With athletic commissions adopting the new rule set across the country, there’s going to be some confusion amongst fighters and referees as everyone adjusts to the new rules. However, when a commission uses two different rule sets in the same night, that’s bound to cause some issues. And at UFC 220 in Boston, those issues […]
With athletic commissions adopting the new rule set across the country, there’s going to be some confusion amongst fighters and referees as everyone adjusts to the new rules.
However, when a commission uses two different rule sets in the same night, that’s bound to cause some issues. And at UFC 220 in Boston, those issues were on full display.
Sources told MMA Fighting that the early prelims used the new rule set while the later prelims used the older rule set.
UFC fighter Kyle Bochniak found that out the hard way during his preliminary bout against Brandon Davis:
“The ref comes in and says the athletic commission has changed it back to the old rules. And I’m like, ‘Whoa whoa whoa, what’s the old rules again?’”
“I was gonna throw a kick [during the fight], but I held it. I pulled back, because it looked like he was in transition of getting back up and I didn’t want a foul. Just because these rules, you don’t know anymore. I couldn’t remember what rules were in.”
Massachusetts, where UFC 220 took place, has been using the new modified rules since January 2017, but since this was the first UFC event in Boston since the new rules, apparently there was some confusion as to what rules to enforce.
Referees backstage allegedly overheard Joe Rogan saying that Massachusetts hadn’t adopted the new rules, they asked Marc Ratner about it, who said in an email that the old rule set would be used.
Some fighters were told the old rules would be in place, while others were told the new rules would according to Gian Villante and Alexander Pendoja, two fighters who fought on the UFC 220 card.
What does the UFC need to do to avoid this confusion in the future?
Changes may well be coming soon for the UFC and many other mixed martial arts promotions. Following a number of recent meetings, the Association of Boxing Commissions & Combative Sports brings about some interesting news. Firstly, and most importantly, the ABC passed a recommendation for use of instant replays in certain circumstances. Similar to Football
Changes may well be coming soon for the UFC and many other mixed martial arts promotions. Following a number of recent meetings, the Association of Boxing Commissions & Combative Sports brings about some interesting news. Firstly, and most importantly, the ABC passed a recommendation for use of instant replays in certain circumstances. Similar to Football and other sports, referees would be able to consult instant replays to determine if a foul or illegal tactic led to a ‘fight ending sequence.’
The vote for instant replay was 7-0 for, with one abstention. Bloody Elbowfirst reported these recommendations, and MMAFighting.comhad comments from commissioner Sean Wheelock on the matter. Another interesting, and somewhat gross proposal is to score a TKO loss if a fighter loses the use of bowel movements. All details below:
Fouls & Bowels
“(Officials) may only use Instant Replay when he/she feels that a “Fight Ending Sequence” was possibly caused by an illegal action (foul) whether intentional or unintentional.”
“Once reviewing the replay the referee can either confirm or dispel whether a foul was committed that brought about the fight ending sequence and take the appropriate actions from there,” the rule states.
“We wanted to do it where it had very strict, narrow criteria,” Wheelock said. “I think for this to work, you have to have parameters.”
“It was more of a matter of us looking at ways to improve the sport and looking at other sports,” Wheelock said. … “If this technology is there, why not use it?”
Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports
UFC 207 Means vs. Oliveira
During UFC 207, the use of instant replay would’ve come in handy. There was some dispute as to whether Alex Oliveira was deemed a ‘grounded opponent’ during his fight against Tim Means. The grounded opponent definition itself has recently been reconstructed, as has the definition of a fighter who is ‘unable to continue’ due to loss of bowel control. Explaining the proposal further, the rule change would allow officials to rule a fighter TKO’d if they ‘vomit, urinate or lose bowel control’ during a fight:
If a fighter loses control of a bodily function in between rounds, the ringside physician would be called. If not cleared to continue, the fighter would lose by TKO.
The committee explicitly noted a certain substance that automatically ends a fight. “If fecal matter becomes apparent at any time, the bout shall be halted by the referee, and the offending combatant shall lose the contest by TKO.”
The impetus for the bodily function rule change came from a 2015 pro-am event at a roller-skating rink in Topeka, Kansas. One fighter was on the way to a dominant victory but vomited all over the mat in between the 2nd and 3rd rounds. Wheelock thought it was a biohazard and the fight should be stopped, but he didn’t know exactly what to do.
Full Explanation of Instant Replay Use
Instant Replay Use in Mixed Martial Arts Competition
The use of Instant Replay in MMA must be set under parameters that insure fairness in the match and a proper outcome at the conclusion of the fight. Instant Replay may not be possible in some smaller shows that are not being videotaped.
Due to the complexities involved in the sport of MMA, the referee may only use Instant Replay when he/she feels that a “Fight Ending Sequence” was possibly caused by an illegal action; whether intentional or unintentional. At such a time the referee and only the referee may call for a review of the last moments of the fight. Once reviewing the replay the referee can either confirm or dispel whether a foul was committed that brought about the fight ending sequence and take the appropriate actions from there.
It should be noted that Instant Replay is not to be used to review the actions of the referee. Examples of this include:
1. Was the fight was stopped at the right moment?
2. Was there a tap?
3. Did a fighter commit a foul that did not bring about an end to the fight?
If a referee utilizes instant replay, the information obtained from the replay cannot be used to restart the fight as the fight is officially over and may not be resumed.
The sole purpose of Instant Replay in MMA is to allow the referee to make a correct call on the outcome of the fight in calling:
1. A winner of the match
2. Having the fight go to the judge’s scorecards for a Technical Decision
3. Is the fight going to be a “No Contest”?
4. Disqualification
Pros & Cons
Obviously change brings positives and negatives. Regarding the instant replay rule, mostly this is a positive change. Thankfully we should see less controversial endings to fights, but there are negative impacts, albeit not to fighters and fans. The promotion will potentially have to factor in added time on an already tight schedule for replay analysis.
Addressing the ‘bowel control TKO,’ this can certainly improve health and safety of fighters and officials. Although it’s not the most common occurrence, it certainly does happen.Also on the docket was an approved across-the-board standard for hand wraps. Unfortunately the oft-debated 12-to-6 elbows will not be addressed in 2017.
The unified rules of MMA certainly did a great job of making the sport somewhat ‘safer’ for fighters, but did leave a number of grey areas that were open to discussion. The term ‘grounded fighter’ has led to much debate, with many combatants exposing the fact that they needed to only have one hand touching […]
The unified rules of MMA certainly did a great job of making the sport somewhat ‘safer’ for fighters, but did leave a number of grey areas that were open to discussion. The term ‘grounded fighter’ has led to much debate, with many combatants exposing the fact that they needed to only have one hand touching the canvas in order to avoid kicks or knees to the head. Quite a frustrating rule, but perhaps the least in terms of influence of a fight’s outcome.
We’ve seen quite a few fights ended in no-contest or disqualification due to knees and kicks to the head of grounded fighters. This area of fighting under the unified rules, as well as eye pokes and the criteria for scoring fights were all under the microscope this week as the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) approved a number of definite rule changes.
Say goodbye to eye pokes, hopefully…
There had been some controversy over eye pokes, so the ABC ruled that even holding out the hand with fingers extended in standing position is now to be considered a foul. Also the scoring criteria now has definite descriptions of how to score rounds 10-9, 10-8 or 10-7. Damage, octagon control and effective striking have all been explained fully. We can also wave goodbye to female tank top in the octagon, as the ABC rules that only short sleeve rash guards are now acceptable.
A grounded fighter is defined as: Any part of the body, other than a single hand and feet touching the fighting area floor. To be grounded, both hands and feet, palm/fist down, and/or any other body part must be touching the fighting area floor. At this time, kicks or knees to the head will not be allowed.
Extended fingers
In the standing position, a fighter that moves their arm(s) toward their opponent with an open hand, fingers pointing at the opponent’s face/eyes, will be a foul. Referees are to prevent this dangerous behavior by communicating clearly to fighters. Fighters are directed to close their fists or point their fingers straight in the air when reaching toward their opponent.
Female clothing
Female competitors must wear a short-sleeved (above the elbow) or sleeveless form-fitting rash guard and/or sports bra. No loose-fitting tops are allowed. Female competitors will follow the same requirements for bottom coverings as the male competitors, minus the requirement for groin protection.
A major vote regarding the unified rules of mixed martial arts will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the fight capital of the world, today (August 2, 2016). According to MMAFighting.com’s Marc Raimondi, it’s possible that we could see the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) approve the majority of these proposed changes, although the same […]
A major vote regarding the unified rules of mixed martial arts will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the fight capital of the world, today (August 2, 2016). According to MMAFighting.com’s Marc Raimondi, it’s possible that we could see the ABC (Association of Boxing Commissions) approve the majority of these proposed changes, although the same can’t be said for all of the commissions present at the voting. And even if the changes are passed, some states may elect to follow the lead of the ABC in their home state.
As for the potential changes, there appears to be three being discussed. First off, the definition of a ‘grounded fighter’ is in question. A ‘grounded fighter’ is referring to when a fighter places a fingertip on the canvas to avoid eating any knees or kicks to the head. In the past, a fighter could touch the mat with any part of his body other than his feet and be deemed grounded, but with the new rule, a fighter must touch the ground with both hands and either his palms or his fists to be deemed grounded.
The New Jersey Athletic Control Board appears to be the leading commission in disagreement, and executive Nick Lembo, said that New Jersey will not adopt the changes if passed. He also explained why he’s against the revision of a ‘grounded fighter’ citing the chance of increased head damage:
“I am not in favor of anything that increases head strikes, especially in light of the NFL concussion lawsuits and what we’re learning now about head injuries,” Lembo said.
Lembo instead would like to referees push fighters to shy away from using this tactic prior to a fight. The executive is also against removing the foul for heel kicks to the kidney, a strike not typically seen in MMA, although Lembo noted that kidney strikes are outlawed in boxing.
Finally, the MMA Rules & Regulations committee would like to implement the word ‘damage’ into the official judging criteria. Damage has been a debatable topic for quite some time now regarding judging in combat sports, but Lembo doesn’t appear to be too fond of his proposal either:
“[NJSACB commissioner] Larry Hazzard has said, ‘If I have to tell my judges that they need to take damage into account for scoring, then I have the wrong judges,’” Lembo said.
How do you feel about these potential rule changes?
It’s one of the strangest, most arbitrary double-standards of MMA’s Unified Rules — you get five minutes to recover from a strike to the groin, but if you can’t immediately continue after an eye-poke, the fight is over. Considering that the eyes are the balls of the face, it’s a shame that both sets of organs aren’t given equal protection under the law.
Gian Villante was the latest victim of the eye-poke technicality at UFC 159, when he lost a technical decision to Ovince St. Preux after getting gouged 33 seconds into the second round of their prelim scrap. As he explained afterwards, “I couldn’t see for a second. I just blinked my eye to try to get some fluid back in there. I would have been fine 30 seconds later. I thought I had five minutes. All I needed was 10 seconds. But they ended it…I don’t know what was I supposed to say. And if I did know what to say, I’m in the middle of a fight. I’m not going to think, ‘What is the exact rule on what to say when you get poked in the eye?’ I’m going to say exactly how I feel. I can’t see for this second, but give me a second, and I’ll be all right.”
Instead, referee Kevin Mulhall stopped the fight, and the judges scored the action up to that point, giving Villante a loss in his UFC debut. On the bright side, that disappointing moment might have been the last straw in the UFC’s tolerance for some of the sport’s most controversial rules. According to an MMAJunkie report, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner will make a formal request to change MMA’s eye-poke protocol at the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual conference in late July. (The ABC is responsible for maintaining the Unified Rules of MMA, and providing uniform standards for MMA among the state and tribal athletic commissions.)
It’s one of the strangest, most arbitrary double-standards of MMA’s Unified Rules — you get five minutes to recover from a strike to the groin, but if you can’t immediately continue after an eye-poke, the fight is over. Considering that the eyes are the balls of the face, it’s a shame that both sets of organs aren’t given equal protection under the law.
Gian Villante was the latest victim of the eye-poke technicality at UFC 159, when he lost a technical decision to Ovince St. Preux after getting gouged 33 seconds into the second round of their prelim scrap. As he explained afterwards, “I couldn’t see for a second. I just blinked my eye to try to get some fluid back in there. I would have been fine 30 seconds later. I thought I had five minutes. All I needed was 10 seconds. But they ended it…I don’t know what was I supposed to say. And if I did know what to say, I’m in the middle of a fight. I’m not going to think, ‘What is the exact rule on what to say when you get poked in the eye?’ I’m going to say exactly how I feel. I can’t see for this second, but give me a second, and I’ll be all right.”
Instead, referee Kevin Mulhall stopped the fight, and the judges scored the action up to that point, giving Villante a loss in his UFC debut. On the bright side, that disappointing moment might have been the last straw in the UFC’s tolerance for some of the sport’s most controversial rules. According to an MMAJunkie report, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner will make a formal request to change MMA’s eye-poke protocol at the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual conference in late July. (The ABC is responsible for maintaining the Unified Rules of MMA, and providing uniform standards for MMA among the state and tribal athletic commissions.)
As Ratner puts it: “What we want the referees to do is don’t make a medical decision. Call time. Don’t ask the kid if he can see or not. Bring the doctor in and let the doctor make the determination…Now obviously, if any fighter can’t see, you want the fight stopped. But here’s a case where if you go through the mechanic and bring the doctor in, it will give them a chance to see if in fact the eye clears up and he can fight…I think by bringing the doctor in, just the whole operation will take a couple of minutes, and I think that should alleviate most of the pain and give us enough time to make sure the guy can fight.”
Alright, so it’s not as simple as “five minutes for eye-pokes too,” but the reasoning makes sense; give a fighter a chance to blink a few times before asking him if he can see, and let a doctor make the final decision about whether a match can continue.
Ratner also plans to propose a change to the definition of a “grounded opponent.” In the current incarnation of the Unified Rules, having a hand down on the mat gives a fighter “grounded” status, meaning that their opponent isn’t allowed to kick or knee them in the head. But fighters like Quinton Jackson and Paul Buentello have blatantly exploited this rule in the past, intentionally putting their hands on the mat to avoid trouble — and Ratner isn’t a fan of that either:
“We really believe this ‘three-point stance rule,’ where a fighter is just placing his hand on and off the mat so he won’t get hit, needs to be addressed. That’s not what the rule is for. That has to be looked at…If you’re going against the intent of the rule, and that’s what’s being done with some fighters, then we’ve got to change it.”
We wish Mr. Ratner luck in his quest to add a little bit of common sense to the Unified Rules. And once he has success with fixing the eye-poke and grounded-fighter rules, we hope he can help revise MMA’s other bad rules, like lifting the ban on 12-to-6 elbows, and prohibiting non-English-speaking fighters from taking us through the replay.
Are there any other MMA rules that you’d like to see changed?
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie is partnering with a new MMA organization in Brazil, y’all, and he’s putting his own unique stamp on the format and rules. Some are new ideas, many are ones tried before and at least one is just kinda weird.
Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.
Teams – Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.
Rounds – There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.
Cannot be saved by the bell – So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Vale Tudo legend Rickson Gracie is partnering with a new MMA organization in Brazil, y’all, and he’s putting his own unique stamp on the format and rules. Some are new ideas, many are ones tried before and at least one is just kinda weird.
Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.
Teams – Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.
Rounds – There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.
Cannot be saved by the bell – So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.
“Judges’” decision – Speaking of potentially messy and arbitrary, “in the event of a fight ending without a submission or knockout, the decision-making system is a curious one: the referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy has one vote, Master Rickson has another, and the audience watching at the venue or over television has a tie-breaking vote.”
Ok, so let us linger on this one for a moment. Being partial to everything Rickson, I don’t have a fundamental problem with him serving in a judging capacity for MMA fights. The guy knows what he’s looking at and he’s certainly more qualified than most current MMA judges. However, his exact role with the organization has not really been publicly specified and there could be issues there. Is he a promoter? Is he a part owner? Is he both? In either case, I’m not sure how I feel about a promoter or organization executive deciding who has won fights, because they could easily be compelled, even if subconsciously, to vote for the more marketable fighter since that fighter might make them more money.
Also, what are the criteria that Rickson, McCarthy and the fans are supposed to use to judge? Oh yeah, having the ref score a fight is a horrible and dangerous idea.
From conversations I’ve had with top refs in the past, I’m rather surprised that McCarthy would even agree to doing this. From what I understand, refs have their hands full just making sure fighters are safe and keeping to the time and rules. If McCarthy is to cast a judging vote to a fight he has just refereed it certainly seems like he’d then have to either
A.) Divert some of his attention from rule enforcement and safety to thinking about who is winning, or
B.) Keep his full attention focused on safety in the ring, in which case he’d probably not have a great idea of who won the fight immediately after.
How, exactly, will fans vote? Will it be a majority thing and they all have two buttons attached to their seats so they can choose who they thought won? Or will it be like a college open mic night where applause is used to determine the winner. In which case, will there be a decibel meter to determine who, exactly, received the louder applause or will some person decide who had more support? If the latter, who will that person be? [Ed. Note: Possibly via text message voting, but who actually takes part in text message voting at stadiums? Other than me that one time fans were asked which ethnic stereotype will run around Miller Park in a sausage costume fastest, for obvious reasons. Don’t judge me.]
Weight – So yeah, Mestre do Combate will have same day weigh ins. The idea is to discourage harmful weight cutting by fighters and to encourage to fight at their natural weights. Love the concept, hope it works. Amateur wrestlers have to weigh in the same day as competition and they still cut a lot of water weight often times.
Elbows – No elbows. Sorry, that sucks. A real Jiu Jitsu practitioner needs to ultimately learn how to deal with the different range and angles that elbow strikes pose on the feet and on the ground. At least professional MMA fighters should learn how to.
I’ll definitely be watching this event in November. I love anytime someone new enters the space. It allows for more opportunities for fighters. Let’s see how all these rules play out. What’s your prediction, ‘taters?
Technical bouts, messy albatross or something in between?
![27xRS[1]](http://cdn.lowkickmma.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/27xRS1.jpg)
