MMA fans, tell me if either of these scenarios sound familiar.
A) A fighter loses a closely-contested or outright inexplicable decision to his opponent (say, Leonard Garcia or Diego Sanchez), and when attempting to contest said decision is told simply to “never leave it in the hands of the judges.”
B) In the course of a fight, a fighter violates an ambiguously-defined rule (i.e. a grounded knee to the head or a poke in the eye) and due to either the ref’s incompetence or some other outside factor, goes unpenalized for it. When the recipient of this violation attempts to contest it, they are either told that they were either “playing the game” or that “thems the breaks” (the breaks of course being the Unified Rules of MMA).
The point of this unnecessarily long analogy is all to say that our sport’s rulebook is in need of some changes. For far too long, both referees and judges have been able to shirk any personal accountability they may have had as the result of an ill-defined rulebook and/or an outdated scoring system. After every botched call or head-scratching decision comes a mass of MMA fans rallying for change, and after that storm has subsided comes the apathetic understanding from those very same fans that those changes will seemingly never happen.
Thankfully, it looks like the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) is finally looking to address a handful of the immediate issues currently affecting the sport. At this year’s 28th Annual ABC Conference, a package of proposed rule alterations was presented to the committee with the goal of redefining some of MMA’s more loosely-interpreted rules, such as what exactly constitutes a grounded fighter and what should 10-8 round.
Earlier today, this package of rules was passed in a landslide vote, with every state except for New Jersey (who dissented) and Tennessee (who passed) voting “aye.” So without further ado, let’s get right to the changes:
Scoring
One of the most egregious flaws in the 10-point must scoring system has been the inability to define the criteria by which a 10-8 round is scored. To combat this, the ABC proposed an updated scoring language that would clarify exactly what “effective striking and grappling” means. BloodyElbow has the details:
“Effective Striking is judged by determining the impact or damage of legal strikes landed by a contestant solely based on the results of such legal strikes. Effective Grappling is assessed by the successful executions and an impactful/damaging result coming from: takedown(s), submission attempt(s), achieving an advantageous position(s) and reversal(s).”
Top and bottom position fighters are assessed more on the impactful/damaging result of their actions, more so than their position.
This criterion will be the deciding factor in a high majority of decisions when scoring a round. The next two criteria must be treated as a backup plan and used ONLY when Effective Striking/Grappling is 100% equal for the round.
So basically, a 10-8 should be considered if two of the three necessary characteristics (dominance, duration and impact) are met, and scored outright if all three characteristics are met. The word “damage” was later removed in favor of “impact,” and longtime official Big John McCarthy additionally presented a slide defining Effective Striking “Legal blows that have immediate or cumulative impact with the potential to contribute towards the end of the match with the immediate weighing in more heavily than the cumulative impact.”
What Constitutes a “Grounded Fighter”
Remember that “playing the game” thing I mentioned earlier? Well typically, that’s the rebuttal that a referee has used when dealing with a fighter hoping to avoid being kneed in the head while in the clinch by placing a few fingers on the mat, thusly technically defining them as a “grounded fighter.” Thanks to today’s amendments, however, a grounded fighter will heretofore only be defined as one who places “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.”
You hear that, Koscheck? GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!!
Eye Pokes
Oh yes, the era of fighters plodding forward with an outstretched hand to “distract” or “confuse” their opponent has finally come to an end. According to MMAFighting:
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.
You hear that, Bones Jones? GAME OVER. GAME OV-(*yanked offstage*)
Women’s Clothing
Given the excess of wardrobe malfunctions that plagued the Joanne Calderwood-Valerie Letourneau fight back in June, it was rather obvious that Reebok’s line of female fight gear was in need of a serious overhaul. As part of the ABC’s package of rules, all female competitors will now be required to wear “a short-sleeved (above the elbow) or sleeveless form-fitting rash guard and/or sports bra” in all contests moving forward. Sorry, creeps, it looks like you’ve seen your last nip slip in the octagon.
Furthermore, the ABC voted to remove two fouls from the MMA Unified Rules: heel strikes to the kidneys and the grabbing of the clavicle. In the case of the former, Big John stated that the amendment was born out of a simple need for clarity, as the current rules already allowed a fighter to do pretty much anything they wanted to the kidneys (hit, kick, knee, and elbow) except heel kick. “We want to make our sport safer, but we also want to make it clearer,” said McCarthy. “Our sport is a 360 degree sport. It is not a 180 degree sport like boxing.”
On the latter infraction, Big John brought in Jeremy Horn to demonstrate how ineffective grabbing the clavicle actually is. “So if you’ve got a 5-year-old at home, use it on them,” said McCarthy, who claimed that the move was only powerful enough to hurt a kindergartner.
According to MMAFighting’s Marc Raimondi, the changes to the Unified Rules will go into effect on January 1, 2017, though each state has the option to adopt them all immediately, keep their old rules, or institute a mixture. As for how quickly they’ll actually be picked up the sport’s many referees and judges, well … let’s just say it’s a great thing that we haven’t seen Steve Mazzagatti in the octagon in a while.