WTF?: Why should the UFC change their rules for Canada?

Published on: 13th February, 2009

WTF?: Why should the UFC change their rules for Canada?   | read this item

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The first thing I thought when I heard that Quebec’s Athletic Commission’s decision to force the UFC to change their rules for UFC 97 was, why should they? Lets be honest UFC 83 “St.Pierre vs Serra 2″ broke attendance records and was sold out in hours. No fighters were seriously hurt (especially not Kalib Starnes). Georges St.Pierre, Jonathan Goulet, Mark Bocek and Jason MacDonald all got to fight in front of their fellow Canadians and the crowd was electric.

According to various reports the decision to force the UFC into the rule change came because of Titan Fight’s decision to tell their fighters at the last minute they would be fighting under MMA rules.

Ugly Ears, Mo-Hawk, MMA fighter, but its not MMA?

The fighters decided to make “Gentlemen agreements” to stand and trade and not take each other down. James Thompson was almost seriously hurt for taking down his opponent and a riot almost broke out. So why is the UFC being punished because a promoter decided to be shady and change the rules at the last minute? Especially when the morons decided not to tell Thompson or Bosse of the rule changes?

Does the commission in charge of rules realize that they should be punishing Titan Fight’s promoter Stephane Patry instead?

FiveOuncesofPain.com interviewed Thompson after he was hit with beer bottles and he even said that Patry was being shady.

“Patry was trying to be sneaky,” said Thompson, whose main event against former hockey enforcer Steve Bosse was ruled a no contest. “There was no clarity on the rules.”

So why is the UFC being punished for the mistakes of a glorified Kickboxing promoter? Patry’s rules for “Slap box” (Strikebox) or whatever the fuck they call it, did not allow for takedowns. So why was veteran MMA referee Yves Lavigne there in the first place? If the event was supposed to be Kickboxing with MMA gloves than call it that and make sure the rules are approved first.

Shouldn’t they have had set guidelines for this already set in place and referees for this “Craptacular” fighting style? If it is anyone’s fault that the show almost turned into a riot last weekend it was the Athletic commission that let the event go on without proper officiating for “Crapbox” and the promoter who did not inform the crowd when the rules were changed.

The UFC should stay strong on this and “Never back down” because UFC 97 would bring a lot of money to Canada, why give the fans a “watered down” product? The second any rule of the sport is removed than it is not MMA and the UFC should not have to change their rules for a bone head decision to make “Beat box” into another sport.

 Narcisist is the Co-owner of UR Dirt and is the designer, editor and author. URDirt.com is a MMA blog that covers the UFC, WEC, StrikeForce, DREAM and several other Mixed Martial Art promotions. Read more from this author

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