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[Cat--Smasher]

Rickson Gracie heads new 'old school' fight show in Brazil

Jiu-jitsu legend and former vale tudo fighter Rickson Gracie has created an event that promises to astonish the fans.

‘Mestre do Combate’ debuts on November 22nd in Rio de Janeiro and has a format designed to leave viewers with no doubts about who has won the fights. Among the innovations is a weigh-in rule that has fighters hitting the scales on the day of the show, to eliminate big weight cuts.

In addition, the bell will not sound at the end of the round if it looks like a fighter is nearly about to be knocked out or submitted; the action will be allowed to run its course. Judges have also been eliminated - the winner will have to get the victory by KO/TKO or submission over two rounds, being the first of ten minutes duration and the second of five.

The rule is designed to give preference to martial arts ability rather than athletic ability. If there is no submission or stoppage, three votes will decide the winner - one vote from Rickson, other from the referee and the third of the public.

“We want to create a new paradigm and recover values from the fight that were lost over time. Today, MMA fighting means blood and money. We will honour the warrior spirit and the fighting art,” says Rickson.

Mestre do Combate also offers individual and team competitions. Inside the ring, the fighters go one-on-one but each of them will be part of a team that will represent a Brazilian city. One coach and five athletes (at heavyweight, light heavyweight, middleweight, welterweight and lightweight) form the teams.

Rickson Gracie heads new 'old school' fight show in Brazil - Fighters Only

* I really like the same weigh in ideas and the round not being stopped if it looks as though a finish is about to happen.

Not too sure about the votes for a winner, interesting concept but I can see issues arising.

[Fedorlei Gomipierre]

Rickson Gracie is the greatest fighter ever.

[Fe1]

Man, this sounds amazing. I'll pay to see this. Really hope this catches on.

[Adambomb]

Rickson by armbar.

[Pasha K]

400-0

[Spyke]

Sounds like IFL and UFC 1 had a baby! I'll most definitely watch it.

[Y2JUBAE]

About time someone wised up and did this. I'm unsure about the judging as far as letting the public decide? How does that work, via website or something? But I am glad he at least tried to fix bad judging.

I LOVE the same day weigh ins. I would give anything for the mma world to adopt this rule!!! No more winning by being oversized, no more missed weights because fighters wouldn't be trying to cut down to something they just are not, no more excuses of losing by blaming the cut, etc.

[Cat--Smasher]

Originally Posted by Y2JUBAE

About time someone wised up and did this. I'm unsure about the judging as far as letting the public decide? How does that work, via website or something? But I am glad he at least tried to fix bad judging.

I LOVE the same day weigh ins. I would give anything for the mma world to adopt this rule!!! No more winning by being oversized, no more missed weights because fighters wouldn't be trying to cut down to something they just are not, no more excuses of losing by blaming the cut, etc.

Not even just letting the crowd decide but also letting the promoter decide who won the fight... Seems like there could still be 'issues' with this new system of judging who won the fight.

[Cat--Smasher]

Rickson Gracie’s New MMA Organization Has Some Interesting Rule Changes | | Cagepotato

Our friends over at GracieMag have the full story on the new Mestre do Combate, debuting November 22nd. Below we have some of the highlights.

Teams - Rickson’s organization will use a team format of some sort, akin to what the now defunct IFL used.

Rounds - There will just be two, like in the old Pride non title bouts. The first round will be ten minutes and the second will be five.

Cannot be saved by the bell - So this is interesting. “Fighters will not have the luxury of being saved by the bell: if a submission hold is in place when the bell sounds, they will have to defend or tap out first for the fight to end,” GracieMag reports. What do you think of this rule, nation? I think its a compelling idea, even if it could lead to some messy and uneven arbitrary implementation.

“Judges’” decision - Speaking of potentially messy and arbitrary, “in the event of a fight ending without a submission or knockout, the decision-making system is a curious one: the referee ‘Big’ John McCarthy has one vote, Master Rickson has another, and the audience watching at the venue or over television has a tie-breaking vote.”

Ok, so let us linger on this one for a moment. Being partial to everything Rickson, I don’t have a fundamental problem with him serving in a judging capacity for MMA fights. The guy knows what he’s looking at and he’s certainly more qualified than most current MMA judges. However, his exact role with the organization has not really been publicly specified and there could be issues there. Is he a promoter? Is he a part owner? Is he both? In either case, I’m not sure how I feel about a promoter or organization executive deciding who has won fights, because they could easily be compelled, even if subconsciously, to vote for the more marketable fighter since that fighter might make them more money.

Also, what are the criteria that Rickson, McCarthy and the fans are supposed to use to judge? Oh yeah, having the ref score a fight is a horrible and dangerous idea.

From conversations I’ve had with top refs in the past, I’m rather surprised that McCarthy would even agree to doing this. From what I understand, refs have their hands full just making sure fighters are safe and keeping to the time and rules. If McCarthy is to cast a judging vote to a fight he has just refereed it certainly seems like he’d then have to either

A.) Divert some of his attention from rule enforcement and safety to thinking about who is winning, or

B.) Keep his full attention focused on safety in the ring, in which case he’d probably not have a great idea of who won the fight immediately after.

How, exactly, will fans vote? Will it be a majority thing and they all have two buttons attached to their seats so they can choose who they thought won? Or will it be like a college open mic night where applause is used to determine the winner. In which case, will there be a decibel meter to determine who, exactly, received the louder applause or will some person decide who had more support? If the latter, who will that person be? [Ed. Note: Possibly via text message voting, but who actually takes part in text message voting at stadiums? Other than me that one time fans were asked which ethnic stereotype will run around Miller Park in a sausage costume fastest, for obvious reasons. Don't judge me.]

Weight - So yeah, Mestre do Combate will have same day weigh ins. The idea is to discourage harmful weight cutting by fighters and to encourage to fight at their natural weights. Love the concept, hope it works. Amateur wrestlers have to weigh in the same day as competition and they still cut a lot of water weight often times.

Elbows - No elbows. Sorry, that sucks. A real Jiu Jitsu practitioner needs to ultimately learn how to deal with the different range and angles that elbow strikes pose on the feet and on the ground. At least professional MMA fighters should learn how to.

[rivethead]

Yeah I'm excited about this, but I was going to interrupt the love-fest to say I have questions about the judging.

I don't think Rickson is as bad as many promoters out there, but I have to question the integrity of the league at that point. Time will tell if he's above corruption.

rh