Everything was going as it usually does for Kyle Bochniak backstage at UFC 220. His hands were wrapped and approved by the commission. He went over the gameplan with his coach. The referee for his fight with Brandon Davis came over and laid out the in-cage rules.
Less than an hour later, Bochniak was warming up and “getting in the zone,” as he put it, for the important fight. Just as he was about to walk out, another referee came to him and said there had been a change.
The first ref had told him the new Unified Rules of MMA would be in place for the fight; the second ref said to forget that — the commission had made a change and now it was actually the old rules.