California State Athletic Commission executive director Andy Foster
wants to clear all confusion regarding when a fighter is considered
grounded.
Advertisement
Foster is the man credited for taking radical steps like setting up
a pension fund for fighters, setting up rules to prevent extreme
weight cuts and barring judges from working events on opposite
sides of the country over the same weekend.
Fighters competing at
UFC 298 on Feb. 17 in Anaheim, California will be advised to
move up a weight class if they put on more than 10% of their body
weight plus one pound on fight night.
Foster now wants to remove one of the most confusing rules in mixed
martial arts: fighters being considered grounded with their hands
on the ground.
In a most recent example, Arnold
Allen landed multiple knees to Movsar
Evloev’s head from a headlock position during their
UFC 297 clash. Evloev desperately tried to put one hand on the
ground to be deemed grounded. While Evloev’s plan worked, as
referee Marc Goddar halted the fight, many thought the knees were
legal as the Russian’s hand on the ground wasn’t bearing
weight.
Foster wants to remove hands altogether from the grounded fighter
equation, weight-bearing or not. Foster plans to forward his
proposal at the next Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC)
meeting, which means it will be applicable to all commissions if
implemented.
“We’re going to get rid of the hand. That’s my proposal. We’re
going to get rid of it. If you want to be down, you need to put
something else down. Knee, back, anything. Anything other than —
you can’t be standing up, putting your hand on the ground. It’s
caused too much confusion,” Foster recently said on “MMA
Hour.”
“A rule that we put in for safety has in fact created an unsafe
environment, and it’s created an untenable environment for referees
to regulate this. They all view it differently.”
Another rule Foster wants to abolish is the 12-to-6 elbow, which is
the cause of the only loss on two-division champion Jon Jones’
otherwise perfect record.
“It’s just silly,” Foster said. “That rule is just, what about
11-5, if we’re going to use the clock? Or 1-7? Those aren’t
illegal. 3-9 is an awful hard strike from side control, but that’s
not banned. It doesn’t make any sense is the point I’m trying to
make.”
“Either you ban elbows or you allow them. This is the only one
that’s not — and it’s poorly enforced. Hardly ever is it enforced,
and when it is enforced, it’s enforced wrong. And you certainly
shouldn’t have people being DQ’d over this. You go back and you
have people arguing, ‘Well, it wasn’t straight down.’ I’ve had all
this. This rule is untenable as well. Terrible thing we’ve put our
referees in. We should not have rules on the books that are clearly
unenforceable.”