Redefining Intelligent Defense



In MMA referees' have one of the toughest jobs, and the most important job in the officiating of an MMA fight. They are the judge, jury, and executioner in the cage and in most cases this is good, but it has its flaws. As we are all humans, we are flawed and different. This means we will interpret rules and regulations differently sometimes even if by a small amount could alter how a fight is officiated.



In regards to MMA there is no standing eight count like in boxing or kickboxing. If a fighter is rocked they must fight out of it or have the fight stopped at the referees discretion. As soon as the fighter who is rocked is on the defensive, you will hear 'fighter X you need to intelligently defend yourself!'. Now this needs to be explained. There are countless situations, this can happen which can make decision making tough here for the ref.

In the Unified rules of MMA directly from the UFC's official website it does not define 'intelligent defense' or even make reference to it. This is a huge issue that leads to too much personal and varying interpretation of what constitutes the stoppage of a fight.



Referees in MMA get lots of flack, but for the most part each referee at least at the top of MMA seems to intend well and does a decent job. With that said, the lack of a rigid set of guidelines for these stoppages leaves us with inconsistent results. That is not satisfactory. Human error will exist, but we can combat the inconsistency with more rigidity in our rule sets.



When a fighter is rocked or dropped the referee is waiting to see how they react. If they immediately turtle and just collapse its a good sign to end the fight now and protect the combatants. That would constitute not intelligently defending one's self. Now from this point onward the definition is murky. There is no documentation to describe how to proceed with a fighter who is not clearly out, but at this point the ref must decide if they are defending themselves.

A lot of referees seem to think you have to become offensive to show you are intelligently defending yourself. That is not that case at all. Even then there have been fights stopped where a fighter was being offensive and clearly defending themselves. To show intelligent defense a fighter must recognize their situation and adapt reasonably to reduce damage taken and regain some semblance of competitiveness. Now if a fighter gets dropped from a standing position and collapse to their back they have two main ways of showing intelligent defense. They need to either lock down a guard position (half-guard, full-guard, butterfly, etc.) and slow down or control the opponent's strikes or they need to create a scramble and get to a point they are taking minimal or no damage.

To define the later I will take a fight many are familiar with. Renan Barao Vs. Urijah Faber 2. This is a fight that ended in the first round via TKO ref stoppage where we will take a look at the defense Faber put up to survive the fight with Barao.

In this first image Barao drops Faber with an overhand and follows up with a hook. Faber collapses.



Immediately following Faber's contact with the mat Barao pounces. Faber covers up clearly defending himself and with his legs up to try and push and extend Barao. This is where the defense begins.



Faber is not the sort of guy to lay on his back and survive in guard so he pushes off a bit and rolls to his left to create a scramble with Barao. As described earlier creating a scramble is a valid way to show intelligent defense. Faber recognizes his situation and attempts to find a better position, but risk Barao taking his back or landing some powerful strikes.



Barao fails to do any damage in the immediate scramble and Faber rises to his feet from a clinch position. Make no mistake Barao is still in control of the fight, but Faber to this point has clearly shown intelligent defense. It is important to note you do not have to change the tide of the fight or start 'winning' the fight to show this. You simply show an attempt to better your position from being rocked.



With both men tied up in a deep clinch the fight starts to show some signs of leveling.



Barao turns the tide back in his favor rocking Faber again with an overhand right.



The landing of the punch. Faber is not out, but rocked by the huge punch.



Faber falls rocked, but recognizes he has to show he is still in the fight so he dives at Barao's leg as he falls.



Barao sprawled and Faber completely flattened out for a second. Here are the only punches to the head Barao lands in this scramble. Following this they are all blocked by Faber. Faber still has a piece of Barao's leg and uses it to regain a base following this.



Now Faber is in on a single leg on Barao as you can see with his right arm and with his left Faber is blocking the punches. At this point Faber is taking no damage and is in what many would consider a neutral position in wrestling. In MMA of course it leans to Barao's favor, but is in no way fight ending position. Faber from being rocked to being flat on the ground has advanced his position and intelligently defended himself. No longer is Faber taking damage and from the grappling aspect is showing a semblance of offense. Clearly Faber is using the time here to regain his bearings and plan his next move since he's definitely going to have to adjust to beat Barao after taking some big shots.



This is another angle to show the punches were clearly being blocked and while it cannot be illustrated Barao was not throwing bombs from here he was throwing arm punches. They all get blocked.



(off topic) Here which is another issue in MMA Barao is looking to the Referee Herb Dean to stop the fight. This can sway a referee one way or the other and is not something we should start a precedent for. Letting fighters communicate with the referee to call them to end a fight is not a good idea, but an entirely separate issue just illustrated well here.



Moments later, with Faber still intelligently defending himself Herb Dean stops the fight.

To many fans' surprise as well as Faber's the fight is over. Herb Dean does not think Faber was intelligently defending himself. The joy in Barao's face is fantastic he fought hard and well, but clearly something is off. Faber should be wobbly when he stands up or not know what's going on? Right? No, he's completely fine with his wits about him and is distraught and can not believe the fight was stopped.





Now we need to address a few points. The main one being damage.

Faber took several large punches standing from Barao, around five large ones. Two of which put him on the ground at two different points in the fight. Faber clearly took damage in no way is it a lot compared to many other fights. He was rocked twice here, but we have seen that many more times in many other fights yet we would not dream of stopping those. Why, here was it okay? Well, there's a multitude of reasons, the main one being a Dean's interpretation and situationally made a decision. Herb Dean is one of the best referees in the business, but there's no doubt this was an early stoppage and in many cases did not even warrant considering a stoppage.





If we consider how Faber handled himself other than going on the offensive what did he have to do? Did he have to finish the takedown? Did he have to pull guard? It is unclear and not fair to a fighter like Faber, who has proven time and time again, his durability and even here it shined through.



Faber was rocked on two separate occasions and from the mat he dragged himself to situations where he no longer took any serious damage and elected to neutralize his opponent's offense. It would seem if Faber just pulled guard and defended from there he would have probably not had the fight stopped. Now why is this? Is being in on a single not as offensive if not more so than going to guard, especially considering the style of fighter Faber is? Faber is a wrestler this is a clearly offensive tactic he used to regain his bearings.

There needs to be more defined documentation on how a fighter avoids a stoppage. Faber here clearly here is a fine example of intelligent defense and fights his way through adversity versus one of the most dominant champs the UFC has had in Barao.

Defining what positions mean in what context could save us as fans and the fighters heart ache, because this is not football or basketball where you play several games and you can redeem yourself easily. In MMA each fight defines you, a bad stoppage can ruin a career, a legacy, and destroy their chances at success with the small window they have to achieve success in our sport.

Photos from Fightpass.

Unified rules: http://www.ufc.com/discover/sport/rules-and-regulations#13