This was the swing round imo. First 2 were Randamie, Last two were Holm. All came down to this round which was hard to score. More controversial is the decision not to deduct points.
Holm did herself no favours by clinching for so long when she had the power to hurt Randamie. 8 minutes of clinching by Holm but her takedown attempts were laughable and she was eating knees throughout her clinches. That was an awful strategy. Much better was circling with pitty patty hoping her activity edges out the big shots.
That's still controlling and thus WINNING rounds. Maybe not the best strategy, but it work enough for her to get the win in my eyes.
But is it enough to win the round when she was eating those flush head shots? Not for me. Negative strategies like that always have a chance of backfiring because there's no offensive output, especially if earlier in the round you'd been tagged by flush power shots. If she'd have done more leg kicks instead of clinching she'd have probably won the fight. I'd definitely rather see Cyborg than a rematch.
I agree with your saying, definitely seems to be something the judges have been doing lately(even been before the new rule changes)
Yeah it is definitely an advantage to be either an aggressive fighter or a grappling expert who can force a submission.
That's how two judges scored it. I was unsure on the 3rd rounds. Would probably have given it 10-10 myself. Can't remember how I scored it last night as it's very late over here at that time.
