Everyone keeps talking about MMA and how it is going to be the next 'global' sport.
With the recent emergence of Chinese MMA fighter Tiequan Zhang everyone is excited to see the sport grow and expand into Asia.
With more and more promoters looking to get involved with MMA, it is going to become increasingly more important that the events are sanctioned by some type of governing body.
This weekend a Tiger Muay Thai fighter competed in an MMA event held in Beijing China.
The bout was suppose to be conducted under unified MMA rules...Meaning...the same rules as the UFC.
After being repeatedly face stomped while being a downed opponent, the TMT fighter was soccer kicked before suffering a concussion.
Instead of Disqualifying the Chinese Opponent---He was given the victory via KO...despite the fact that he repeatedly head kicked a downed opponent, which was a clear violation of Unified MMA.
China...really is the Wild-Wild West when it comes to MMA events. Anyone accepting a fight in Beijing China, needs to understand that they have to protect themselves at all times--because the ref certainly wont.
Obviously, something got lost in translation.
Isn't the UK in the same situation in regards to having no governing body? Except they do actually fight by the rules.
Art Of War was one of the first shows in China--and they originally allowed Soccer Kicks--Knees to the head of a downed opponent--and elbows.
AOW is no longer promoting events...however they regularly brought out Big John McCarthy or other certified refs to ensure fighter safety.
Not having qualified refs, and not penalizing fighters for blatant disregard to the rules is a dangerous president to set. Earlier this year a fighter was beaten into a coma in China. A few years earlier a fighter died in Korea following a professional MMA bout.
It are these unregulated MMA events--where the promoter cares more about the 'hometown guy' winning--than he does about the fighters safety where serious life threatening injuries are going to occur.
Looks like they're trying to guage interest to me.
Unified rules suck anyway. No one died in Pride.
But if both fighters weren't informed "backstage" of how it was really gonna be, then that's fucked up.
shartkuri - if both fighters weren't informed "backstage" of how it was really gonna be, then that's fucked up.
the Tiger Muay Thai fighter was told during the rules meeting that kicks to a downed opponent (anyone with 3 points or more touching the floor) were illegal.
Here is the first part of the fight--->the video on top was after the 'restart'
This wasn't Art of War, was it?
No--Art of War is no longer promoting events to the best of my knowledge.