New eyepoke rules tested at VFC in Iowa
No combat sports event has allowed eye gouges since the Spartans, and that was before the birth of Christ. However, they have been cropping up with a nasty frequency in the past couple of years.
No combat sports event has allowed eye gouges since the Spartans, and that was over 2,000 years ago. However, they have been cropping up with a nasty frequency in the past couple of years. The Association of Boxing Commission MMA Rules and Regulations Committee is intent on doing something about it.
A new foul has been proposed:
In the standing position, a fighter that moves offensively toward their opponent with an open hand, fingers pointing at the opponent, will be a foul. Referees are to prevent this dangerous behavior by communicating clearly to fighters. Fighters are directed to close their fists or point their fingers straight up in the air when reaching toward an opponent.
A gouge need not take place for a foul to be assessed.
The new rule, and several others, will be tested at the Victory Fighting Championship event in Urbandale, Iowa, that airs live on UFC Fight Pass. Other new potential improvements to the Unified Rules include:
•A stricter definition of grounded, so a fighter cannot place a pinky on the mat to avoid knees;
•Allowing 12-6 elbows;
•Allowing kicks to the kidneys; and,
•Allowing clavicle grabs.
The rules will then be voted on by the committee. Rules that pass that hurdle will be voted on by the entire organization at the convention this summer. And then each commission would institute them.
First though, they have to be tried out.
“One of the best ways to figure out if these rule changes are good, if they’re going to change the sport dramatically is to test them out and see what actually happens when you put them into play at a real event,” said Iowa Athletic Commission executive director Joe Walsh to Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting.com.
“That’s one of the areas where we’re going the other way and making the rule a little more stringent,. I definitely think something needs to happen in the communication with the fighters in advance. I don’t know if there are fighters specifically using that as a tactic or that’s just the way the sport has developed, but something needs to be done about it.”
“One of the things that’s really important to the ABC is to make sure that any rule changes that are done, that it’s done in a very open and transparent way,” Walsh said. “And that we’re really studying this stuff, we’re really trying to look at it and get input from a variety of different sources.”
Also being tested out Friday night are new rules regarding the definition of a grounded opponent.
Currently, a grounded opponent is defined as any fighter who has any part of their body other than just the soles of their feet on the ground. If a fighter is grounded, he or she cannot be kicked or kneed in the head. Under the proposed rule change, a fighter has to have both palms or fists touching the mat or another part of their body that isn’t their feet touching the mat to be considered grounded. This would eliminate fighters bending over, placing their fingertips on the canvas to prevent kicks or knees to the head. Officials have called that practice “playing the game” for years.
In addition, another rule change being experimented with is be the elimination of the 12-to-6 elbow as an illegal maneuver. No elbow of any kind will be banned. Bans on knees to the kidneys and grabbing the clavicle will also be removed.
The full list of proposed amendments:
