Weight Classes

Except with the approval of the Commission, or its executive director, the classes for mixed martial arts bouts or exhibitions and the weights for each class are:

Flyweight: 125 pounds and under
Bantamweight: 126 to 135 pounds
Featherweight: 136 to 145 pounds
Lightweight: 146 to 155 pounds
Welterweight: 156 to 170 pounds
Middleweight: 171 to 185 pounds
Light Heavyweight: 186 to 205 pounds
Heavyweight: 206 to 265 pounds
Super Heavyweight: over 265 pounds

Round Length

Each non-championship mixed martial arts bout is normally three rounds, of five minutes duration, with a one minute rest period between each round. There are a few situation where non-title bouts are five rounds, but they are relegated to bouts of significance.

Each championship mixed martial arts bout is five rounds, of five minutes duration, with a one minute rest period between each round.

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Equipment

Fighters are required to wear certain equipment when entering a bout. This includes a mouthpiece, groin protection (for males), chest protectors (for females), 4oz gloves, and mixed martial arts shorts (board shorts), biking shorts (vale tudo shorts), kick-boxing shorts or other shorts approved by the Commission.

Everything must be inspected and cleared by the Athletic Comission before competition.

Stopping a Contest

The referee is the sole arbiter of a contest and is the only individual authorized to stop a contest. The referee may take advice from the ringside physician and/or the Commission with respect to the decision to stop a contest.

The referee and the ringside physician are the only individuals authorized to enter the ring/fighting area at any time during competition other than the rest periods and subsequent to the contest ending.

Appearance

The excessive use of grease or any other foreign substance may not be used on the face or body of a fighter. The referees or the Commission shall cause any excessive grease or foreign substance to be removed.

The Commission will see if head or facial hair of a fighter is hazardous. If they find it to be, they will need to ammend it using a Comission approved method. Jewelry or other piercing accessories are also prohibited.

Medical Requirments

Contestants shall complete all pre-licensure medical examinations and tests required by the jurisdiction licensing the bout.

The jurisdiction licensing the bout shall conduct or supervise all pre-contest weigh-ins and may hold or supervise a rules meeting for all contestants and their cornermen.

Immediately following a bout, each contestant shall be given a medical examination by a physician appointed by the commission. The medical examination may include any examinations or tests the commission deems necessary to determine the post-contest physical fitness of a contestant.

Any contestant who refuses to submit to a post-contest medical examination shall be immediately suspended for an indefinite period.

Prohibited Substances

The use of any illegal drug, narcotic, stimulant, depressant, or analgesic of any description, or alcohol substance, by a contestant either before or during a bout, shall result in the immediate disqualification of the contestant from the match and disciplinary action in accordance with the commission licensing the bout.

In order to detect the presence of any prohibited substance, a contestant shall submit to any pre-contest or post-contest urinalysis or other laboratory procedure that is ordered by the physician appointed by the commission. Refusal to submit to such testing shall result in the immediate disqualification of the contestant from the match and an indefinite suspension from the sport of mixed martial arts.

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Judging

All bouts will be evaluated and scored by three judges.

The 10-Point Must System will be the standard system of scoring a bout.

Judges shall evaluate mixed martial arts techniques, such as effective striking, effective grappling, control of the fighting area, effective aggressiveness and defense.

Evaluations shall be made in the order in which the techniques appear, giving the most weight in scoring to effective striking, effective grappling, control of the fighting area and effective aggressiveness and defense.

Effective striking is judged by determining the total number of legal heavy strikes landed by a contestant.
Effective grappling is judged by the amount of successful executions of a legal takedown and reversals.
Fighting area control is judged by determining who is dictating the pace, location and position of the bout.
Effective aggressiveness means moving forward and landing a legal strike.
Effective defense means avoiding being struck, taken down or reversed while countering with offensive attacks.

Judges shall use a sliding scale and recognize the length of time the fighters are either standing or on the ground. If a majority of the bout is contested on the ground, or using grappling techniques, those techniques are weight first when determining a winner. If the majority of the bout is contested on the feet using striking techniques, they are weight first when determining a winner. If the bout takes place evenly between those places, then both are weighed equally.

Scoring

Under the 10-Point Must Scoring System, 10 points must be awarded to the winner of the round and nine points or less must be awarded to the loser, except for a rare even round, which is scored (10-10).

10-10 Round when both contestants appear to be fighting evenly and neither contestant shows clear dominance in a round;

10-9 Round when a contestant wins by a close margin, landing the greater number of effective legal strikes, grappling and other maneuvers;

10-8 Round when a contestant overwhelmingly dominates by striking or grappling in a round.

10-7 Round when a contestant totally dominates by striking or grappling in a round.

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Referee

The referee shall issue a single warning for the following infractions. After the initial warning, if the prohibited conduct persists, a penalty will be issued. The penalty may result in a deduction of points or disqualification.

Holding or grabbing the fence or Holding opponent’s shorts or gloves.

Disqualification occurs after any combination of three, the fouls listed, or after a referee determines that a foul was intentional and flagrant.

Fouls will result in a point being deducted by the judges from the offending mixed martial artist’s score.

Only a referee can assess a foul. If the referee does not call the foul, judges shall not make that assessment on their own and cannot factor such into their scoring calculations.

A fouled fighter has up to five minutes to recuperate.

If a foul is committed, the referee shall:
Call time and check the fouled mixed martial artist’s condition and safety; and assess the foul to the offending contestant, deduct points, and notify each corner’s seconds, judges and the official scorekeeper. If a bottom contestant commits a foul, unless the top contestant is injured, the fight shall continue, so as not to jeopardize the top contestant’s superior positioning at the time. The referee shall verbally notify the bottom contestant of the foul.2. When the round is over, the referee shall assess the foul and notify both corners’ seconds, the judges and the official scorekeeper. The referee may terminate a bout based on the severity of a foul. For such a flagrant foul, a contestant shall lose by disqualification.

Fouls

The following are fouls and will result in penalties if committed:

1. Butting with the head;
2. Eye gouging of any kind;
3. Biting or spitting at an opponent;
4. Hair pulling;
5. Fish hooking;
6. Groin attacks of any kind;
7. Intentionally placing a finger in any opponent’s orifice;
8. Downward pointing of elbow strikes;
9. Small joint manipulation;
10. Strikes to the spine or back of the head;
11. Heel kicks to the kidney;
12. Throat strikes of any kind;
13. Clawing, pinching, twisting the flesh or grabbing the clavicle;
14. Kicking the head of a grounded fighter;
15. Kneeing the head of a grounded fighter;
16. Stomping of a grounded fighter;
17. The use of abusive language in fighting area;
18. Any unsportsmanlike conduct that causes an injury to opponent;
19. Attacking an opponent on or during the break;
20. Attacking an opponent who is under the referee’s care at the time;
21. Timidity (avoiding contact, or consistent dropping of mouthpiece, or faking an injury);
22. Interference from a mixed martial artists seconds;
23. Throwing an opponent out of the fighting area;
24. Flagrant disregard of the referee’s instructions;
25. Spiking an opponent to the canvas on his or her head or neck.

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Types of Results

Submission
Tap Out: When a contestant physically uses his hand to indicate that he or she no longer wishes to continue; or
Verbal tap out: When a contestant verbally announces to the referee that he or she does not wish to continue;

Technical Knockout
Referee stops bout.
Ringside physician stops bout.
When an injury as a result of a legal maneuver is severe enough to terminate a bout; Knockout by failure to rise from the canvas.

Decision via score cards
Unanimous: When all three judges score the bout for the same contestant.
Split Decision: When two judges score the bout for one contestant andone judge scores for the opponent.
Majority Decision: When two judges score the bout for the same contestant and one judge scores a draw.

Draws
Unanimous - When all three judges score the bout a draw.
Majority - When two judges score the bout a draw.
Split - When all three judges score differently and the score total results in a draw.

Disqualification
When an injury sustained during competition as a result of an intentional foul is severe enough to terminate the contest;

Forfeit
When a contestant fails to begin competition or prematurely ends the contest for reasons other than injury or by indicating a tap out.

Technical Draw
When an injury sustained during competition as a result of an intentional foul causes the injured contestant to be unable to continue and the injured contestant is even or behind on the score cards at the time of stoppage.

Technical Decision
When the bout is prematurely stopped due to injury and a contestant is leading on the score cards.

No Contest
When a contest is prematurely stopped due to accidental injury and a sufficient number of rounds have not been completed to render a decision via the score cards.

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