Rory: I’m a purist, prefer Vale Tudo Rules
Rory MacDonald: “I’m a purist kind of guy. I like knees to the head on the ground, kicks to the head on the ground, headbutts. I think those are all really good tools.”
UFC co-founder Campbell McLaren recounted the rules meeting at UFC 1.
Fellow co-founder Rorion Gracie stood and said “There is no biting. We are men not animals.”
Then he sat down.
It was actually more complicated than that, even then. There were for example the now familiar five, five-minute rounds.
However, time limits did not appear again until UFC 5. Long before the UFC, on Brazil, there had been no time limit Vale Tudo contests.
At 1955, Helio Gracie, 43, came out of retirement to fight Waldemar Santana, 26. Santana became the first man to knock Helio out, at 3 hours and 43 minutes.
In a recent interview with The Fight Network, UFC welterweight Rory MacDonald said he would like to fight under the old no-rules rules.
MacDonald lost a three round split decision to Robbie Lawler at UFC 167 on November 16, 2013. On July 11 at UFC 189, MacDonald fights now division champion Robbie Lawler for the title, over five rounds. The extra time sounds good to the Canadian.
“I always enjoy longer fights,” said MacDonald as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAfighting. “I don’t like going to decision. Fighting guys this high level, you need more than 15 minutes. I always appreciate staying in the cage a big longer. That’s going to be a lot nicer.”
“I’d like (fighting without time limits). “It doesn’t play into fan-friendly things because guys get tired and it can drag on. You’ve seen that in the older UFC’s with those rules. But yea, I’m a purist kind of guy. I like knees to the head on the ground, kicks to the head on the ground, headbutts. I think those are all really good tools for human body weapons. I think those are important.”
“It changes the positions completely. We saw Mark Coleman in the early days dominate with headbutts from the guard. It would change the guard position. Four points would change because of knees to the head on the ground. Standing over your opponent would change with kicks to the head on the ground. The whole concept, the positions that people are used to seeing in the UFC would change drastically if those were the rules.”
MacDonald is far from the only fighter who feels that the Unified Rules are not the ultimate test of a fighter’s ability. Nick Diaz for example has repeatedly expressed preference for Pride Rules. And the Unified Rules are not set in stone. There may be loosening of some restrictions in the forseeable future.
