Rory MacDonald is a Fan of the Brutal Rules used in Early Days of MMA

MMA can be pretty brutal at times. As fans of the sport, we frequently witness thunderous knockouts, bloody battles, and freak injuries. Yet MMA is also a heavily regulated sport, with a long list of rules in place to promote fighter safety. Groin shots are illegal. Eye pokes are too. Headbutts are forbidden. Hair-pulling is a no-go. The list goes on and on.

Of course, this hasn’t always been the case. In the early days of MMA, competitors were allowed to employ everything from groin strikes to hair-pulling during a fight. And while these long-abolished attacks are now widely viewed as dangerous and unfair, there are still people out there who romanticize them.

Canadian welterweight Rory MacDonald, who recently made the jump from the UFC to Bellator, is one of those people. The former UFC title challenger took to Twitter on Sunday morning to offer up his thoughts on the rule set used in MMA’s halcyon days.

https://twitter.com/rory_macdonald/status/772351114113085440

ufc and vale tudo early fights were so amazing getting to see a glimpse of raw nhb combat

— Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) September 4, 2016

i just think the oldschool guys who foughf under those rules r so awesome and have so much respect for them, the early an brutal days of mma

— Rory MacDonald (@rory_macdonald) September 4, 2016

Unfortunately for MacDonald, these no-holds-barred rules are dead and buried. Even soccer kicks, which have long been allowed by many Asian promotions, are on the way out, as Singapore’s One Championship recently surprised by tightening the rules on them.

MacDonald is expected to make his Bellator debut sometime next year, probably against the division’s welterweight champion Andrey Koreshkov. From there, the Canadian has ambitions to move up to middleweight and challenge for that division’s title too. So long as he isn’t disqualified for employing any of the techniques he mentioned on Twitter, he seems to have a real chance at achieving these goals.

Are you a fan of the rules from the early days of MMA? Sound off, PENN nation!