I would like to start by saying I am a long time BE reader but his is my first fan post. I have encountered a question i am unable to answer with a simple google search so it is time to ask the knowledgeable community here at Bloody Elbow.

So yesterday i re-watched what I consider to be one of the best fights in history, Shamrock vs Frye at Pride: Bad Blood, and in between rounds i saw Don Frye's corner man administering canned air to a fatigued Frye. Lets be real here, we all know that Ken's conditioning is famously subpar, but it seemed that Frye remained fairly fresh for such a grueling fight. Now i know that after a player in football makes a particularly exhausting play such as a kickoff return for a touchdown, they often go the sidelines and get some pure O2 administered to help recovery. So i guess my question is, is this currently allowed under the unified rules of MMA? I reread them before making this post and didn't see anything that might restrict something of the sort. Might it be that they now limit what the corner men can bring into the ring in between rounds to reduce cheating? It seems to me that giving an athlete pure O2 between rounds could significantly improve recovery, so i am surprised that a fight from 2002 is the only time i have ever seen this used. Am i mistaken about the benefits of using something like pure oxygen?