Leading MMA journalist Luke Thomas has jumped to the defense of ONE Championship’s global ruleset amid pressure from the Association of Boxing Commissions to adopt the unified ruleset for future ONE Championship shows in the United States.
The promotion has announced that it will stage a minimum of four events on U.S. soil in 2024 after the success of ONE Fight Night 10 – its historic American debut at the sold-out 1STBANK Center in Colorado in May.
Combat sports lawyer Erik Magraken took to X (formerly Twitter) after obtaining a letter in which the ABC lobbied the Colorado Combative Sports Commission to make the move, citing the use of knees to a grounded opponent under ONE’s ruleset as a key issue.
“The ABC is pushing back against Colorado allowing the ONE Global Ruleset (knees to head of grounded opponents) Just got a copy of their letter via open records request,” Magraken reported.
https://twitter.com/erikmagraken/status/1704629327567147132
The letter drew the ire of Thomas, who quickly responded to lend his support to the CCSC and ONE Championship.
“Hope everyone understands Colorado is very much on the right side of the issue here,” he posted.
https://twitter.com/lthomasnews/status/1704629797509373967
“The Morning Kombat” podcast host later clarified that the CCSC had previously produced its research to show that the ONE Unified Ruleset is as safe as the American-designed Unified Ruleset.
Thomas believes imposing a particular ruleset on overseas promotions could give a competitive advantage to any existing entity in the U.S. market – the UFC in this case – while he also noted that he prefers ONE’s format from an entertainment standpoint.
“CO hasn’t rejected unified rules. They just make it promoter discretion,” he said.
“2 points. 1, it stands to reason unified rules can’t be the only reasonably safe system. In fact, CO has data to show ONE system is comparably safe.
“2, rule set homogeneity favors the incumbent. If everyone has the same rules and you’re the most powerful company, no competitor can rule differentiate as a way to stand out.
“It’s bad for the industry to only use unified rules. And, personally speaking, ONE ruleset is flat out better.”
