Rule regarding knees and kicks to a downed opponent gets revised

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How athletic commissions interpret the rule about knees and kicks to a downed fighter and how referees enforce the rule has changed.

UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and former Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission Marc Ratner appeared on a recent edition of UFC Tonight on Wednesday and explained the new interpretation of what is a foul and what isn’t in regards to kneeing and kicking a “downed” fighter.

The Unified Rules of mixed martial arts describes a “downed” fighter as a fighter who has more than just the soles of their feet on the ground.

The Association of Boxing Commissions website defines a downed fighter as, “A grounded opponent is any fighter who has more than just the soles of their feet on the ground. (i.e. could have one shin or one finger down to be considered a downed fighter) If the referee determines that a fighter would be a grounded fighter, but is not solely because the ring ropes or cage fence has held fighter from the ground, the referee can instruct the combatants that he is treating the fighter held up solely by the cage or ropes as a grounded fighter.”

The wording of the rule and the rule’s intent has not changed, but the way the rule is interpreted and enforced has.

“The rule is really the same,” said Ratner. “The interpretation that we’ve come up with, with the Association of Boxing Commissions, which should be called the Association of Combat Commissions – they should change that – but the spirit of the rule has been violated by a lot of fighters.

“Obviously if you’re downed and you have a hand on the deck, and you have three points there and you get kicked or kneed, that’s a foul,” he said. “But we have fighters now who are putting their hand down, bringing it up, putting it back down again.

“I call it, if you’re talking basketball, trying to draw the foul. They’re hoping that the referee will see it and call a foul and maybe disqualify the other guy,” added Ratner. “So we’re telling the referees before the fights, go into the dressing rooms and say, ‘look, if you do this you’re doing it at your own peril and in my judgment as a referee, if you’re doing it, I’m going to call it legal.’”

It is now up to the referee’s discretion whether or not a kick or knee to a “downed” fighter is illegal.

“It’s a judgment call,” said Ratner.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/knees-and-kicks-to-a-downed-fighter-rule-reinterpreted-by-athletic-commissions-and-referees

So it sounds like the ref can make the judgement on whether or not a fighter is trying to play games or is legitimately a "downed opponent". That's what I gather from this.

I like it.

I agree...I like it too

I like this.
Baby steps to better rules....

Yeah, you gotta start somewhere I guess. I really think this is the only way to police this problem, so I'll take it. I'm just dreading the first time that we inevitably have a questionable call on this and a fighter ends up getting leveled in that position.

Meh .... more refs are gonna get fried by the fans for making a "wrong Judgement" call.

Krieger wrote:

Meh .... more refs are gonna get fried by the fans for making a "wrong Judgement" call.

Yeah that's kind of what I was hinting at. One way or the other, a ref is going to get this wrong at some point. I just hope it's not a case where a fighter is legitimately grounded and the ref lets him get blasted on a "judgement call".

Yeah, I can certainly see refs getting shit for this one. I wish they would just make knees to the head of a downed opponent completely legal. No questions or judgement calls to worry about