Rules of Unarmed Combat

                                              

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is the fastest growing sport in the world and is still in its infancy. The sport was born from Vale Tudo, meaning no holds barred, matches originating in Brazil in the early 1900s. It wasn't until 1993 that the Ultimate Fighting Championship took hold and brought the art of fighting to the masses by the legendary Gracie family. The goal of the UFC and organizations alike is to put on performances of the highest levels of hand-to-hand combat and determine who the most superior fighters at specified weight classes are. For the purposes of this article, I will refer to the UFC since it essentially has a monopoly of the fight game and has the highest level of competition. In its pursuit to crown kings of combat and make it marketable to the masses, rules are an obvious necessity. After all, even in a blood sport, we aren't completely barbaric, right?

Ground Rules (No, Not on the Ground)

In what has less than a few decades since the first ever UFC event, the rules and regulations have evolved, as they should. The original events prided themselves on having as little rules as possible, but the public seems to want a little more regulation than that. In the UFC's origins, there were oddly enough five rounds, five minutes each, but if one man hadn't submitted or been knocked out at the end of this twenty-five minutes, the fight would go into overtime until one of the previous results occurred (Martin). This meant no point system. The fighters were also allowed to wear any clothing that pertained to their martial art, including a gi, boxer trunks, and even shoes. At least there were basic rules against strikes to the groin and eyes, but for some reason the groin strikes were not enforced because the referee had not read the rules carefully. Go figure.

In the many years since, a standardized set of rules has been developed to include things like handwrapping, gloves, apparel, round length, and judging in a point system. The fighters are allowed to wear handwraps of no more than 15 yards in length which can be secured with no more than 10 feet of medical tape, for each hand. That's a lot of protection, which I'll get into later. The athlete is required to wear 4-6 oz. gloves (Rules and Regulations). In the current rules, no shoes or gis are allowed, and the athlete may only wear a form of shorts. The rounds consist of three five minute rounds, ad five five minute rounds for championship fights. Rounds are scored 10-10 when it's dead even, 10-9 when there is a close margin, 10-8 when one fighter overwhelmingly dominates, and 10-7 when a fighter completely dominates. However, there has never been a 10-7 round.

Fouls during the fight include:

• Headbutting
• Eye gouging
• Biting
• Attacking the groin
• Spiting
• Kicking or kneeing a grounded opponent in the head
• Hair pulling
• Fish hooking (a finger in side of opponent's mouth)
• Striking the spine or back of the head
• Small join manipulation (fingers and toes)
• Holding the fence
• Holding the opponent's shorts

New Rule Set

Thankfully, the sport is open-minded enough to implement changes when necessary. As of January 1, 2017, a change in certain rules has been implemented. The first change concerns what a grounded fighter means. Previously, if a fighter had one hand, even a finger touching the mat, that person would be considered "grounded" and safe from being kicked or kneed in the head. Some fighters have notoriously used this to their advantage, but the new rules state that a grounded fighter must have both fists/palms touching the mat. This helps make someone actually grounded instead of simply trying to avoid certain kicks and knees.

The next set of rules will concern extending the fingers when standing and striking to avoid eye pokes. Many fighters, including Jon Jones, Alexander Gustaffson, and Travis Browne, tend to eye poke more than others. This may be due to their lanky stature and striking style of keeping the lead hand extended to measure range or it may be a way to land a few eye pokes here and there. We let the fans decide. In the new rules, a foul will be considered when a fighter moves their arm towards their opponent with an open hand and fingers pointing to the opponent's face/eyes (Raimondi).

                                              

The last set of new rules refers to the point scoring system of rounds. Essentially, 10-8 rounds should be used more liberally. Rounds are judges based on effective striking/grappling, effective aggressiveness, and fighting area control (Raimondi). It is far too common that judges do not consider the amount of damage inflicted by one fighter to the other. Us fans have seen many instances where the bell saves a fighter at the end of a round, and we wonder if that fighter will even be able to continue. This has almost always resulted in a 10-9 round score even though a 10-8 would be much more appropriate.

No Gloves?

This may seem radical to some, but I believe it is for the greater good. I think the fighters' health would be better in the long run if they were not allowed to wear gloves or even handwraps. Joe Rogan, the main fight commentator and a blackbelt in Tae-kwon-doe as well as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a huge proponent of this idea (Kernaghan). The amount of protection afforded by thick handwraps and gloves allows fighters to tee off on each other as hard as they want without any consequence, unlike a street fight. The skull is very strong and if you were to punch someone full-force on the hardest parts of the head, you will very likely break the small bones in your hands and wrists. The only reason gloves were brought into boxing in the early 1900s following bare knuckle boxing was to give fans a greater show of fighters hitting each other harder and longer. Some fighters have even been caught putting plaster under the gloves to damage opponents more. This all comes at the cost of fighters' health, as we know CTE and brain damage is a very tragic reality. Doing away with gloves would get rid of this problem, liken the event to a real and pure fight, and save the fighters from some of the brain damage. If you knew you would break your hands or wrists if you were to punch someone full clip, wouldn't you be choose your strikes more wisely?

Works Cited

Rules and Regulations - Unified Rules and Other MMA Regulations, www.ufc.com

Kernaghan, Rory. “Joe Rogan: UFC Fighters Shouldn't Wear Gloves.” LowKickMMA.com, 4 May 2016, www.lowkickmma.com/UFC/joe-rogan-ufc-fighters-shouldnt-wear-gloves/.

Martin, Damon. “UFC Co-Founder Releases Original 'Rules List' From First-Ever Event.” FOX Sports, 14 May 2014, www.foxsports.com.

Raimondi, Marc. “ABC Approves New MMA Scoring Criteria, Rules.” MMA Fighting, MMA Fighting, 2 Aug. 2016, www.mmafighting.com.
Image 1:http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1150862-warning-to-johny-hendricks-watch-the-eye-poke-against-josh-koscheck
Image 2:http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1150862-warning-to-johny-hendricks-watch-the-eye-poke-against-josh-koscheck