Rich Franklin believes ONE Championship has superior rules ...

The unified rules of MMA are set to adopt some changes in November including 12-to-6 downward elbows no longer being considered illegal along with a new definition for a downed fighter.

But UFC Hall of Famer and current ONE Championship executive Rich Franklin believes that the rules used by the vast majority of MMA promotions are remarkably outdated. While he operated under those rules for almost his entire career, Franklin says he found a superior set of standards after he started working for ONE just over a decade ago.

He commends the Association of Boxing Commissions for finally voting to make changes, especially where 12-to-6 elbows are concerned. In reality, Franklin feels that rule was unnecessary to begin with after fighters learned about the defined area where strikes to the back of the head were no longer allowed.

“I think the 12-to-6 elbow change was definitely long overdue,” Franklin told MMA Fighting. “I believe that originally the 12-to-6 elbow rule was put in there because when you look at some of the old UFCs, you would see wrestlers shoot in and then when guys started figuring out how to stuff the shot and sprawl on top of them, then they would start unleashing those 12-to-6 elbows from that position and it would leave the back of the head in a compromised position. So the 12-to-6 elbow rule gets implemented. I believe that’s the reasoning for it.

“But once you had illegal targets established — the mohawk down the back of the head and to the spine — you’re not capable of hitting those targets.”

When it comes to the argument over what makes a “downed opponent,” Franklin knows that comes down to when a fighter is allowed to unleash knees on their opponent in a potentially compromised position.

The new rule that goes into effect in November states the following: A fighter shall be considered grounded and may not be legally kneed or kicked to the head when any part of their body other than their hands or feet is in contact with the canvas (ground).

The ONE Championship rules actually have a stricter definition, but Franklin says that doesn’t matter because athletes in the Singapore-based promotion are still allowed to throw knees to the head of a grounded opponent.

“Our definition of down is very, very clear,” Franklin explained. “If anything other than the soles of your feet are touching the ground, you’re down. Even if it’s just a finger and I’m putting a finger down on the ground, I’m considered a downed opponent.

“In our sport, this is very, very important because you can get into the nuances of we allow knees to the head of a grounded opponent. That’s the elephant in the room. That’s the big competitive difference when it comes to our ruleset but it’s clearly defined differentiation.”

As much as Franklin would like to see the unified rules of MMA changed, perhaps his bigger concern is the continued use of the 10-point must system and the scoring criteria used to decide fights. That effectively means a fighter who wins the round gets 10 points and the opponent receives 9 or less points.

When MMA was first sanctioned and a set of rules put in place to govern the sport, the scoring model was adopted from the sport of boxing. The problem when applying that to MMA is most fights only last for three rounds or five rounds at most versus many boxing matches being scheduled between eight to 12 rounds.

Losing one round in a 12-round boxing match isn’t nearly as devastating as the same thing happening in a three-round MMA fight.

Franklin knows from personal experience how much that can completely alter the outcome of a fight because he’s had it happen to him a couple of times during his career.

“I’m not a fan of the 10-point must system, not for MMA especially, particularly in a three round fight,” Franklin said. “For example, in my Forrest [Griffin] fight, when Forrest and I fought and I threw a kick in the first three seconds of that round and we clashed and went to the ground, it wasn’t necessarily a takedown but he was in my guard and I remember I was going to push off and work back to my feet but I was fighting up at 205 [pounds] and I had just come up from 185 so Forrest probably 30 pounds heavier than me in that fight.

“I just remember thinking I’m not going to waste the energy, I’m going to keep any real action from happening, I’ll tie him up and this is still in the era when you’re on the bottom, you’re kind of losing the fight even though it’s neutral. I went into that fight out of the first round already down a round. It’s very difficult to come back from something like that. I made the strategic error believing [Steve] Mazzagatti would stand us up. Forrest was so heavy so I’m like I’m just not going to blow this energy here.”

Franklin ultimately lost a unanimous decision to Griffin.

A different set of circumstances in Franklin’s fight against Dan Henderson in 2009 presented another problem with the scoring model as it stands today.

“My Dan Henderson fight, go back and check the scorecard on that fight,” Franklin said. “Two judges had it scored 29-28 for him and one judge had it 30-27 for me. I lost two judges to one but when you tally up the points, I actually win the fight. I’ve never been a fan.”

In ONE Championship, the judges score the fight as a whole rather than round by round but the officials still have weighted criteria that help determine the outcome.

Picking a winner isn’t simply based on an eye test of who the judges think won the fight but rather a pyramid-style scoring system that helps determine the outcome. Here’s how the judges in ONE score the entire fight but not in a round-by-round format:

“When you look at our scoring system, this is one of those things I am 100 percent in and sold on,” Franklin said. “I like judging the fights in its entirety. There’s judging criteria and the criteria starts at the bottom with aggression and works its way up to a near finish. They’re weighted accordingly in order. We even have our damage broken down into separate categories like different types of damage and it’s very specific.

“We educate our athletes on this criteria and the judging so they know exactly how they’re being scored so when they get into a match, they know these are the strategies I need to implement.”

At ONE 168 on Friday in Denver, ONE returns to the United States for the second time with the Colorado Combative Sports Commission allowing the ruleset, judging and scoring criteria to be used for those fights. The same goes for the upcoming ONE card in Atlanta in November.

While it’s impossible to know if more commissions would ever consider adopting those same rules or if promotions like the UFC would support it, Franklin has seen how it works firsthand and he recognizes a huge difference in the results.

“Essentially our criteria is laid out and it pushes the athletes to want to finish the fight,” Franklin said. “It’s one of the reasons I believe we have such a high finishing rate.”