Second Look on Rules Underway for ABC
Jack Encarnacao Nov 28, 2008
Athletic commissioners from across the country are currently
reviewing comments from some of the most influential figures in the
sport in preparation for the Association of Boxing Commissions vote
in July 2009 to modify the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.
The rules are being looked at anew after some controversial changes were voted at the last conference in July 2008. The changes included expanding the number of weight classes from nine to 14, which would affect the five-class structure the UFC and other promotions use. New classes were added between all of the five utilized weight divisions of lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.
UFC President Dana White, as well as athletic commission officials
in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Ohio declared publicly that
they would not implement the new weight classes.
In response, the ABC issued a release ten days following the conference, categorizing the proposed amendments as guidelines and not mandate for its member commissions.
Lembo said the location of the conference, Montreal, made the trip cost-prohibitive to make for athletic commissioners from crucial states. Commissioners from California and Nevada weren’t present at the Montreal conference, but they did have extensive input into the process through telephone conferences, Lembo said. Former California State Athletic Commission Executive Officer Armando Garcia was listed as one of the authors of the revised rules that were voted on.
Lembo said there wasn’t enough input from fighters, agents and promoters before the vote as well.
“You need to hear from the fighters, you need to hear form the industry,” Lembo said. “I don’t think you could make wholesale changes without hearing from those groups. I don’t think there’s a need for radical changes. We need to have something passed that everybody accepts so everybody makes the changes.”
Dana White declared publicly
that the UFC would not
implement new weight classes.
The rules, established in New Jersey in 2000, opened the door for
government sanctioning that has come in dozens of states in recent
years. Lembo, as well as former UFC matchmaker John Peretti and
referee “Big” John McCarthy were driving forces in the crafting of
those rules.
In collecting input for the ABC’s second look at the unified rules, Lembo solicited comments from scores of fighters, managers, promoters and officials. He will soon hold the first in a series of conference calls with them to iron out any differences in opinion. In addition to Lembo, the ABC’s MMA committee includes representatives from Nevada, California, North Dakota, Colorado, Ohio, the River Cree Tribal Athletic Commission in Canada and the Mohegan Athletic Unit, which oversees fights at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
Several subcommittees have also been formed to solicit input from fighters and promoters. The committees include UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker, Renzo Gracie, Pat Miletich, Jeremy Horn and John McCarthy. Lembo said the 100-plus pages of comments he’s received don’t clearly lean toward any radical changes to the existing rules.
“The ultimate goal is not to make changes detrimental to the growth of the sport,” he said. “This is a very young, precocious sport . . . I’m not a big fan of radical changes, like with weight classes. I think they’ve been working good . . . Boxing did this, and we have like 14 weight classes or something. And one of the biggest problems with the weight classes in boxing is that it diluted the champions. There’s nobody around that can name all the champions in boxing.”
Lembo, a former wrestler, said there wasn’t much support to allow knees to the head of a grounded opponent, a staple of the Pride Fighting Championships. He said the technique generates too much force, has too much potential to inflict serious damage and could produce ugly scenes that would boost the stigma of brutality that MMA has battled since day one.
“Hardcore fans want knees to head on the ground, and I can tell you it’s not going to happen,” Lembo said. “One of main reasons it’s not going to happen is because the industry itself doesn’t want it. It’s not only the doctors who are concerned about it.”
Pat Miletich agrees. The UFC’s first welterweight champion, who returns to fighting on Dec. 13 for Adrenaline MMA, was one of several fighters to lend his thoughts to the ABC.
“I don’t see a need for knees to the head on the ground,” Miletich said. “That’s something that has potential for some serious fractures. Being concerned for athletes’ overall longevity and health, I don’t think that’s something that’s needed.”
On a disputed point like this, compromise will have to be reached, Lembo said. He pointed to a suggestion from Renzo Gracie to allow kicks to the head of a downed opponent only when thrown by a fighter working off his back, which would give ground specialists a new mode of attack.
Lembo said there also needs to be compromise on a consistent number of rounds for female fights as well as the definition of “back of the head,” which is illegal to strike. Lembo said as more and more athletic commissions begin to regulate MMA, it is important that fighters can count on consistent rules in every state in which they compete.
“It shouldn’t be you go to one state and the fighters have got to learn, ‘ok, the back of the head means this here,’” Lembo said. “I want to get everybody on board one way or the other.”
Miletich, whose career dates back to the days when little besides eye gouging were illegal, said it is dangerous for fighters to have to adjust to different rules in different states.
“When it was no rules except no eye gouging and no biting, that’s what everybody was prepared for,” Miletich said. “That’s the way you trained to defend yourself. You defend against head butts, defend against stomps, you defend against everything. You were kind of geared up for that. Now that there are rules from different organizations and states, it can be confusing for younger fighters.”
Lembo said he will personally push for amateur ranks in all states, and that those bouts wouldn’t allow certain attacks that could result in long-term damage, like elbow strikes and heelhooks.
“Nowadays, with the unfortunate collapse of the IFL and Pro Elite, you need a pretty pristine record to get noticed,” Lembo said. “(Amateur ranks) help guys to experiment with things without any great risk to their future career.”
The New Jersey athletic control board, under longtime commissioner Larry Hazzard, has long been at the forefront of regulating MMA. Though Hazzard was ousted from the position last year, Lembo said new head Aaron Davis is committed to preserving the Garden State’s reputation.
“He is very supportive and interested in both pro and amateur MMA and it is great news for New Jersey MMA fans that he is on board,” Lembo said.
Lembo noted that it wasn’t too long ago that most boxing commissioners didn’t even bother with MMA, let alone spend time discussing and debating its future. Now the sport is one of the ABC’s main agenda items.
“The sport got so big that you couldn’t ignore it any longer,” he said.
The rules are being looked at anew after some controversial changes were voted at the last conference in July 2008. The changes included expanding the number of weight classes from nine to 14, which would affect the five-class structure the UFC and other promotions use. New classes were added between all of the five utilized weight divisions of lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight.
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In response, the ABC issued a release ten days following the conference, categorizing the proposed amendments as guidelines and not mandate for its member commissions.
Nick Lembo, deputy attorney for the New Jersey State Athletic
Control Board and chairman of the ABC’s MMA committee, said the
vote was taken prematurely and without significant discussion of
the weight class issue on the convention floor.
Lembo said the location of the conference, Montreal, made the trip cost-prohibitive to make for athletic commissioners from crucial states. Commissioners from California and Nevada weren’t present at the Montreal conference, but they did have extensive input into the process through telephone conferences, Lembo said. Former California State Athletic Commission Executive Officer Armando Garcia was listed as one of the authors of the revised rules that were voted on.
Lembo said there wasn’t enough input from fighters, agents and promoters before the vote as well.
“You need to hear from the fighters, you need to hear form the industry,” Lembo said. “I don’t think you could make wholesale changes without hearing from those groups. I don’t think there’s a need for radical changes. We need to have something passed that everybody accepts so everybody makes the changes.”
Photo by
Sherdog.com
that the UFC would not
implement new weight classes.
In collecting input for the ABC’s second look at the unified rules, Lembo solicited comments from scores of fighters, managers, promoters and officials. He will soon hold the first in a series of conference calls with them to iron out any differences in opinion. In addition to Lembo, the ABC’s MMA committee includes representatives from Nevada, California, North Dakota, Colorado, Ohio, the River Cree Tribal Athletic Commission in Canada and the Mohegan Athletic Unit, which oversees fights at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut.
Several subcommittees have also been formed to solicit input from fighters and promoters. The committees include UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, UFC vice president of regulatory affairs Marc Ratner, Strikeforce promoter Scott Coker, Renzo Gracie, Pat Miletich, Jeremy Horn and John McCarthy. Lembo said the 100-plus pages of comments he’s received don’t clearly lean toward any radical changes to the existing rules.
“The ultimate goal is not to make changes detrimental to the growth of the sport,” he said. “This is a very young, precocious sport . . . I’m not a big fan of radical changes, like with weight classes. I think they’ve been working good . . . Boxing did this, and we have like 14 weight classes or something. And one of the biggest problems with the weight classes in boxing is that it diluted the champions. There’s nobody around that can name all the champions in boxing.”
Lembo, a former wrestler, said there wasn’t much support to allow knees to the head of a grounded opponent, a staple of the Pride Fighting Championships. He said the technique generates too much force, has too much potential to inflict serious damage and could produce ugly scenes that would boost the stigma of brutality that MMA has battled since day one.
“Hardcore fans want knees to head on the ground, and I can tell you it’s not going to happen,” Lembo said. “One of main reasons it’s not going to happen is because the industry itself doesn’t want it. It’s not only the doctors who are concerned about it.”
Pat Miletich agrees. The UFC’s first welterweight champion, who returns to fighting on Dec. 13 for Adrenaline MMA, was one of several fighters to lend his thoughts to the ABC.
“I don’t see a need for knees to the head on the ground,” Miletich said. “That’s something that has potential for some serious fractures. Being concerned for athletes’ overall longevity and health, I don’t think that’s something that’s needed.”
On a disputed point like this, compromise will have to be reached, Lembo said. He pointed to a suggestion from Renzo Gracie to allow kicks to the head of a downed opponent only when thrown by a fighter working off his back, which would give ground specialists a new mode of attack.
Lembo said there also needs to be compromise on a consistent number of rounds for female fights as well as the definition of “back of the head,” which is illegal to strike. Lembo said as more and more athletic commissions begin to regulate MMA, it is important that fighters can count on consistent rules in every state in which they compete.
“It shouldn’t be you go to one state and the fighters have got to learn, ‘ok, the back of the head means this here,’” Lembo said. “I want to get everybody on board one way or the other.”
Miletich, whose career dates back to the days when little besides eye gouging were illegal, said it is dangerous for fighters to have to adjust to different rules in different states.
“When it was no rules except no eye gouging and no biting, that’s what everybody was prepared for,” Miletich said. “That’s the way you trained to defend yourself. You defend against head butts, defend against stomps, you defend against everything. You were kind of geared up for that. Now that there are rules from different organizations and states, it can be confusing for younger fighters.”
Lembo said he will personally push for amateur ranks in all states, and that those bouts wouldn’t allow certain attacks that could result in long-term damage, like elbow strikes and heelhooks.
“Nowadays, with the unfortunate collapse of the IFL and Pro Elite, you need a pretty pristine record to get noticed,” Lembo said. “(Amateur ranks) help guys to experiment with things without any great risk to their future career.”
The New Jersey athletic control board, under longtime commissioner Larry Hazzard, has long been at the forefront of regulating MMA. Though Hazzard was ousted from the position last year, Lembo said new head Aaron Davis is committed to preserving the Garden State’s reputation.
“He is very supportive and interested in both pro and amateur MMA and it is great news for New Jersey MMA fans that he is on board,” Lembo said.
Lembo noted that it wasn’t too long ago that most boxing commissioners didn’t even bother with MMA, let alone spend time discussing and debating its future. Now the sport is one of the ABC’s main agenda items.
“The sport got so big that you couldn’t ignore it any longer,” he said.
