Ben Rothwell vs. Roy Nelson on IFL earlier tonight.
Nelson is a grappler whose best chance to win was by taking it to the ground. He schooled Frank Mir in a grappling tourney years ago. Anyways, he is trying to take down Rothwell and Rothwell holds the ropes and prevents a takedown. Referees immediately stops the fight and takes a point away from Rothwell. The most fair thing to do was to give Nelson a takedown, but the next best thing you can do is take a point away. From that point on, Rothwell doesn't grab the ropes once! The fight ended up being a pretty bloody war with Rothwell winning a razor thin decision.
The UFC refs need to stand up for the rulebook. If they call it once, fighters won't grab it anymore.
There is no point of having rules that you don't enforce. It's a "natural response" because nobody has ever gotten in trouble for doing it, so "naturally" people are gonna do it for an unfair advantage.
One grab can change the entire fight. Whether you are cheating to stop a takedown, or holding it while your on the ground to keep position.
Rope grabbing had been a problem in earlier IFL shows, so in the fighters meeting it was decided that a point deduction would happen and it would be enforced. Cam McHargue was just enforcing the rules that everyone was told would happen.
Great job Cam!!
Interesting.........I wonder what would happen if the rules would be enforced? Which matches in the past may have had a different outcome?
I can say that after that rules meeting and everyone voted on the "take a point" rule, I have never reffed an event that had less rope grabbing than that one did that night. It did effect the rope grabbing throughout the entire show and it was extremely minimal, even the incidental grabs. Personally I think it was a good rule.
That's why rings suck IMO. The fighters are constantly grabbing/getting tangled/falling through the ropes. Especially the loose, boxing style ropes the IFL/Bodog rings have.