Against the Rules: A Look at What Needs to Be Changed in MMA

From the time that MMA was brought to the shores of the United States and to pay-per-view television in 1993, rules have always been a topic of concern, a topic with several points of views and one that is to this day a highly debatable subject. UFC 159 was an event marred with unusual occurrences and some seriously unbelievable circumstances, the biggest being two bouts that were decided by eye pokes. At that point, it occurred to me to begin brainstorming ideas on how the current UFC/Century glove can be modified. Then later on, I read a statement by Matt Hughes saying that the cause of the alarming number of eye pokes in recent matches isn’t due to the gloves, but rather the fighters themselves and their bad habit of leaving their hands open when extending their arms. Instead of changing the gloves, which may be coming anyway, how about we penalize fighters who poke their opponents in the eye? There is some refining to that rule of course, but that in turn brought up another thought: How many rules in MMA’s current state need to be changed?

In an ironic twist, the sport that once was sold on catchphrase “there are no rules” has gone from having as few rules as possible to having too many. Therefore, here are five suggested changes to the Unified Rules that I believe should be implemented.

1. Penalizing eye pokers: We’ll start with what I mentioned above. On the first accidental eye poke, a stern warning is merited; the second will prompt a disqualification. The first time can obviously be seen as accidental, while the second, not so much. Much like in boxing, when a low blow is delivered and then the recipient retaliates, the first low blow can be considered accidental but the retaliation is definitely intentional. Following that train of thought, a second eye poke from the same fighters should be penalized with a disqualification.
2. Eliminate the three-point stance rule: As we all know by now, any knees or kicks to a grounded opponent are illegal, however, putting one hand on the canvas shouldn’t be considered “grounded”. Fighters take advantage of this left and right by simply putting a hand on the floor, and that needs to be changed to a grounded knee, like when a football player is considered down. Granted, the fighter being kicked or kneed will most likely just drop to one knee to avoid those strikes instead, but it’s still light years better than one hand on the canvas.
3. Elbows to the head or face on the ground should be illegal: Now, before everyone goes ape shit over this one, hear me out. Even though elbows can end fights via a legitimate knockout, we all know that number is far less than the elbows that open cuts (and then the bout is stopped due to the cut). No elbows on the ground will cause a top fighter to need more to room to strike with the fist instead of the elbow, and could potentially give up more space to the bottom opponent, leading to a possible scramble and maybe even an escape. Point of the scenario: less stalling and more action.
4. Add more weight divisions: I realized having so many weight classes in boxing makes it hard to keep track of them because there are way too many. And there are some with as little as three pounds between them. But perhaps in MMA there are too few. Recent articles have shown the dangers of extreme weight cutting and rehydration and there have been a plethora of opinions on what can be done about it. How about a few more weight classes? There are a lot of fighters I like to call “tweeners”. Pro wrestling uses the term to describe a wrestler’s character who is morally neutral (neither heel nor baby face), as in “in between”. I use that term for fighters who are too small for the division above them and too big for the division below them, i.e. Diego Sanchez, Rich Franklin and Anthony Johnson. Maybe the solution to extreme weight cutting and then rehydration is having more weight classes.
5. 12 to 6 elbows should be legal: It’s common knowledge that Jon Jones should be undefeated and isn’t because of this rule. 12-to-6 elbows are not more dangerous or more powerful than ordinary elbows, so this rule is subjective and is seriously nonsensical.

 

Photo Credit: Brad Penner (USA TODAY SPORTS)

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