One of the most influential athletic commission directors is on Jon Jones’ side.
At UFC Edmonton this past weekend, the MMA game changed as the new unified rules went into effect for the first time. Those rules updated the “grounded opponent” rule and also removed the previously banned “12 to 6 elbow” from the list of fouls. The small but significant changes are sure to impact the way fights unfold in the future, but it’s possible that one result from the past could also be altered: Jon Jones’ loss to Matt Hamill.
At The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale back in 2009, Jones suffered the only loss of his career thus far when he was disqualified by referee Steve Mazzagatti for illegal 12 to 6 elbows after Hamill was unable to continue. Following the announcement of the new rules, Jones made his case for overturning the result so he can have an undefeated record. And California State Athletic Commission Director Andy Foster agrees.
“The rule is what it was then. It’s different now,” Foster told Ariel Helwani on Tuesday. “It would be hard to go back. I’d be actually supportive of getting rid of that, but it’s not my decision. But I think it’s hard to go back with the rule being different than it is now.
“Yeah, [the result changed] to a no-contest,” Foster continued when asked. “ ... I didn’t like the way it was enforced back then, but that’s 14 years ago. ... We’re talking about 14 years later. At the time I thought there were other ways that you might could handle that situation other than just flat giving the guy a loss.”
At the time, Mazzagatti’s decision was extremely controversial as Jones was dominating the fight and Hamill was nearly out before the illegal blows occurred. And Foster agrees that Mazzagatti could have done differently.
“Disqualification should be the last resort a referee goes to,” Foster said. “That should be after you’ve used all the tools in your toolbox. We train these guys and we teach them, I know John McCarthy and the rest of the guys do, you’ve got a lot of things you can go to, a lot of things you can look at. Let’s do that before we disqualify people.
“Herb Dean is probably the gold standard of refereeing in the world right now. You’ll see him and he’ll methodically go through everything before — I don’t know if I’ve seen Herb disqualify somebody. ... He’s very good at going through a lot of different things before you ever get to that.”
Unfortunately for Jones, Foster is not the one he has to convince becuase the fight took place in Las Vegas. And though Jones has plenty of support on this issue, even from some unlikely sources, for the time being it seems likely that instead this incident will live on in the lore of MMA: the only time Jones ever lost.
