The ABC Claims That There’s At Least 10 Different MMA Rule Sets Being Used In North America

Prior to the majority of UFC or any other MMA event, a graphic will appear on the screen notifying viewers of the rules being used for a particular card.

Recently, a survey done by the Association Of Boxing Commissions & Combative Sports (ABC) showed that in North America, at least ten different variations of MMA rule sets are being used.

You can view the survey by clicking here.

The survey shows that some athletic commissions abide by the newer unified rules of MMA, while others use their own modified versions of those rules or an older version of the unified rules.

Adam Roorbach of the Kansas Athletic Commission (KAC) has told MMA Fighting that he’ll provide copies of the survey to fighters and officials as a guide to help them both.

A huge sticking point in the survey seemed to be the rule for a grounded fighter, which is a major divide between various athletic commissions.

Under the old rules, anything other than the soles of the feet on the ground make the fighter a grounded fighter. Under the new rules, a fighter must place both fists or palms of the hands on the mat with the soles of the feet to be considered grounded.

ABC President Mike Mazzulli doesn’t know if there is going to be a time when all commissions will agree on what a grounded fighter is.

“We’ve already discussed the downed fighter rule and how we can fix that and make it uniform,” Mazzulli said. “And I honestly don’t know if it ever will be. Is it fair to make all these commissions that already accepted the rule to go back to their state legislatures? I have one question for you. Show me one instance where it’s more dangerous compared to the old rules? No one has never been able to provide me an example. Give me one example where a fighter was in peril fighting under the Unified Rules presently compared to the old ones. And no one can do that. … It’s been three years and it’s not too dangerous.”

No word has been given by the various athletic commissions as to whether or not changes are going to be made based on the findings in the survey.