The use of instant replay will be available during Saturday’s UFC on FOX 15 event at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Nick Lembo, counsel for the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, informed MMA Fighting the relatively rare practice in MMA would be available for the event.
Instant replay was previously in use in New Jersey beginning in 2007, but was phased out with the departure of commissioner Larry Hazzard approximately a year later. When Hazzard returned to that position in September of 2014, however, he re-instituted it for boxing and mixed martial arts events. The first show to use instant replay in the state since Hazzard’s return was an October 2014 Cage Fury Fighting Championship show.
The actual guiding principles of instant replay in the state are still a work in progress. Recently, it has not been available for fighters to challenge decisions. Instead, it’s for use between rounds when a designated member of the athletic commission believes there’s cause for a review of referee’s decision or act.
“We are not going to be nit-picking referee calls. We are not going to have debates on issues. It has to be something we’re sure of. And, it’s not something we’re looking forward to using. We hope we never have to. But, it is a safe guard for the fighters’ sake,” Hazzard told Yahoo! Sports in October.
UFC on FOX 15 is headlined by a middleweight contest between Lyoto Machida and Luke Rockhold.