ken Shamrock vs. Royce Gracie fight from UFC 5 produced the first draw the organization had ever seen. Though the fight was an important one when looking back on the history of the sport, a fight that didn’t end in a submission or knockout back then was simply turned into a draw.
“The only way you can win a fight is by finishing your guy, the only way you can lose is by getting finished,” Penn continued.
Not only would this rule revival reduce the number of “boring” fights, but it would also completely remove the possibility of the kind of controversial judges’ decisions we have seen particularly in recent years.
Penn believes that entertaining fights should be the most important thing when it comes to fighter pay, as well.
“You put all the guys with the most draws at the bottom of the pay scale. You put all the guys with the most wins, least losses and least draws at the top of the pay scale, and you fit down the middle accordingly,” he explained. “No one will want to go to a decision, no one would try to fight for points, because you can’t win unless you finish the guy.”
At the moment, two of the highest paid fighters in the UFC include welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and lightweight champion Frankie Edgar who are the only fighters to hold more than one victory over Penn in their careers. Of course, three out of the four combined victories between the two over Penn have come by way of judges’ decision and two of those were also considered very controversial.
Without judges’ decisions, Penn believes that the true best fighters would emerge.
Of course, these are all highly unlikely rule changes, but ones that many fans would certainly agree with the former multi-divisional champion on.
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Former UFC champion