The above video is referee 'Big' John McCarthy explaining at a fighters' meeting before an event a) what constitutes the back of the head and b) what constitutes a foul to the back of the head. It's a short video and what stands out is how simple McCarthy's explanation makes what is an otherwise complicated issue rather mundane.
What also stands out to me, though, is what commissions currently fail to do in terms of disseminating information like this. Why couldn't athletic commissions be more proactive about distributing information like this? MMA fans largely exist, consume and share in digital media. It's one thing to have a written rules set posted on some hard to find government website. That's ok, but they're difficult to locate and written language often has a way of producing as many questions as answers. Why couldn't New Jersey or California or Nevada open a YouTube channel, record videos like this explaining key concepts.
They'd be able to more widely disseminate their message (blogs and messageboards would eat this up) and cheaply produce highly clarifying material that is of huge value to the mixed martial arts (MMA) community.
No solution is perfect, but in the current arrangement journalists have to often track down recalcitrant referees or commission officials who issue worthless talking points to get any sort of clarification. Wouldn't it preferable to have this easy to digest information in the form of the video on a platform of mass distribution?
UPDATE: a reader points me to this video, which itself is a typical response from the NHL regarding controversial/important or disputed penalties/suspensions, that is highly informative and should be regularly used by UFC or athletic commissions. It's precisely the sort of thing I'm talking about. Even if the athletic commissions can't afford something of this high quality, UFC could. And that still doesn't mean a basic video created by an athletic commission wouldn't have value:
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