UFC light-weight contender Paddy Pimblett has known as for a big overhaul of the Unified Guidelines of Blended Martial Arts. He desires the official UFC guidelines to be a bit bit nearer to guidelines utilized in PRIDE FC or RIZIN. Particularly advocating for the legalization of knees and soccer kicks to grounded opponents.
Paddy Pimblett Argues for Satisfaction FC Type Guidelines to Punish Stalling
Talking in a current interview with Tom Aspinall, the Liverpool native argued that the present rule set affords an excessive amount of safety to wrestlers who fail their takedown makes an attempt, permitting them to stall moderately than face the results of a poor entry.
Pimblett’s proposal attracts inspiration from the foundations beforehand utilized in Japan’s PRIDE FC and at the moment utilized by RIZIN Combating Federation. Whereas he drew a line at head stomps, typically thought of essentially the most controversial method from that period, he believes different grounded strikes are crucial to revive realism to the game.
“I don’t agree with stomping as a result of your head’s received nowhere to go,” Pimblett defined. “However a soccer kick the place somebody’s sitting in guard and you may transfer the legs and kick them there, and knees to the pinnacle of the grounded opponent, so if somebody shoots a sloppy takedown simply to get a break, you need to be capable to knee them within the head.”
The logic behind Pimblett’s stance focuses on the “gamey” nature of recent MMA grappling. Beneath present Unified Guidelines, a fighter who shoots for a takedown and fails can typically turtle up or stall on their knees with out worry of serious harm, ready for a referee reset or a safer place. Pimblett argues this security internet encourages low-risk wrestling methods the place fighters dive for legs “simply to get a break” moderately than to genuinely advance the battle.
This dialog comes shortly after the Affiliation of Boxing Commissions (ABC) carried out adjustments to the definition of a grounded fighter in late 2024. The up to date guidelines eliminated the “one hand down” loophole, now requiring a fighter to have a knee or different physique half all the way down to be thought of grounded.
Pimblett is at the moment finalizing preparations for the largest check of his profession in opposition to Justin Gaethje at UFC 324. Scheduled for January 24, 2026, this light-weight matchup pits Pimblett’s grappling-heavy method in opposition to Gaethje’s famend putting energy for the interim UFC light-weight titles.
Whereas this alteration was designed to cease fighters from gaming the system to keep away from strikes, Pimblett’s proposed changes would go a lot additional, basically altering the risk-reward ratio for grappling entries.
