Most Saturday evenings, the UFC is being streamed live on ESPN. Either a pay-per-view event, or a free televised event known as a UFC Fight Night is available to fans worldwide. However, this wasn’t always the case. Having a prime time spot on the worlds’ largest sports network was a far departure from the UFC’s humble beginnings. Widely considered to be more a display of barbarism than a skilled sport, mixed martial arts was illegal in many states and failed to garner the same level of respect that other sports such as boxing had been doing for decades.
Although the original rule set of no biting and no eye gouging offered the allure of a more “pure” combat sport, it also created a hurdle to get mixed martial arts to the mainstream. Obviously, the UFC has overcome those hurdles to become one of the most popular televised sporting events in the world. They introduced a comprehensive rule set, uniforms, drug testing and major television network presence in an effort to be considered a mainstream sport. Although mixed martial arts has made amazing strides in the past 20 years, the sport is still experiencing growing pains. As “The American Gangster” Chael Sonnen said, there are three ways to win a fight; by knockout, submission, decision or disqualification. Recently, there have been multiple highly anticipated bouts that were ended due to disqualification. After a string of misfortune leaving him out of competition for two years, welterweight contender Leon Edwards was eager to show how his skills have progressed. When his original opponent Khamzat Chimaev pulled out due to COVID-19 complications, up and comer Belal Muhammad stepped up on short notice to face Edwards. Unfortunately, as Edwards extended his hand to hide a kick, he accidentally poked Muhammad in the eye, leaving Muhammad temporarily blinded in one eye and unable to continue fighting. Eye pokes aren’t anything new to the sport, and they always leave fighters and fans with inconclusive results and disappointment. There have been discussions to adopt a new style of glove that encouraged the fingers to curve instead of sticking out in hope to prevent future eye pokes.
In addition to eye pokes, there are a number of other rules that have led to disappointing decisions. Jon Jones, arguably the greatest talent to step foot in the octagon, has an official record of 26-1. His one “loss” occurred when he was disqualified due to throwing a “12-6” elbow on light heavyweight contender Matt Hamill. Long considered to be a silly rule, the 12-6 elbow is defined as an elbow that starts above the recipient and comes directly downward (as if moving from 12:00 to 6:00 on a clock).
At UFC 259 Aljamain Sterling became the first fighter in UFC history to win a title due to a disqualification. Going up against the Russian knockout artist Petr Yan, Sterling found himself on the receiving end of an illegal knee. According to the unified rules of mixed martial arts it is illegal to kick or knee to the head of a grounded opponent. This means any fighter who has a single knee or hand on the ground cannot legally be kicked or kneed in the head. In Sterling’s case, he was on his knees from a failed takedown attempt when Yan fired a knee at his head. Whilst most may agree that kneeing a grounded opponent should remain illegal, the true discussion is about whether or not the belt should change hands. Due to the illegal strike, Sterling is currently the bantamweight champion of the UFC. Hopefully in years to come, we can see a change in gloves or a change in rule set that will prevent these blunders and improve the experience for the athletes and for the fans.
About the author
Oliver Swanson trains in various martial arts at Precision Boxing and MMA, Poughkeepsie’s largest mixed martial arts academy. Want to make your mixed martial arts dreams a reality? Call Precision Boxing and MMA at (845)392-8495 or visit http://precisionmixedmartialarts.com/ to get started today!
