Official language of the judging changes to MMA’s Unified Rules

E. Casey Leydon, MMA FightingThe Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) approved the most sweeping changes to MMA's Unified Rules at its annual conference last week in Las Vegas. The most significant alteration likely has to do with the sport's much-maligned scoring system.

Getting the winner and loser of a fight correct is of the utmost important to the integrity of mixed martial arts. The revised scoring language makes judging fights clearer than the original rules written in 2001.

Most importantly, it underscores that effective striking and grappling are the top tier of scoring rounds. Only if those two things are 100 percent equal does a judge move on to assessing…