Andy Foster, the Executive Director of the California State Athletic Commission, has taken it upon himself to change two critical aspects of the sport’s rulebook: the 12-6 elbows & kneeing a grounded opponent rules.
For quite a long time, the MMA community has been vocal about the confusing rule that deems a competitor “down” if they have just one hand on the ground, preventing opponents from delivering a knee to the head.
This rule has been a source of frustration, often disrupting the flow of matches and leading to widespread calls for a more uniform set of rules – akin to those used in RIZIN – across all promotions.
In a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Foster announced his intention to abolish this rule:
We’re gonna get rid of the hand.
That’s not a proposal, we’re gonna get rid of it.If you wanna be down, you need to put something else down.
Knee, back, anything other than ─ you can’t be standing up putting your hand on the ground.
Additionally, Foster is targeting the controversial restriction on 12-6 elbows – a rule that famously contributed to Jon Jones’ only professional MMA defeat, back in 2009.
He stated:
I don’t even know if there’s anybody that disagrees with that [the 12-6 elbows rule should be abolished].
What about 11-5 if we’re gonna use the clock, or 1-7? Those aren’t illegal.
3-9’s an awful hard strike from Side Control, but that’s not banned.It doesn’t make any sense I guess is the point I’m trying to make. Either you ban elbows or you allow it.
I mean, this is the only one that’s not and it’s poorly enforced.
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