Issue 141

May 2016

Ever wondered what the judges in MMA do in the day? In their day jobs, that is, because none of them are full-time professionals. Nor are the referees. Scan the working lives of judges in the UFC and they are salesmen, dentists, doctors, schoolteachers and factory workers. Judges are flown in to officiate major fight nights grossing literally millions of dollars to earn about $1,600.

That’s not to say they are inexperienced. Almost all have a background in martial arts and some have been judging since the early days of the UFC. Since then, MMA has evolved, fighters have advanced, athletes and teams have become, in large, fully professional. Logically, then, if it’s not time for a complete overhaul, surely it is time for experimental change for the better in officialdom. 

Perhaps it’s time for a small pool of the very best judges and referees at the top of the food chain in the sport. Not with a ranking system as fighters have, but a hierarchy determined by excellence and experience.

There are strong arguments for and against this. And arguments too that a small group of proven judges and referees at the highest level, and are proven, travel to the majority of shows to officiate the most significant fights: main events, co-main events, title eliminators and championship bouts.

While every fan, pundit and observer – along with UFC president, Dana White, who isn’t shy in coming forward when he disagrees with a judge’s or referee’s call – has strong views when they disagree, let’s firstly be fair about this and concede judges and referees have a very tough job. They have to act instinctively under the lights, in a split second. Judging from the chair at home, or a press seat is very different to putting scores on paper or deducting points. That’s a thankless task.

Sal D’Amato, one of the most experienced judges in combat sports, has had a lifetime in martial arts and believes it could be time his role is made professional: “I’m still active. I’m still rolling and practicing and teaching. But my day job is in sales,” he explains. “Most of the judges (in the UFC) have day jobs, and all of them have a background in martial arts. Our day job pays the bills and our night job is our passion.

“I’ve been judging since 1992. I started judging kickboxing. It wasn’t because I was getting paid. The first few years – I never got paid. It was because I enjoyed it and looked at it as my passion. Even the local shows would only pay a couple of hundred dollars. On a Saturday night I could’ve been elsewhere but I chose to be there and do it because I loved the sport.” In that regard, nothing has changed. But now, perhaps, his role in the sport could.

D’Amato would want nothing more than to be a permanent circuit judge, doing it for a living. And that’s a view shared by many officials: fellow judge Chris Lee, referees Herb Dean and Marc Goddard, as well as several others Fighters Only contacted. There’s a clear feeling among them they’d become better if they were able to dedicate more time to their role. That makes sense.

“If you have those same guys doing it full-time it would be for the better,” D’Amato explains. “Having the same officials (at most events) means they’re all looking for the same thing and that’s a good thing.”

And that’s the point. The smaller the elite group, the more they judge, the better they get. Ditto refereeing. At any given UFC event, around six to seven judges are used – appointed by the promotion or local commission. But what if only a small group were licensed with every state commission, seconded by the promotion?

The athletic commission or national governing body appoints the judges, of course. But what’s to stop the UFC, for example, having a fixed set ratified by the relative federation? But Marc Ratner, UFC vice president of regulatory affairs, isn’t so keen on the idea. 

“I wouldn’t be in favor of that,” he says. “I want to bring a couple everywhere, but to grow the sport I’ve got to develop officials whether it’s Australia, Mexico or Brazil, and that is what we are doing. “It’s a good idea being put forward, but it wouldn’t work for me. I really believe in making the pool larger. I’d bring Polish guys in, for example, when we have an event there, and I’d bring Herb (Dean) and John (McCarthy) to teach them. We have seminars in a lot of those places as well.” 

Ratner has already cross-pollenated by bringing a third man from overseas to Las Vegas. Respected British official Goddard was the first Englishman ever to be licensed to referee a fight in Nevada. He believes a circuit of fully-professional referees would enhance the process: “Like the fighters, who can no longer succeed in this sport by being part-timers, I think fully-professional referees, a group of them, would only get better if they were full-time. To me, it makes sense.”

There is an argument from D’Amato, who’s been ever-present Octagonside for the last five years, about his own development. He’s convinced he’s got better in that time: “Experience is huge. Four years ago, maybe five – before I became a regular with the UFC – I knew all the rules. I was in the sport for a while, but today I’m 100 times a better judge than I was back then, simply because of the experience. Being at a high-level championship fight with the crowd screaming is a priceless experience. It makes you better as a judge. The more fights you do, the better you become at judging.”

And here’s perhaps where rule changes could come in. If the judges were graded and ranked – from championship, main event, co-main event, to main card and prelims, let’s say – they could assume a position as main card or championship official. Graded simply by marking their performances and ranking them.

Here’s why. FO spoke with two judges who wished to remain anonymous as they didn’t want to upset their position in the UFC. One says: “I’m exhausted at the end of the night. No doubt about it. I’m exhausted after each fight because I’m concentrating for the full five minutes, going back and forth. and trying to keep that concentration level for the duration. There can be no distractions, no respite.”

Another explains: “Every round is a new fight. What I’m doing in the second round is scoring exclusively what goes on in the second. I’ve forgotten about the first. The same goes for the fifth. I’ve forgotten what happened in the previous four rounds.” 

That required concentration level required could be considered, and the judges could be given just two important contests for every major show. “That used to happen in boxing and it may still happen,” reasons D’Amato, though he doesn’t necessarily agree. “If you do the championship fight, you don’t do any other fights. I don’t see it that way with MMA because we’re not doing 12 rounds. We use the other fights to build up to the main event – the more work we do, the more experience we get. 

“It’s almost like a fighter warming up. Doing the prelims is a good thing. Although I may get tired, I’m working and I’m in the zone. I don’t think being cold and doing the main event is a good thing.”

He adds: “I did 19 UFC events in 2015. At one of them I didn’t have any decisions that were recorded so they didn’t count that as an event. So it was 20 in total. I also do local shows in Illinois and Wisconsin. I probably did 30 events, which is more than half the weekends of the year. That’s just not enough, though.”

Professional football is still the most popular sport in the United States and the NFL is the king when it comes to popularity. As its popularity grew, salaries for NFL referees increased – substantially. In 2015, referees had a starting salary of around $120,000 per year while linesmen started at around $75,000 per year. Those amounts could be doubled. 

Obviously, MMA is not as evolved as gridiron, but there are models out there to base a new system upon. And if other sports have grading systems and a fixed set of officials, why can’t an organization like the UFC, which has huge power to change systems in the sport, follow suit? 

Ratner again: “The problem I come back to is that we are a new sport and because of that we do not have a deep pool. It makes sense in a lot of ways but I believe officiating is getting better and better. There is more education now. And we’ve just got to keep working at it in that regard.”

“We’re not the NFL yet,” finishes D’Amato. “That’s what we’re striving to be. But I think having professional judges at your event benefits everybody.”

UFC fight week: Judges diary

Officials arrive on Friday. They are not obliged to go to the weigh-ins. They get together and meet and have dinner. On the day of the event they have a report time. In Nevada, that’s typically 45 minutes before the start of the event.

There’s a pre-fight meeting, at which the judges discuss different situations: 10-8 rounds, 10-9 rounds. As a group, no matter how many times they’ve officiated in the past, the judges go through the scoring criteria and the scoring system and then get ready for the first fight. By this time, they’ll know which fights they are judging. In Nevada, main-event officials are assigned a week or two before and it’s made public.