Stann to commissions: Get the rules right

UFC 211 was a tremendous card, with the winners in the main and the co-main in consideration for division G.O.A.T. Unfortunately, a rules controversy overshadowed much of the good.

At the 2016 Association of Boxing and Combat Sports Commissions annual convention, every commission but New Jersey voted in favor of a new definition of a downed fighter. No long was a single pinky in contact with the mat considered down. Unfortunately, many states have not implemented the rule, which leads to confusion.

Eddie Alvarez was very nearly out but came back and drove Dustin Poirier to the mat. Then he threw two knees to the head that were illegal under the old rules, but would not have been under the new rules. Then there was a third knee illegal under both rules that left Poirier unable to see properly.

Referee Herb Dean said that the first two knees were legal, so he was ruling the third knee accidental, and declared the bout a No Contest, rather than the disqualification it should have been. Poirier plans to appeal.

On FOX’s post-fight show, UFC color commentator Brian Stann was not impressed.

The fight was awesome. Dustin Poirier was putting on perhaps his best performance since he’s moved to lightweight,” said Stann as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. “Maintaining his range, combinations, he hurt Alvarez bad. Then Alvarez showed off his heart. He was hurt significantly, fought his way back into this fight and then here come the knees. All clearly illegal. These are not the new rules, these are the old rules and it wouldn’t matter anyways.

Now the decision is made to call it a no-contest. A DQ and a No Contest. No. These are illegal moves. That should be a disqualification, a win for Dustin Poirier, who was most likely up two rounds to none.

Look I get it, Eddie Alvarez is in a fist fight, he’s not thinking through that, but regardless, it’s still a foul. If you’re going to make the rule and it’s going to be a foul then treat it as a foul and don’t just say, ‘OK nobody wins.’ That’s not how it’s supposed to go.

Here’s the overall frustration: We set new rules, we barely ever use them, we go to different cities every damn weekend and these fighters have no idea what knees are allowed, what positions they’re supposed to be in, what point scores we’re going by. I was in one country, in Fortaleza in Brazil, and it was a mixture of the old and the new rules! I asked the referee, ‘do the fighters know that?’ He said, ‘well, the three bouts that I’m reffing, they know that.’ Come on! We’re better than this.

“Decide on rules and go with them so that these athletes know. And the referees, they should be the best ones to know. Get the rules right. I don’t buy that that should have been a no-contest. That should have been a win for Dustin Poirier and what makes me super upset is that we continue to have controversy over these rules. We have to fix this.

The first step in the solution is a simple one. Every commission that voted in favor of the new rules should implement the new rules they voted in favor of.