Last week in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (“ABC”) annual conference, regulators brought in three new procedural changes to the official Unified Rules of MMA.
These ‘procedural changes’ are simply codifications of best practices in several situations that often come up during a bout. In short these note a follows:
- That a cut person could tend to a cut caused by a foul during a round (as opposed to just in between rounds).
- Codifying language on referee discretion on when to separate stalling fighters.
- Clarification of how referees and ringside physicians should work together following an eye poke foul. The clarification will help ensure some bouts don’t come to a premature end following a foul without giving a fighter adequate time to potentially recover.
In addition to this the Rules Committee tabled a rule for consideration about referee discretion on repositioning fighters after a foul.
The full text of the rules that were passed (Procedural Change # 2 was only tabled and not yet voted on) are as follows:
Combat Sports Law 
Is the 2023 updated rules pdf available ?
I have not seen it yet.