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MMA > General MMA > Space for alternate rules?

Addison , PA

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February 9, 2013, 03:04 PM

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MMA today is pretty damn streamlined, pretty damn generic.

4 oz gloves, board shorts, cage, maybe a ring. 3x5 rounds or the occasional 10-5-5, blah blah blah.

Is there a market for the kinds of interesting rule sets we saw early in the days of the sport?

I would watch old Pancrase rules fights if they still happened. Removing the fear of punches on the ground and bare hands made the grappling so much more exciting. Rope escapes made a big improvement in the flow of grappling too.

Or something like the Lumax cup, which was MMA with gi-jackets on. You got a drastically more dynamic ground game where the best BJJ players can flex their greatest skills, you got the awesome Judo throws that generally only happen with the jacket, and you also got bad ass exchanges where guys were using the gi for control and basically hockey fighting.

Do you guys want to see basically slight variations of the exact same rules (no elbows in SF, kicks in Japan), or would you be open to some pretty drastically different promotions existing alongside what we know as modern MMA?

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February 10, 2013 10:42 AM ET

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While I love watching the old Vale Tudo championships from the late 90's as well as Pride, the level of brutality makes them a hard sell for network tv and many new fans. The soccer kicks, headbutts and hockey fighting you mention above are great to watch for an acclimated fan but for the sport to grow, there has to be content for the new fan to latch onto. I think bringing the old rule sets back do nothing but set back the sport and stagnate growth.

With all that being said, the no knees to a downed opponent rule needs to be cut or at least revised to make it a knee that has to be down and not a hand, otherwise fighters (Dodson among many) take advantage of it and try to get a free point.