Last summer, the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) voted to remove the ban on 12-6 elbows, signaling a major change to the Unified Rules of MMA.
While big changes to the unified rules are incredibly rare, if Khabib Nurmagomedov were UFC President for a day, he would make some changes of his own.
During a sitdown with Adam Zubayraev released this week, the Hall of Famer explained that he would remove rounds entirely:
“You step into the Octagon, regular fight 15 minutes, title fight 25. I’d say no rounds. No rounds at all.
“I always wondered, what’s the point of rounds? What’s the point of it all? It’s for entertainment, they pause for ads and all that, I get it. It’s for business. But if we’re talking sport, I’d get rid of rounds. No rounds at all.”
This, of course, isn’t the first time we’ve heard prominent figures within the MMA community suggest doing away with rounds.
Years back, during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience in 2018, Georges St-Pierre made the case against having rounds as well.
‘It’s Stupid’ – Looking Back At When GSP Suggested Doing Away With Rounds in 2018
In the second half of his career, Georges St-Pierre began to use his grappling to dominate opponents on the ground at a level seldom seen in MMA.
Whether he was competing against talented grapplers like Jon Fitch, or strikers like Dan Hardy, St-Pierre was able to use his grappling to dictate where his fights took place.
For his opponents, surviving to the end of the round meant a reprieve from the suffocating wrestling of the champ, however, if GSP had his way, there would be no rounds in MMA.
As he explained to Joe Rogan on JRE MMA Show #28 in 2018:
“There’s a lot of things I would change in the sport. First of all the time: there’s no time, no rounds. I believe it’s stupid, the rounds. We want to see who’s the best man. Let them fight…
“Why are there rounds? Why are we trying to be like boxing? We’re not boxers. They did rounds to be like boxing to be accepted as a sport.”
Joe Rogan Has Long Supported Big Changes to Unified Rules
In addition to former fighters Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St. Pierre supporting big changes to the unified rules, longtime commentator Joe Rogan has plenty of his own ideas regarding the format of bouts.
Back in April, while speaking with Ilia Topuria on JRE MMA Show #166, Rogan suggested that the UFC do away with standing fighters up at the start of every round.
Instead, as he explained, every round should start where the previous round ended, meaning that if a fighter ends the second round in bottom mount, they should start the third round in the same position.
“You have to earn a get up. You have to stand up by yourself. No standups ever, unless someone commits a foul. If the guy’s at the bottom and he commits a foul… Take a point away, put him right back in the same spot.”
Considering how long it took for 12-6 elbows to be legalized, the odds of major changes to the unified rules seem pretty slim.
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