Affliction Has No Cage?

July 23, 2008
Affliction – Part 1: The first thing about this Affliction show: Why a ring instead of a cage? “How very odd.” I thought. I had to remark to my friend sitting beside me that this was the first time I had ever seen a live MMA show that featured a ring. Really though, I was noticing that this was the first non-UFC show I had ever seen live. I guess there’s a first time for everything!

Anyway, my friends and I couldn’t shut up about it the whole night. I vastly prefer a cage to a ring for MMA and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks so. In fact, I’m wondering now how many other UFC fan boys like myself were puzzled by the weird ropey things the fighters were bouncing off of…or THROUGH! Yea, that happened a little too often for my liking.

It’s very strange to see a fight stop for almost thirty seconds because a fighter fell through the structure while simply defending a takedown. Sadly, there’s nothing simple at all about doing MMA in a ring. When the fighters fall out of the ring they have to be escorted back to the middle and left in the standing position. It’s like seeing a teacher at a seventh grade dance admonish two kids for being too close to one another and putting them back in the “safe” position…or something like that.

The much bigger problem is that in several instances the referee didn’t call a time out while doing this. So, not only do these stoppages break apart the flow of the fight but they also give them an extra rest period.

So, what is the policy on stopping time while dealing with “ring outs”? I couldn’t tell you for sure because I saw no consistent rule being applied. Sometimes they would stop time and other times not. Another thing I pondered to myself was the policy on resetting fighters who are both on the ground and have gotten to close to the edge of the ring.

I can remember in at least one case where the referee took both fighters back to the middle and reset them in the position they were in previously, maintaining who had top position. In another case, the referee simply adjusted them so they were just a little ways away from the edge, at a more parallel angle. One fighter looked up to the ref as if to say “Uhh, aren’t we supposed to go back to the middle?” and I was asking the same thing myself.

So, clearly what they need to do at the top of the show is explain to the fans what the rules of the RING are, along with the general MMA rules. Of course this would require the referees to understand what the rules are, so…one thing at a time I guess.

Click to continue to Part 2 – Was this Affliction show actually supposed to be a Megadeath concert?

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