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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?

The post Confusion Leads To Both MMA Rulesets Being Used At UFC 220 appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

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?

The post Potential Unified Rule Changes Spark Disagreement Between ABC & Commissions appeared first on LowKick MMA.