You make a thread titled "Rebuilding MMA from the ground up" and your number 1 suggestion is....smoother gloves to reduce cuts? Do you know what rebuilding something from the ground up means?
I was thinking the same thing before entering this thread, lol. Anyway; OP, people have suggested to the UFC for years now about new glove design to reduce the amount of eye pokes. So far, nothing has been done. So it's very unlikely glove modifications will be done anytime in the near future.
How bout a healthy stable of judges who are actually familiar with the criteria of judging an mma fight. That would be awesome.
The UFC doesn't have a say in the matter of who the judges are. The athletic commission of the state picks its own judges.
Like retired fighters? Retired fighters have affiliations with camps, coaches and active fighters which would make them incredibly susceptible to bias. They also have their chosen discipline, be it wrestling, BJJ or kickboxing, which would make them favor particular styles. Having retired pros judging is actually a really bad idea.
There are a couple of things that I would do. If I had a fight league of my own I would do my best to not allow any form of lay and pray/wall and stall tactics. This turns off a lot of potential fans when they see a dance or what they equate to an amateur wrestling match. My dad has always enjoyed watching boxing and he gets bored when a match turns into two guys laying all over each other. I would try to eliminate the fringe elements of MMA as best as possible. By this I mean the loud talking/cussing President, the Monster type drink sponsors, and sort of the biker mentality that is common. This would be in hopes of putting forth a legitimate sport instead of a tough man contest which is how a lot of people perceive it. Maybe even reward fighters for being good role models instead of knockout of the night type things.
The gloves don't need to be modified. Just enforce the rules more strictly. If a fighter pokes another in the eye they should have an automatic point deduction. I guarantee that would nearly eliminate eye poking. Points should be automatically deducted for fence grabbers as well.
The first thing we should do if we are rebuilding MMA from the ground up is to get rid of fans like TS. They destroy the sport more than anything.
