The Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports on Tuesday took a much-“kneeded” step toward remedying a confusing mixed martial arts rule — as well as one the legendary Jon Jones surely would have appreciated being addressed much sooner.
The organization’s MMA rules committee passed language that would clarify the definition of what makes a fighter grounded, thus making it illegal for the grounded fighter to absorb a knee strike to the head.
The committee also agreed to remove language that permits the so-called “12-to-6” elbow — one delivered from the 12 o’clock position to the 6 o’clock position.
The grounded fighter definition as it presently is enforced frequently has led to messy situations and unnatural fighting positions, occasionally leading to contentious fight-ending situations.
“A fighter shall be considered grounded and unable to be legally kneed or kicked to the head when any part of their body besides their hands or feet comes in contact with the canvas (ground),” the approved language reads.
Under the incumbent rule on the books with the ABC, a grounded fighter is a fighter with “anything other than the soles of the feet bearing weight.”
“It makes it more clean,” said Andy Foster, executive director of the California State Athletic Commission and chair of the committee, during a phone call with The Post on Tuesday night. “The clarity is certainly there. Anybody can understand what this means. You’re either up, or you’re down. That’s it. And I think it moves the fight along.”
Members of the committee, which meets only a handful of times per year, compared the new language as matching what makes an NFL player down by contact, although Foster conceded he is “not a football person.”
Foster said work on updating the grounded fighter language picked up steam during the most recent season of Dana White’s Contender Series, a UFC offshoot show that seeks to identify typically up-and-coming talent to add to its main roster.
On Sept. 26, heavyweight Mario Piazzon won via disqualification due to an illegal knee by Alexander Soldatkin as Piazzon’s hand placed on the mat made him a downed opponent in the eyes of the Nevada Athletic Commission.
The fact that a fight won by Movsar Evloev against Arnold Allen at UFC 297 in Toronto on Jan. 20 also involved a key sequence in which Allen launched knees at Evloev, who had been standing before placing a hand on the mat, was merely a coincidence.
“That was essentially the nail in the coffin for this rule to need to be changed,” Foster said of the most recent case in Ontario, Canada.
In the most famous example of the infrequently seen with 12-to-6 elbows, Jones absorbed a disqualification loss to Matt Hamill in 2009 while delivering a barrage of strikes to his opponent, who appeared on the verge of a TKO loss.
At one point, Jones delivered a 12-to-6 elbow, and when Hamill was unable to continue, Jones was DQ’d for what still stands as his only professional defeat.
“We’re gonna get rid of that as well,” Foster said of the illegality of 12-to-6 elbows.
Before the year’s annual ABC conference, which runs from July 19-24 in Louisville, Ky., Foster said he plans to continue to meet with and educate fellow regulators about the changes he intends to present at the conference before bringing to a vote.
Foster expressed optimism that both proposals, which would be voted upon separately, would be approved by the ABC and, ideally, adopted by all member commissions.
That includes Ontario, which had been implementing older language than what the ABC currently uses for events such as UFC 297, with Foster planning to speak with the commissions in Canada in hopes of selling them on the rule modifications.
“What we’d like to see is all the commissions in North America utilize these particular rules,” Foster said.