Issue 026

June 2007

By Grant Waterman

The majority of people who watch MMA probably know most of the techniques that are considered to be fouls, but it seems that very few realise that there is a whole list of stuff that goes with the fouls list that can also be different. I’ll give you an example. I refereed a fight at Cage Rage last December between Xavier Foupa-Pokam and Alex Reid. During the second round Alex received an accidental poke in the eye and could not continue. Alex had complained about a similar situation in the first round, however I stand by my assessment that it was an unintentional foul.

So what happens in a situation like this? Many shows have a set of guidelines that lay down what will happen under various circumstances, and in this case the ruling was that the fight would go to the judge’s scorecards up to the point that the fight was stopped and a winner would be announced. In this instance Xavier was victorious. There were differing opinions as to the fairness of this outcome but it is laid down in black and white.

Here’s what the Cage Rage regulations actually say.

Where a contestant receives a foul blow, the referee may interrupt the bout and may allow him up to 5 minutes to recover. If the contestant cannot continue after this time for medical reasons the following may occur:

If the foul blow was caused accidentally, the bout will go to the judges’ scorecards, unless the bout has not reached the end of at least one round in which case it will be made a no contest.

If the blow was caused intentionally, the victim will be deemed the winner of the contest by way of disqualification.

Now had the above situation occurred in an event that is governed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, such as the UFC, the fight would have been made a no contest. The reason for this is that they have a different set of guidelines which state that in a case like this two rounds must have been competed before the decision is made by way of the judge’s score cards.

You can argue as to which way of dealing with this particular situation is fairer and I can give you reasons for adopting either approach. Some would say that a fighter could be winning a fight and in the second round start to gas badly, so he could foul his opponent and make it look unintentional. If the other fighter can’t continue the fight goes to the judges score cards (under Cage Rage rules of course) and the guy who was gassing wins. An easy way of getting a win you may say, but then what about a guy who is losing a fight and being totally dominated for nearly two rounds? 10 seconds before the end of the second round he decides to foul his opponent and make it look accidental. Under UFC rules, if his opponent can’t carry on the fight will be declared a no contest. Which is the fairer way of dealing with these things? Well all situations are different and the referee needs to be right on the ball to assess things to give the best outcome.

So you see, there may be quite a few subtle differences in the way each organisation deals with certain situations and if you follow one particular promotion’s events, such as PRIDE, UFC or Cage Rage, it might be interesting to have a look at the differences. [Will be interesting to see what happens now that PRIDE and UFC are aligned – Ed.]

It made me laugh to see some of the so called experts making fools of themselves on the internet forums when the above situation between Alex Reid and Xavier Foupa- Pokam was being discussed by quoting the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s (UFC) regulations as if every show in the world is governed by them. I hope this article has shed a bit more light on the subject.