ABC adopts recommendations on 'medical stoppage' TKO, instant replay and hand wraps

In addition to adopting four new weight classes into the unified rules, the Association of Boxing Commissions also unanimously approved a quartet of recommendations from its MMA Rules Committee.

The rules committee brought the recommendations to this year’s ABC annual conference with an eye on improving the feedback from last year’s gathering. Several member commissions encountered regulatory hurdles when they tried to adopt the newest version of the MMA unified rules. The most notable consequence of that was uneven enforcement at UFC events.

ABC rules committee chair Sean Wheelock told MMAjunkie the recommendations could be implemented quickly because they didn’t require any laws or statutes to be changed, making the whole process a lot smoother.

The recommendations include:

* A TKO by medical stoppage if a combatant visibly loses control of a bodily function – vomit, urine, or bowels – during a round. If the loss of control occurs between rounds, a doctor must clear the combatant to compete.

* More strict parameters for using instant replay in MMA. It may not be used for smaller shows that aren’t being filmed, and referees may only use it when a “fight ending sequence” may have been caused by an intentional or unintentional foul.

* Taping of hands for competition. A maximum of one roll of white soft cloth gauze – of any brand – is permitted per hand and can be no more than 2 inches wide by 15 yards in length. A maximum of one roll of white athletic-type tape – also any brand – is permitted per hand and can be no more than 1 1/4 inch wide by 10 feet in length.

* Limitations on joint/body coverings in competition. Other than the competitor’s hands, there is no taping, covering or protective gear of any kind on the upper body. A fighter may use soft neoprene type sleeves to cover only the knee and/or ankle joints, and the sleeves may not have padding, Velcro, plastic, metal, ties or any other material considered to be unsafe or that may create an unfair advantage. Tape, gauze or any materials other than the approved sleeves are not permitted on the lower body.

Not all of the suggested proposed by the rules committee were adopted. The rules committee had proposed shortening the length of time upon which a fight could go to the scorecards if “a foul, equipment failure, or an act of god” prevented a fight from reaching its natural conclusion. It allowed a decision if the foul occurred during any part of the second round in a three-round fight – or any part of the third round in a five-round fight.

Currently, the rules state that a full two rounds of a three-round fight – or three rounds of a five-round fight – must elapse before a decision can be reached. The intent, according to ABC rules member and veteran official John McCarthy, was to allow judges to have at least half of a fight to score. But he pointed out that in boxing, a fight can go to the scorecards if four of 12 rounds had elapsed, or one-third of the fight.

McCarthy said moving back the threshold would have turned no contests into scored bouts in 28 of the 167 fights they watched, or 30 percent.

Several commissioners were not sold on the idea, however, with Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission chief Greg Sirb saying he’d rather stick to the current ruleset because judges have more action upon which to base a score.

“This is the new heel strikes to the kidney,” remarked Wheelock, referring to a long-simmering debate over a previous proposal to change the unified rules to allow the strikes.

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