Possible Rules Changes Could Force UFC 97 Out of Montreal
Bell Centre
UFC 97, which is slated to take place on April 18th at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada, could be forced to change locations due to possible MMA rules changes in the province following last weekend’s disastrous debut of Strikebox.
Sportsnet.ca has details on the changes being considered by the Quebec Athletic Commission:
Sources close to the [event] say these could include a requirement for a much smaller cage than the UFC’s patented Octagon, prohibiting elbow and knee strikes and requiring that the referee halt a bout should a fighter get knocked down from a strike in order to ensure the downed fighter is okay to continue.
Representatives from the commission told Sportsnet.ca the UFC will have to follow the rules set forth by the commission if they wish to hold their show in Montreal. Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice president of government and regulatory affairs, is fully aware of the new situation and is hopeful that ongoing discussions with the commission will prove that this will not jeopardize the UFC’s return to the province.
Strikebox, which was promoted as MMA without ground fighting, failed to have their rules approved by the athletic commission and had to hold their debut event using traditional MMA rules, with fighters agreeing to an alternate set of rules similar to those that the commission rejected. The event went as expected until headliner James Thompson, prominently seen last year losing to Kimbo Slice, took former hockey enforcer and popular local fighter Steve Bosse to the ground and unleashed punches, which resulted in the crowd showering the cage with beer cans to show their displeasure.
The UFC made it’s Canadian debut last April at the Bell Centre with UFC 83, which featured Georges St-Pierre reclaiming the welterweight title in a rematch with Matt Serra.
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thats gay.
well i don’t think anyone is canadian is on the card.
Dave Loasio, jason mcdonald, krytzophoff, 3 or 4 fighters from canada
Actually at least 7 Canadians are on the card, and that has nothing to do with this decision
canadians are tight as$e$ when it comes to letting people have a good time . I should know as I am Canadian . The same behavior happens at local hockey games too ….. maybe they should change the rules so there’s no contact and the puck is replaced with a tennis ball .
hockey is the only big non-combative sport where it is legal to fight…
WTF??
fack
MMA without ground fighting?
Stephane Patry is a f’n idiot.
And so is Roy Jones JR.
I don’t understand why this is happening… its freaking dumb. I hope that this stupid government body gets its act together and doesn’t interfere with the event.
stupid ass quebec
I just had another thought… if they can’t have the fights in Quebec, I’ll gladly take them moving the event to Raleigh.
Yeah. I’m sure you would….
They should move it to edmonton! Western canada is richer anyways. We support Quebec
“hockey sucks”
“Western canada is richer anyways”
“we support quebec”
…
anyways.
It’s not canadians it quebecers they literally are totally different then all other canadians.Because of them we have to waste a 1hr each day in high school to learn french for half the year. Bring 97 to Vancouver, we use to have Bodog fights here so i dont think they need to change the rules for it
To whom should we mail to, into that great government from this great wannabe country, if we want to give our opinion regarding this brilliant new regulation that would disqualify Quebecers to enjoy and participate in that great younglifestage sport.
Gimmi a minute, I’ll answer my own question right here.
BTW, my sorrows go to those bright minds throwing beer into the octogone at Mel’s Studios when Bossé went down. Great work guys. I really understand why Stephan Patry walked away from tko…
Here,
The guy’s name is Denis Racicot.
Clic on “commentaires” and on “commentaires” in the drop-down menu.
Can I put here a few adresses?? I’ll try, sorry if moderator blocks them.
http://www.corussports.com/blog/jacques_theriault/2009/02/ufc-97-en-peril-le-power-trip.php
http://www.corussports.com/divers/ufc_97_annule-20090212-1412843.html
(The links are for French sites, but if you use Google you get a decent translation. -Justin)
move it to texas!
They can always move it to Vegas, there is enough time.
Damn French Canadians.
First of all, i’ve lived in Montreal my whole life and all you people who think its all french really freak me out. Montreal is multi-cultural and maybe 50% french and tons of english.
Montreal is very different from the rest of Quebec.
I’m disappointed about this…. this is ridiculous !!!!!
Montrealers tend to get very emotional, especially when the montreal canadiens have lost 9 out of their last 11.
Just slap a cover over the octagon and the fighters will be safe ….
I can guarantee that if they do have it here, wait till you hear the crowd explode for the Iceman and Anderson ! Chuck will be like the Hulk Hogan of MMA over here…….
I totally agree with you and being a Montrealer that has already bought tickets to this event, I am absolutely pissed.
Some government bureaucrat is putting up some red tape because his pocket wasn’t lined enough. You don’t have to from Quebec to have crooked politicians, they are everywhere.
And as far as I know, MMA is not even legal in Ontario or the state of New York, so ease off the useless Quebec bashing. The biggest show in North American MMA history was held in Montreal, something that is only a dream right now for Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and even New York City.
If this show ends up happening (which I am hoping they can get negotiated soon) it will sell out again just like UFC 83 and tie or beat last year’s record. 12,000 tickets already sold in two days with minimal promotion. MMA is huge in La Belle Province, even if GSP is not on the card.
I got tickets to this thing to and i have to drive 28 hours to this event, TICKET FOR SALE IF RULE CHANGES ARE ACCEPTED
to me it is cool that UFC is going differnt places and all, but i don’t see them changeing the fight rules just so they can be in one place! Big Whoop?
Yeah, the UFC will not likely change their rules to hold an event in Montreal, especially not to the degree they want.
Wonder if they would be doing this if GSP was on the card? How g*y would it be without Knees, and elbow strikes DUMB!!!
they should only allow headbutts as a form of striking….or just change it to an X-Arm event LOL
This type of crap makes me sad to be a Canadian. Well actually Quebec is actually a separate nation inside of Canada, so I don’t really consider them to be Canadians. I live in Alberta and we sanctioned MMA and I would love to see them move the event to Calgary or Edmonton. I would definately make the trip up to Edmonton.
Dude my wife is from canada so i’m not going to bash canadians. I just think it’s pretty stupid to have MMA without ground fighting. Did they also say no knees and no elbows? WTF DUDE?
Theres no way the UFC will accept any changes to the rules, UFC is measured and there are champions based on the rules and size of the octagon. You can’t all of a sudden change things around. Some champions in Pride have done crap in the Octogan without knees on the ground…etc the rules have to stay the same or there will be no UFC in Montreal………
canada is as diverse as any other nation so dont lump us all in the same boat…
western canada is totally different than eastern canada, just like the usa…
this is stupid though… why should the ufc have to change because of some other promotons commotions
I don’t care where they hold it. Edmonton would be great as I live here and that would be legendary, but so long as they don’t cancel it altogether and still show it on ppv, no big deal to me…
what if they allow elbows, knees, and groundfighting….as long as you could rub vasoline all over your entire body…only in Montreal…Anybody? Anybody??
Did anyone else here know that the Quebec athletic commision didnt know about UFC 83 until a few days ago!!! I wonder where they thought 21,000 people were going? To a hockey game?
That’s what they are claiming, but I find it hard to believe.
Yeah me too
move the event down here to Tucson AZ! hahahahahahhahahahaha
ill round up all the southside cholos to come party and watch the ufc.
we can get some tequila and tecate and have a fiesta yah digggg. hahahahhah
on a more serious note….
its not like canada wont host another ufc event in the future so…
and im sure the ufc will find a great place to hold the event.
either way….its gonna be a great card.
There’s no way that the rules of MMA are going to be changed because of Stephane Patry’ idiotic idea of MMA without ground fighting.As soon as the Athletic Commission refused to approve the ‘Strikebox’ rules the event should have been canceled.The Commission will no doubt come to the conclusion that the results of this ill conceived promotion(Strikebox) has nothing to do with the sport of MMA and UFC 97 will go on as planned.
Except that it’s not about that. They don’t have rules for MMA in Quebec and it seems the old head of the commission kind of looked the other way when the UFC was there, and the new head of the commission isn’t going to do that, he wants to enforce the laws/rules on the books, which are problematic to the UFC because of the reasons outlined in the article.
Go to Sherdog.com radio right now-Stephane Patry is on giving his explanation.
The commission has been following unified MMA rules for ten years.That is why promotions like TKO and UCC have been sanctioned.Stephane Patry tried to promote a whole new sport(Strikebox) which the commission would not approve.Patry was told by the commission to cancel the show,but he decided to go ahead with the show anyway.Hence,like I said above everything with MMA should be fine.
Jaymz,
I pulled this from another site, this is what I was talking about.
“Though Thériault acknowledges that the Strikebox/Titans fiasco played a role in what appears to be a sudden adherence to the rules on hand, he said the decision has already been in the works for some time.
“[The Strikebox scenario] was an important part of getting us to this point, but Richard Renaud [Director of the Division of Combat Sports in the RACJ], who is replacing Mario LaTraverse, has been working with the President of the RACJ, Denis Racicot to change the sport, and noted that we had tolerated the [past] rules,” Thériault said.
Ratner believes LaTraverse’s retirement from the commission has also played a role in the recent events, but sees a positive outcome on the horizon.”
Yeah,I hear ya.There’s a lot of mixed info being thrown around and people like Stephane Patry trying to talk in circles.Guess we’ll just have to hurry up and wait,and hope for a sane outcome.
I really hope this falls through as I already paid top notch for ringside tickets on this event, not too mention the only reason I joined the fight club was to get the pre-sale on this as it’s pretty much sold out.
If the even can’t take place in canada then it should be in Las Vegas, i mean thats the obvious choice. The UFC is not gonna change their rules and shouldn’t. So bring the event back to the states. Personally i hope they work something out for canada.
Sad to read this today. I too have bought tickets. I cannot see there being a title on the line with rule changes. Really disappointed and hope all readers know this has nothing to do with the good folks of Montreal or Quebec, but rather a group or individual.
It is not uncommon in Canada to have elected or appointed officials make decisions that are self serving or against what the group would like to see.
I hope this gets resolved as I will be very disappointed if I wasted my money.
“It is not uncommon in Canada to have elected or appointed officials make decisions that are self serving or against what the group would like to see.”
That’s every where in the world, not just Canada.
Hey Justin,I understand what you were saying now,about there not actually being rules in place.I just assumed there had to be because of TKO,UCC and UFC 83.I got stuck on the whole ‘Strikebox’ BS that started all of this.Thanks for clarifying that.
This is a case of one man trying to impose his power to ensure that his likes and dislikes are catered to rather than listen to the opinion s of the masses.
Old thinking relics like the members of the Quebec AC should be relegated to amateur sports solely wherein their so called experience lies.
That would include Boxing which they love, is it not ridiculous that after a very success ful first UFC in Montreal and many many other MMA bouts that suddenly they now realize that the rules have not been followed as they deem them appropriate.
I get real angry when uneducated idiots make rules and regulations with out knowledge of what they talk about. This is purely because of the old story, which is better Boxing or MMA and these fools are probably the only ones in Montreal who feel rule changes are necessary.
Why take the excitement and the essence of MMA out of the sport, to make it more like Boxing which they like and feel comfortable with.
IDIOTS!!
Hey Kris(admin),have you heard anything about the conspiracy theory that it was Patry and Michel that brought the rule issue to the attention of the commission?
I did read that, but Patry seemed to be doing well enough with TKO, why screw things up. Obviously money can make anyone do anything but it seems far-fetched, but not impossible. Interesting to think about though…
Yeah,it makes one wonder why Patry left TKO in the first place.
Simple solution; Don’t sell beer cans. I know I’ve waited years for an MMA venue to be close enough for me to actually go to ( I live in no. N.H.). Since Mass. can’t get there stuff together, Boston would be a great place to hold an event, Montreal is sadly the next best thing in our tri-state area. Maybe the good that will come out of this is CHEAPER TIX!!!!!!!!!