The 2025 Association of Boxing and Combat Sports Commissions annual conference just concluded and was a great success.

I was privileged over the past year to contribute as a member of both the MMA Rules Committee and the ABC Unified Rules of Muay Thai Committee. Both committee’s recommendations were presented at the convention, approved and unanimously ratified.

As members of the MMA Rules Committee, legendary MMA icon, “Big” John McCarthy and I were tasked with creating the first draft of revised language for the section of the Unified Rules pertaining to judges scoring.  We reorganized the  presentation emphasizing the clarification of terms and scoring criteria priorities in the most objective and concise manner possible.  The document then benefited from the combined experience of the committee membership resulting in a major step forward in clarity for all the stakeholders in the MMA community.

 As a member of the Muay Thai Committee I recommended an addendum to the Unified Rules concerning the definition of a knockdown so that it would adequately reflect damage resulting from a legal takedown as qualifying as knockdown in additions to the results of legal damaging strikes.  The committee also accomplished approval of both ABC Unified Rules for Muay Thai Judges Training Manual and Referee’s Training Manual.  It was a great year working with dedicated professionals to advance the regulation of Muay Thai.