OPINION: 15 elements of MMA that ought to be changed for the benefit of the sport – week 4

There are certain aspects of mixed martial arts that simply make no sense.

And when my lovable colleague Pat McCarry took a look at the 15 ways that rugby could be improved, it struck a chord with me and made me think that, as physical as rugby is, MMA is far more dangerous and needs some improvement in pretty much all areas. There are elements of the sport that are still counter-intuitive when it comes to fighter safety, fan enjoyment and the overall legitimisation of the sport. I would like to make it clear that this is very much an opinion piece and I've decided to drip feed my ideas for rule changes over 15 weeks and, while some of them are a little bit out there, I think that they just make sense to switch up. - In Week 1 we looked at how to deal with fighters missing weight. - In Week 2 we supposed that concussive brain trauma would go down if fighters fought without gloves. - In Week 3 we suggested a new initiative as to how to make the weight cut safer for fighters

Week 4 - The Cage

This is one that I haven't quite worked out to the point where I can give Dana White a jingle but I refuse to believe that the chain-link fence is the best stage for mixed martial arts. The most basic goal of a promotion is to ensure that the crowd can see the action which limits the number of ways to display fights. The cage then seems ideal as spectators can see through the gaps in the fencing while there is no risk of the competitors falling through. But there are so many negatives attached with the cage that I'm baffled as to why it remains the most common forum for mixed martial arts bouts. Firstly the cage often limits the ability of fighters to escape certain situations, i.e. they often find themselves being pinned against the fence while their opponent pummels on them. PRIDE attempted to remedy that by using a ring rather than a cage but the you had the risk of fighters falling through the ropes. As well as that, the walls of the cage often give fighters an artificial advantage that they wouldn't have in genuine combat. After being taken down by an opponent, fighters can make their way back to their feet using a technique known as "wall walking". That eliminates the realism from the competition as fighters are not relying on their technical ability to escape unfavourable positions, they have the benefit of gaining leverage against the wall behind them. That's not to even mention the prevalent issue of fighters grabbing the cage instinctively to avoid takedowns. Also, the cage is not as perfect for spectators as you might think. Most cages, be it the UFC's octagon or the fences in Bellator or Cage Warriors are divided into sections with a large panel of padding in between. If a grappling exchange is taking place against one of those dividers and a fan is stuck directly behind it, it's almost impossible to see the intricacies of what's going on. What I'm suggesting as a possible solution is something akin to the arena used by the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu promotion Metamoris which is essentially a large wrestling mat. https://youtu.be/MdXq8OH_zzU Obviously the mat would need to be much bigger because you could have wrestlers forcing double-legs across the surface but there's nothing to say that MMA organisations couldn't use a pedestal the size of a basketball court for fights. When fighters would stray within 10-15 feet of the edge then they could be brought back to the centre by the referee to reset. Some would suggest that fighters could then just run away from one another but stricter laws on timidity, which should also be introduced, would eliminate that danger. The only other significant downside is that we'd no longer get the chance to see Superman punches off the cage and recreations of Anthony Pettis' Showtime kick but, again, I would argue that it's a purer contest without the fence in place. If the cage was removed from the equation, it would literally benefit everybody. Audiences could see better and the fighters could compete without any added advantage/disadvantage. Come back next week when we advocate for more weight classes in mixed martial arts.