New Jersey sanctioned mixed martial arts before Zuffa even bought the
UFC. UFC 28 was held in Atlantic City, NJ on November 17, 2000. This
event was sanctioned by New Jersey while the UFC was an entity and a
name owned by SEG ( Bob Meyrowitz). This event was held under the below
listed rules awaiting administrative publication. In fact, an entity
unrelated to the UFC, SEG or Zuffa held a sanctioned event in Atlantic
City, prior to UFC 28, on September 30, 2000. This organization was
known as the the IFC.
The UFC had already accepted, by virtue of staging an event in Atlantic
City in November 2000, every below listed rule before Zuffa bought it.
Accordingly, knees to the head of a downed opponent , certain elbow
strikes, head butts and 20 other actions were already denoted as fouls
that could result in disqualification. Additionally, weight classes,
stringent medical requirements and strict regulatory oversight were in
place at that time. The rules that applied as of the date of that show
are listed below.
It should be noted that even before New Jersey sanctioned the sport,
the California State Athletic Commission had prepared detailed rules
to regulate mixed martial arts but they were not implemented solely due
to governmental issues surrounding the budgeting process.
Please find the following language in our administrative proposal,
written in 2001, regarding martial arts. "In past years, the State
Athletic Control Board ( SACB) had been hesitant to sanction mixed
martial arts events due to the lack of formal rules in the sport which
created health and safety concerns. For example, the sport generally did
not divide contestants into weight classes, had contestants participate
in several matches on the same evening and did not provide time limits
on either round or bout length. However, in the last year or so,
promoters of mixed martial arts events began to develop formal rules and
regulations which included procedures to minimize the risk of injury to
the contestant. After becoming aware that detailed regulations were now
in place for most mixed martial arts events, the SACB then began a
course of communications with the California State Athletic Commission
with regard to the subject of regulating mixed martial arts events.
California has established rules and regulations for the conduct of the
sport in their state. As of September 2000, the SACB began to allow
mixed martial arts promoters to conduct events in New Jersey upon
submission and review of their established rules and regulations. In
addition, the promoters had to agree to incorporate the SACB's medical
testing and safety requirements. The intent was to allow the SACB to
observe actual events and gather information needed to determine what
would be necessary to establish a comprehensive set of rules to
effectively regulate the sport. On April 3, 2001, the SACB held a
meeting in Trenton to discuss the regulation of mixed martial arts
events. This meeting was set up by SACB Commissioner Larry Hazzard, Sr.
in an attempt to unify the myriad of rules and regulations which have
been utilized by the different mixed martial arts organizations. At this
meeting, the proposed uniform rules were agreed upon by the SACB,
several other regulatory bodies, numerous promoters of mixed martial
arts events and other interested parties in attendance. The meeting was
quite comprehensive and lasted over three hours. At the conclusion of
the meeting, all parties in attendance were able to agree upon a uniform
set of rules to govern the sport of mixed martial arts. In recent
months, other states, including Nevada, have begun to sanction mixed
martial arts events based upon the SACB's regulatory framework which
arose at the conclusion of the April meeting. The SACB anticipates that
this proposal will result in uniform rules for mixed martial arts events
held throughout the United States. In a similar sense, in March of 1998,
the SACB proposed uniform rules for the conduct of championship
professional boxing matches. Since the proposal, these rules for
championship rules have become the norm throughout the country.
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