eddie goldman reports on Art of War FC

This weekend zuffa will hold another one of their lame, grossly over-hyped mma shows. A lot of brand fans will spend their weekend pretending the zuffa show they saw meant something. They might even think it was good.

On the other side of the world, a "coming out show" will be broadcast out of Beijing. It is titled art of war: invincible. Here is Eddie Goldman's report on the rules. It includes some pics and other narrative of the rules meeting.

http://www.adcombat.com/Article.asp?Article_ID=18422

Art of War Rules Meeting Introduces "Unified Rules System"
Submitted by:E.Goldman / Sr. Editor
Posted on : 5/21/2009


Beijing, May 21 -- The rules meeting for the May 23 Art of War Fighting Championship mixed martial arts card in Beijing was held Thursday night, with the rules being clarified for the fighters, managers, cornermen, trainers, and media in attendance. The meeting was chaired by Art of War co-founder and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner Andy Pi, and held in English.

Art of War uses what they call their "unified rules system", although these rules are much closer to those which had been used in the Pride Fighting Championships than what are known primary in North America as "the unified rules of mixed martial arts". But there are some distinct differences with the well-known Pride rules as well.

In Art of War, you can kick or knee a downed opponent to the head or anywhere else, except to areas where any strikes are illegal such as the groin, spine, back of head, etc. Thus, what are sometimes called "soccer kicks" are permitted. It will be instructive to see the results of this rule.

Like many Pride fights, the bouts have a ten-minute first round and a five-minute second round. However, if time expires and no one has won the fight by knockout, TKO, submission, doctor stoppage, corner stoppage, or disqualification, the fight is declared a draw. There are no judges, and again the results of this rule will no doubt be discussed after this show.

In Art of War, all elbow strikes to legal areas are allowed. However, spiking an opponent, sometimes known as a piledriver, is banned.

Other than that, Art of War has a long list of illegal actions, which are listed on their web site at http://mmachina.com or http://artofwarfc.cn. Some of the rules have just been updated, such as allowing all elbow strikes to legal areas.

Questions from many of the fighters about the rules were answered primarily by Andy Pi and Big John McCarthy, who will be one of four referees at this event.

In what is likely to be an historic initiative, testing for the use of banned substances by fighters will be handled by the Beijing Sports Administration, the governmental body which oversees all sports, and not just combat sports, in China's capital city. According to Andy Pi, the Beijing Sports Administration follows the same anti-doping procedures as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). "It is the official policy of Art of War to follow the same guidelines as the IOC," said Andy Pi right after the formal rules meeting. "This is the same policy as the Chinese government."

Although it is not yet clear how many fighters will be tested, this may be the first time that a governmental body using WADA guidelines and procedures will be doing these tests for a mixed martial arts event. In the U.S., for example, such testing is done by state or tribal athletic commissions, each of which have their own list of banned substances and rules -- if any at all. Some may use WADA labs for the tests, but they still make their own guidelines.

This is really a pivotal event for Art of War, with numerous international guests in Beijing for it, including a contingent of mixed martial arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu media from around the globe.

If Art of War is successful, especially in this, the most populous country in the world, we could see the emergence of one of the strongest, and maybe THE strongest mixed martial arts company in the world. While there still is a lot of work to do, the Chinese people have never been afraid of hard work, so all true supporters of mixed martial arts, grappling, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu should wish them well.