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A massive rule change appears to coming to the UFC in the near future.
At least, that’s if California State Athletic Commission head Andy Foster has anything to say about it.
Foster is working to change one of the sport’s most controversial rules, which surrounds knees to the head of a downed opponent and, more importantly, what constitutes a “downed opponent.”
“We’re going to get rid of the hand. That’s my proposal. We’re going to get rid of it,” he told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “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.”
“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.”
Under the current rule, fighters often try to game the system by intentionally placing a hand on the ground it order to be protected from knees and kicks. Though Foster’s suggestion wouldn’t change things such as Aljamain Sterling’s controversial disqualification victory over Petr Yan.
CSAC Head Andy Foster Working To Implement Multiple UFC Rule Changes
Foster also discussed eliminating a rule that bans “12-to-6 elbows.” Which are elbows that are deemed to be thrown in a vertical fashion using the point of the elbow.
“It’s just silly,” he 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.”