Decisions, Decisions: Why Judging Has Become A Huge Problem In MMA

they are, and being on top is always thought of as control. I hate watching a guy taken down and attempt multiple submission attempts lose the round cause the other guy is on top and therefore in 'control'.

 

Pride rules are wonderful. I quite like Rogan's idea of a ten minute round first then two 5 minute rounds. It would really heat up the fight well and fix this stupid ten point system. Dunham should've never lost against Sherk.

 

That wasnt Rogans idea. They had that in PRIDE. DREAM still has an opening 10 minute round.

 

Yes, being on top does not mean you are in control. If the guy on his back has your wrists and butterfly guard then he has control on your top and bottom half. It's simply easier to always score for the guy who has gravity on his side, however it isn't right.

 

You won't but the vast majority of judges will which is the problem.

Its not just that the wrong guys are winning matches its that this enviroment is causing the action we see to regress.

Lil Nog vs Bader was a FAR cry from the guy who had a ton of entertaining wars in Pride because he knew that taking risks that might lead to a takedown or going for subs off of his back would lose him decisions.

The unifed rules were really just a quick fix way back in the day and judging standards have IMHO evolved to suit the wishes of promoters since the listed criteria are hopelessly vague. Generally the guy clinching agenst the fence or looking to do nothing but lay on his opponant is an american wrestler they want to promote ahead of his opponant.

I think there are big problems on the horizon for MMA is no changes are made, promoting fighters based on reality TV and nationalism will only work for so long. Ultimately those methods are going to wear thin and when that happens the fans are going to be looking for quality action. This is something the big matches in the UFC have generally failed to provide in recent years.

People like to put it down to the natural evolition of the sport but in reality the changes in the last few years have been largerly a product of an envrioment that favours boring "safe" fighting. Thats a far cry from the kind of action we used to regularly get in Pride just 5 years ago, most of the exciting big matches we do see in the UFC today are a product of that Japanese enviroment aswell(Shogun/Machida, Nog/Randy) aswell.

 

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I think take downs score to highly in a MMA, i have watched some rounds where fighter 1 is punching the **** out of fighter 2, then fighter 2 gets a take down and wins the round. I think the take downs should score high if the fighter continues to do damage after the take down with ground n pound or attempts submissions to finish. If fighter 1 gets back to his feet after a take down that should be awarded points. I think MMA is scored more on control, but you get some guys who just like to blanket there opponent to keep control and they don't worry about attempting submissions or pounding there opponents. I think in that case the fighter should be stood up after45 seconds to 1 minute.

 

What really makes MMA's rules and judging cause problems is that fighters only get 15 mins most of the time. Thats a massive factor in how the action unfolds since certain some methods of fighting such as top control, cage clinching or picking away at a distance with strikes naturally allow someone to stall/control the action.

You can take about standups being "bad" and not in the spirit of the sport but are they any worse than limating the action like that? if for example Bader/Nog or Sherk/Dunham had no time limates I think its highly likely the results would have been reversed. A fight over a limated time period favours the decision fighter, the rules and judging need to look to level that playing field.

The current defintions of "action" need to be reworked, cage clinching needs to be broken up after 10 secs at the most if no strikes or takedown atempts happen, someone laying in an opponants guard should get 30 secs to deliver some real offence(not staying as close as possible and throwing a weak elbow to look busy, real GnP or seriously trying to improve position), if no action is happenign standing then the fighter who isnt enguaging needs to be docked a point for timidty much more quickly.