There has been a fair amount of controversy throughout the last few UFC cards, eye pokes, low blows, controversial referee calls and somewhat poor referee decision-making have all influenced fights in ways that they should not have in the past month. The UFC is in a somewhat unique position for an organization as large as it is. The UFC is basically at the will of government regulations and are nearly unable to make decisions about their own organization.

If the NFL wanted to change first downs from being ten yards to fifteen yards they would be able to make that decision themselves, internally. There might be some push back from players, fans, coaches or owners, but it is the league’s decision to make. If the MLB wanted to make Home Runs worth two runs to encourage more homers, then they could do it. If the UFC wants to change the ruling of what constitutes an illegal blow, they are unable to do it without appealing for change to the athletic commissions and government bodies that regulate and enforce the Unified Rules of MMA.

Despite this red tape that holds the UFC back, they have promised to urge athletic commissions to consider some changes to the rules that need to be made. In support of the UFC here are four rule changes that these athletic commissions need to at least consider.

1)    Eye Pokes

Close fight in the third round? Getting tired and think your opponent might start an epic comeback? Poke him in the eye. Under the current rules, there is really no punishment for poking your opponent in the eyes, so long as you make it look like an unintentional foul. At UFC 159 Gian Villante was poked in the eye, and the referee immediately asked him if he could see, when he responded no, the bout was immediately stopped. It awarded his opponent Ovince St. Preux a technical decision victory in a very close bout that Villante could easily have stolen in the third round.

I cringe almost every time I hear Joe Rogan talk about the need for new gloves in MMA and blah blah, although recent reports are that the UFC is in the early development stages of bringing in a newly designed glove to prevent eye pokes. Whether or not these gloves ever make it into the octagon remains to be seen, in the meantime there are however some changes that need to be made immediately.

First of all, there needs to be a better enforcement and a stiffer punishment for eye pokes. Oftentimes the poke is the result of carelessness from fighters, either stepping in or stepping backwards with open hands. Fighters need to be automatically deducted a point for eye pokes, initially this will cause many fighters to lose points, but a stiff punishment will teach fighters that they can’t be careless. I will guarantee that the first time a fighter loses a win bonus because of an eye poke, many others will ensure that they keep their hands closed.
The other problem with eye pokes is the treatment of the foul from referees. With low blows fighters who are fouled are given five minutes of recovery time. With eye pokes, referees can either stop the fight or allow a recovery period based on their discretion. The absurdity of this is hilarious, firstly referees aren’t doctors and they shouldn’t be making decisions about whether or not fighters can continue fighting after an eye poke. The fighter should be given a five minute rest period similar to other unintentional fouls, however, due to the severity of a possible eye poke they should be inspected by the cage side doctor before being allowed to continue. Doctors should be the ones stopping bouts for medical reasons and there needs to be a proper amount of time given for fighters to gather themselves.

2)    Definition of a Downed Opponent

The current rules enforce that a ‘three-point stance’ constitutes a downed opponent. As long as the fighter has three points of contact with the mat, he is considered a downed opponent. Since this means their opponents are unable to deliver knees or kicks, this rule is being downright abused by fighters and is used as a stall tactic when a fighter is in a precarious position.

I agree with the rules of being unable to knee or kick the head of a downed opponent, as those strikes specifically soccer kicks or head stomps can cause serious damage to fighters. However, the definition of a downed opponent needs some tweaks. This rule should be used to protect fighters who are in a dangerous position, it should not be used by fighters who are trying to draw their opponents into accidental fouls or as a stall tactic.

My proposition for this is to use the knees or back as definitions of a grounded opponent. If a fighter has a knee on the mat, he is most certainly downed, similarly if the fighter’s back is making contact with the mat, he is also downed. By enforcing these guidelines to define a downed opponent it will increase clarity for the attacking fighter and will reduce the number of fighters who try to use this rule as a stall tactic, since dropping to their back or their knees would open them up to significant danger.

3)    Marijuana Metabolites as a Performance Enhancing Drug

A number of fighters have recently failed their post-fight drug tests due to ‘marijuana metabolites.’ However many current fighters, including the recently released Matt Riddle and the always controversial Diaz brothers are medical marijuana users, who are registered in their state to use marijuana legally. In addition to that some states have legalized marijuana and it appears as though many more may join in with legalizing or de-criminalizing the use of marijuana.

Despite what your personal opinion is on weed, it’s hard to argue that it’s a performance-enhancing drug. Especially when the only thing that is found in a test is the metabolites. Despite what many people think about Nick Diaz, his recent case against the Nevada State Athletic Commission after his failed drug test brings up a number of interesting points. First of all, his lawyer points out that marijuana is the only substance that is prohibited according to the NSAC, not marijuana metabolites. There is a significant difference between testing positive for marijuana as opposed to marijuana metabolites (which is basically an inactive ingredient as Diaz’s lawyer called it.) According to the World Anti-Doping Agency marijuana metabolites are not prohibited as a performance-enhancing drug.

The only case made for marijuana being performance enhancing is that it’s effects can dull pain, which would obviously be advantageous in a fist fight, however, the metabolites can remain in the system for weeks or months, which is certainly not affecting that fighters performance on fight night. In cases where fighters can be using marijuana legally they should not be punished unless they pop for marijuana on the test.

4)    Definition of the Back of the Head and Blows to the Back of the Head

The Association of Boxing Commissions has clearly laid out the ‘illegal striking zone’ at several times and has a visual definition in their files. The basic gist of the rule is that a strike that touches the ear or forward is legal, while anything behind the ear or towards the neck area is illegal. This definition is fairly widely accepted among all athletic commissions, but the enforcement of the rule about illegal blows needs to be more defined.

Throughout the past year in the UFC alone some fighters have been deducted points for striking the back of the head, some fighters have been disqualified for rendering their opponents unable to continue due to illegal strikes, some fighters have received no punishment at all for striking the back of the head and some fighters have received warnings for it. That’s a very wide gap in enforcement of this rule. Many referees abide by the generalization that if the blows come as the result of trying to land legal blows, they receive warning.

Let’s look at a recent fight between Gabriel Gonzaga and Travis Browne. Browne won the bout via TKO in the first round, due to standing elbow strikes, several of which landed illegally to the back of the head. In this bout he wasn’t even warned about the strikes, and the referee stated that he landed legal blows before and was trying to land legal blows, thus he let the illegal blows end the fight. This ruling in my opinion is pretty terrible.

First of all, that rule is there for a reason as rabbit punches and shots to the back of the head can do serious damage to fighters. Secondly, the onus needs to be on the fighter delivering the strikes. In other sports similar rules are enforce with the onus being on the attacker. It’s not easy for 300-pound lineman to not hit a quarterback after he throws the ball, but it’s expected of him and if he doesn’t do it, he’s punished. The same needs to be said for fighters. There needs to be immediate point deductions for strikes to the back of the head. Like my opinion on eye pokes, fighters who realize that they will be punished severely for these strikes will learn to adapt quickly.

The other side of that coin is fighters turtling up and trying to expose the back of their heads in a chance to earn a brief timeout or get a point deducted from their opponent. By the same token offer a stiff penalty for fighters who act in an unsportsmanlike manner and open themselves up to these shots. Tell fighters that if they turn the back of their heads when covering up, the fight will be stopped immediately. Again, I guarantee that fighters will not be exposing the back of their heads if it means they’ll lose immediately.

Anderson Silva: Like Water

GSP – The Way of the Fight Book

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Cristiane Cyborg vs. Ronda Rousey is the fight that won’t go away. The biggest WMMA fight that the UFC could make has taken on a life of its own. While fans were always led to believe that weight kept these two apart a new report claims that the real issue was the money.

Mike Chiapetta at MMAFighting.com breaks down the timeline of events that led to the monster grudge fight slipping through the UFC’s fingers. For months we were always told that Cyborg couldn’t get down to 135 and Rousey would not move up five pounds. However at the end of the day it appears that money once again is the root of the problem.

Chiapetta talked to one of the sparring partners from Cyborg’s management team, George Prajin. Prajin told Chiapetta , “They were compensating Ronda like she was the only attraction of the fight.” The money and promotion Rousey would have received was much bigger than Santos and while weight was always an issue, there was a belief that for the right price Cyborg would make 135.

Chiapetta also reports that Cyborg’s contract was the other issue. Santos already had a contract with Zuffa, specifically fights remaining on her Strikeforce deal. The story reports that Cyborg made $66,000 on her last fight. Both sides were willing to renegotiate but the UFC wanted an eight-fight deal while Cyborg’s camp did not want her committed to the UFC at 135 pounds for more than three fights.

“Basically, her fighting at 135 is handicapping her,” said Prajin. “We were willing to do that, and cut down and go work with Mike and get to 135 to do the fight because Cris wanted to fight Ronda. However, when they said we had to do it for eight fights? She doesn’t want to do the cut eight times when all she wants to do is fight Ronda and beat Ronda. After Ronda, there is really nothing left for her.”

What is good news here in the story is that this fight is a long way away from dead. According to the story, Cyborg’s deal with Invicta gives her an out-clause after her second fight. The idea behind this was to open up negotiations with the UFC at this point, should Cyborg remain undefeated. The other interesting nugget here was that according to the story, Cyborg’s deal with Invicta is paying her more than the UFC deal.

That could answer the question as to why she went there in the first place. The UFC and Invicta had an arrangement on the table wherein the company would farm Cyborg out to Invicta while she was under a UFC contract. Most wondered at the time why she would not remain with UFC and fight in Invicta as opposed to leaving the UFC altogether to get to the same place. If this is true, that would make sense.

It is hard to say who has the leverage here. The UFC did better than expected numbers for Rousey’s debut against Liz Carmouche and Rousey has been a media darling ever since. Rousey will get a ton of exposure off of the next The Ultimate Fighter but as UFC 159 showed, a great season of TUF doesn’t necessarily mean a blockbuster buyrate.

What is interesting to me about all of this is that the UFC were ready to go with this fight for Rousey’s debut. The UFC has a ton of stock invested into Rousey and that could have taken a nose dive if Cyborg won or even worse destroyed her. In a sense, this is almost playing out like a Rocky vs. Clubber Lang story. At some point if these two women stay undefeated you’d think that this fight just has to be made.

It is becoming clear that the UFC has a lot of trouble closing the deal on super fights. The fighters know that they have the leverage and most demand outrageous money for these fights. I can’t imagine that Cyborg was making any outrageous demands but the fact that the UFC would let five fights on a contract stop this fight from being made is just ridiculous, and to be fair I am sure there was more involved. Yet at the end of the day this is just another super fight hanging out there that the UFC can’t close and that is really all anyone cares about.

Anderson Silva: Like Water

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Early estimates for the UFC 159 Jones vs. Sonnen buyrate are in and whether it is a success or not depends on your criteria. The good news is that the pay per view was the second biggest of the year. The bad news is that it should have done more.

Dave Meltzer at MMAFighting.com did his usual investigative work and reported on early estimates for the event. Dave’s numbers are not official, yet he is generally considered an authority on the subject. According to Meltzer, the pay per view is coming in at between 500-520,000 buys for the Jones vs. Sonnen event.

Those numbers put the event in line behind UFC 158 Diaz vs. GSP as the second highest buyrate of the year thus far for the UFC. The number blows the show past Ronda Rousey’s debut and will probably hold up as one of the top 3-5 events of 2013 looking at the tentative schedule.

The pay per view is a bit of a rebound for Jones who is coming off 410,000 buys for his previous fight against Vitor Belfort. Meltzer reports that Jones averages just below 500,000 buys so this would certainly be a win for Jones in the eyes of many.

It isn’t all good news if you ask me. The number is a bit of a disappointment if you take a look at the big picture. By all accounts this fight should have done 750,000 buys. Consider all of the resources that went into this fight and the personalities involved and I think 500-520 k is a disappointment.

The UFC spent an entire season of The Ultimate Fighter to build up this fight. The season averaged 1.2 million people from week to week to listen to Jones and Sonnen build up their show. Those are a lot of eyes watching this build up week to week and a lot of those people didn’t think it was worthwhile to buy. The sacrifice here was keeping Jones on the shelf until April when he probably could have fought sooner. In the long run that could have cost them one more fight in 2013 with one of their biggest stars.

Then there is the star power here that I don’t think necessarily delivered. Jones is arguably the best fighter in the UFC, top three at minimum. A guy like Jon Jones should be a superstar but superstars deliver better buys than Jones. The fact that Jones is not drawing on par with Anderson Silva and Georges St-Pierre has to be cause for concern, especially since he is the face of the future once those guys retire.

Chael Sonnen did his best but even his promos and gimmicked quotes couldn’t pull in the casual fans that generally get caught up in Chael’s hype. Chael is coming off a monster buyrate against Anderson Silva and while the circumstances are different, he is still one of the top draws in the company. The top drawing heel against the superstar champion should have done better. It’s just that simple.

Why did it only do 520 k which again isn’t bad, but not great? This was supposed to be an easy sell, so much that a lot of sacrifices were made. The timing was just awful. Nobody bought Chael as a serious challenger. For whatever reason the casual masses still aren’t connecting to Jon Jones. A guy like him should be bringing in more casual fans and he’s not.

Most importantly I think that Sonnen and Jones blew it. They had something when the fight was first made. However, the two slowly did everything they could to convince fans that there was no beef between them and that they actually liked each other. That Thanksgiving picture probably cost them a few hundred thousand buys alone. I don’t know what the motivation was between these two guys but they certainly exposed the “wolf ticket” theory that Nick Diaz exposed leading into his fight with GSP.

If I were the UFC I’d probably be disappointed today. If these two couldn’t do more than 500k with a successful season of TUF and the personalities involved, they have big problems moving ahead. The number was nice and it certainly wasn’t a failure, but it should have been much bigger.

The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P. Pass to Enlightenment

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Chael Sonnen is winding down his UFC career and most expect that he will transition full time to broadcasting when he retires. Not so fast! Chael has bigger plans and they involve the WWE. Not only does he want to go to the WWE, he wants to buy it!

The UFC light heavyweight made TMZ.com headlines over the weekend when he told the gossip website that he has aspirations to buy the WWE after he finishes his fighting career. Sonnen can’t do it himself but he hopes to assemble a team of investors and make Vince McMahon a deal he can’t refuse.

“It is 100% Chael’s intent to buy the WWE.” In fact, the rep says Chael is already meeting with bigwig friends in the investment world to enact his takeover.”

TMZ.com was quick to squash Chael’s investment plans. A rep from the WWE told the website that the company is not for sale. As a publicly traded company the rep told TMZ that Chael is free to purchase shares just like anyone else.

Quite honestly I am really surprised at how big of a story this became over the weekend. The first thing I thought of when I saw this story was that it was pure nonsense and Chael was just screwing around with the media. If it came from anyone else maybe, but the media should know who they are dealing with when he makes an outlandish statement like that.

That said, Chael is a big pro wrestling fan. In the buildup to his last fight against Jon Jones Chael quoted former professional wrestler Len Denton in his promos. Chael has credited The Grappler, Roddy Piper, and Steve Austin for inspiration. As a matter of a fact Chael recently revealed on Steve Austin’s podcast that he went to Steve on advice on how to cut a promo on Brian Stann. Not only that, Chael even once tried out for WCW.

Could he really buy the WWE? I would not be surprised if Chael is on the top ten list of top earners in UFC history. His two fights with Anderson Silva did monster business and early projects are very good on his fight with Jon Jones. Anything is possible but even with those big payoffs, he’d need a lot more help to purchase a company that some have valued at over $600,000,000!

The WWE is a family owned business and I couldn’t ever envision a time where the McMahon family sold the company. I am sure they have been approached numerous times but I just don’t ever see it happening. I am a believer that where there is smoke there is fire…except when that smoke is coming from Chael Sonnen. Generally it’s nothing but hot air.

The Voice of Reason: A V.I.P. Pass to Enlightenment

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I am not a big Forrest Griffin fan but I may have to jump on his bandwagon after seeing this new video. Griffin was challenged to choke out and punch one of the most obnoxious celebrities on the planet and the former UFC light heavyweight champion greatly obliged.

Jay Mohr was the moron who challenged a UFC fighter to do what he does best, beat him up. Mohr had Grffin over at his place to record a Mohr Stories podcast. Griffin was happy to oblige by punching Mohr so hard in the stomach that he fell to the ground in pain. Griffin also applied a choke on Mohr who wound up tapping out faster than his Saturday Night Live career ended.

I am not a big fan of these stunts where a host dares a UFC fighter to punch or choke them. First of all, it is insulting to the fighter and other fighters for that matter. Second of all, it is just plain stupid. Third, it could easily turn into a litigious situation no matter what the circumstances are. You have no idea if this host is going to claim injury a week, month, or even a year down the road. It’s just dumb all around and the UFC really needs to implement a policy that doesn’t allow any fighter under a Zuffa contract to participate in any of these stupid stunts.

All of that said, I took great joy in watching Jay Mohr get punched and choked by Forrest Griffin. It was a longtime coming and well deserved.

Anderson Silva: Like Water

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The future of Chael Sonnen in the UFC has been in doubt since he was stopped in the first round against Jon Jones at UFC 159. Sonnen didn’t take long to put those retirement rumors to rest and even has an opponent in mind.

Not even a brutal beating can humble the mouth of Chael Sonnen. A few days after being embarrassed on pay per view Sonnen is already running his mouth. Sonnen is back at war again with the Brazilian fighters and has his eyes set on a fighting legend to break his 0-2 losing streak.

Sonnen wants Wanderlei Silva. Sonnen and Silva have had a beef on Twitter going back to when Sonnen was cutting promos on Brazilians in the UFC 117 build up. According to Sonnen, “I’m not going anywhere until me and Wanderlei straighten this thing out once and for all.”

“Wanderlei called me out before, but the fight never made sense. Now it does. I’m not going anywhere until me and Wanderlei straighten this thing out once and for all. Wanderlei pulled a dirt bag move on me one time. He said something to me that I couldn’t hear, and then put it on YouTube with subtitles because he knew I couldn’t understand it and called me out. If you’re a fighter, that doesn’t fly. You must respond to him, and I’m ready to respond to you Wanderlei.”

The other big question was whether Sonnen would stay at 205 or move back down to middleweight. I thought in the brief time Sonnen was in the octagon against Jones he looked great at 205. Sonnen has put the division on notice as he isn’t going anywhere.

“I will definitely continue, and at 205 pounds,” Sonnen told UFC Tonight co-host Kenny Florian. “Unless they come up with a catchweight…I have a lot of goals I want to achieve still, and retirement won’t help me get them done.”

As badly as Sonnen got beat at UFC 159 the twisted reality of the situation is that Sonnen was under a minute away from being winning the UFC light heavyweight title and shocking the world. Hypothetically if the fight went to the second round there are many that feel that the fight would have been stopped due to Jones’ toe and Sonnen would have been given the title.

“Diplomatically you don’t ever want to win that way. The ones that hurt are the ones you’re supposed to win and then you blow it. But if it was given to me, I would have grabbed that belt, I would have held it up, grabbed the mic and told the crowd the golden rule is ‘he with the gold rules,’ and I would have walked out of the place and never looked back”

I can’t say that I am not surprised in the least that Sonnen is sticking around. Sonnen is in the midst of his prime earning years as a UFC fighter. Since UFC 117, Sonnen has now cashed in on three big pay days if early estimates on UFC 159 buyrates are correct. Sonnen was stopped in round one but I never got the feeling that Sonnen was too old or shot as a fighter.

I don’t know what you do with Sonnen at this point. He is probably out of title shots for a long time, although you never know. Strange things happen, injuries occur, and it wouldn’t shock me at all to see Sonnen step up and fill in for a last minute scratch in a title fight. Sonnen is one of a very few UFC fighters who get it and understand the art of promoting. The second those buyrates start dropping is the second I’ll believe that Chael is truly done.

Even then I don’t know if I’ll necessarily ever believe he is truly done.

Anderson Silva: Like Water

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It is a rare occasion when you get an inside look at Anderson Silva. Like Water shows a fascinating backstory behind one of the greatest fights and fighters in UFC history yet still left plenty of unanswered questions about who Anderson Silva really is.

I recently found some time to watch the Silva doc which is on Netflix and I have to say that I thought it was very good. It certainly wasn’t the best sports documentary I have ever seen but it was better than the average. The documentary follows Silva as he prepares for what turned out to be arguably the greatest championship fight in UFC history against Chael Sonnen at UFC 117.

If you are expecting to learn a lot about The Spider I think you’ll be disappointed. They certainly cover Silva’s beginnings and his entry into MMA. But the background is very brief which I found unfortunate. I would have loved to know when the greatest fighter of all time evolved, struggles early on, lessons he learned, stories about training with Wanderlei and his team, Pride FC, etc. They just aren’t here. This is more a simple story about the champion preparing for a fight than it is about Anderson Silva’s story.

The timeline here in Silva’s career makes this documentary even better. Silva is coming off a controversial win over Demian Maia at UFC 112. Silva and the UFC are at odds with Dana White basically threatening Silva’s job if he repeats that same performance against Chael. Ironically Silva never actually addresses this issue which seems kind of bizarre considering how big of a story this was and the fact that Dana actually addresses this in the documentary.

Silva leaves his family for three months and comes to the United States to train for the fight. Silva appears to be having a great time with his MMA family and friends. The film shows a different side of Silva during this time as a coach, a side you don’t see in the UFC. Silva is working with a protégé and winds up seconding him at a small MMA show. Silva is intense as a coach and shows more emotion during these few minutes than he often shows during his own fights. One of the biggest criticisms that Silva’s critics have of him is a lack of passion. He’s got passion, but where he shows it is the biggest question for me.

One of the biggest takeaways I had from this movie is that none of the trash talking Chael Sonnen did leading up to UFC 117 got to Silva. Anderson didn’t seem bothered at all and Silva’s manager Ed Soares appeared to find Sonnen’s insults more amusing than offensive. It’s funny because going into UFC 117 you had a lot of MMA fans and reporters playing up this story about Sonnen being in Silva’s head. He just wasn’t. Silva was more home sick than he was motivated by Sonnen’s promos.

Remember following UFC 117 and Silva said that he had injured ribs coming into the fight? I looked out during his training for this injury because Sonnen and some others accused Silva of lying about it. It happened. Silva did hurt his ribs close to the fight but it is really hard to ascertain how badly they were injured. There is a scene where he is warming up a day or so before the fight and he has to stop because they were bothering him. They certainly weren’t broken but there absolutely was some kind of rib injury prior to the fight.

I had mixed feelings about seeing Silva with his fans. Silva seems to have a really good time meeting fans and taking pictures. However, there is a scene where Ed is asking Anderson if he mocked the fans in his foreign tongue which Silva says he didn’t. Obviously for that question to be asked it must have happened before. There is also another scene where Silva is playing around and has to be dragged kicking and screaming to an autograph signing.

The other biggest takeaway for me was the scene where Silva and his team were practicing for the exact same scenario that ended the fight with Sonnen. Silva and his team were practicing Silva getting a triangle from his back. What is interesting here is that it appeared that Silva was having a bit of a hard time getting it during training, which of course could be due to the magic of editing. Nonetheless I was blown away to see him actually preparing for that same scenario which ended the fight.

On a side note if you watch the UFC 148 behind the scenes special that has aired on Fuel TV, you can see Sonnen practicing the spinning backfist quite a bit.

Other than the fight the most dramatic scene in the movie is probably the call Dana White makes to Ed Soares after the infamous UFC 117 media call. Silva gives one word answers throughout the conference call as Ed is seen just shaking his head in a remote location, obviously frustrated with his friend and client. Immediately after the call Dana calls Ed and basically threatens Silva’s job. Ed took it seriously and you have to feel for the guy who is caught in between White and Silva at a time when Silva was on the hot seat.

Even at that rate it still boggles my mind as to why the UFC never promoted this piece. One of the biggest problems they have with Silva is his lack of desire to do promotion. Here is a great vehicle to show fans and media another side of their biggest star. Maybe the fact that Chael comes back with a hot PED test dissuaded them from wanting to push the movie? I don’t know but it seemed like a natural and yet I don’t recall the UFC ever doing one second of promotion for it.

The biggest disappointment here is that you still don’t get to know the Spider in this documentary. Sure you follow him in training but there is not a whole lot learned here. If the fight didn’t turn out to be as legendary as it has, I wonder if the documentary would have been half as interesting. Lucky for them it didn’t and helped create a compelling movie with Like Water.

Anderson Silva: Like Water

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