Issue 088
May 2012
Nick Lembo
Counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board
YES
I don’t think any scoring criteria is going to be perfect. Could we improve it? Yeah, we’re trying to work on it right now with better scoring criteria and a better definition of a 10-8 round. It could be improved upon, but that would be my second thing to do. My first would be to get more people with heavy backgrounds involved in judging, like (ex-UFC welterweight) Ricardo Almeida. Is the current Unified Rules criteria a good starting point? Yes. Can it be improved? Yes. But the key is to get judges, train them properly, start them in the amateurs, have judges that have a solid martial arts background and evaluate their performances and discuss rounds with them. I’m very happy Ricardo Almeida came on board as a judge, and he’ll be judging at UFC on Fox 3 in New Jersey in May. You can have anything written down, whatever you want, you’re never going to have a perfect written rule-set unless you have people hitting a button every time they see something – and then it’s still subjective.
Dan Hardy
Former UFC welterweight number-one contender, 23-10 (1 NC)
NO
People understand how much the judging criteria changes the way a lot of fighters approach a fight. That is one area of the sport that needs the most revision. Better education for judges, a system where they can build their judging experience on lower levels before making a bad decision on a top-level fight and potentially ruin someone’s career. Let’s assume for a second that all judges are well educated and have no affiliation to either fighter, they will still have a bias opinion depending on their background. In the UFC 143 Carlos Condit vs Nick Diaz fight, I scored at least three rounds to Diaz, for the simple fact that Condit didn’t look like he came to fight. Condit clearly came to outpoint Diaz and play it safe. Diaz controlled the Octagon, was the aggressor and pushed for a finish. We aren’t in the business of point scoring, that’s for shiny-pants kickboxing. The point in MMA is to effectively and efficiently beat an opponent. That’s not five rounds of tag, that’s being proactive in stopping your opponent before the final bell.
What you had to say on the matter ...
NO
“Not necessarily. The rules, more often, reward the safer fighter. Fortune favors the bold, Unified Rules favors the boring.”
@SEANMMACAULAY
NO
“No they favor the smart athlete, whoever fights to the flawed criteria of the judges wins fights a la Jon Fitch, GSP, Condit.”
@THOMUSSTARBUCK
YES
“The best fighter is the person who can win under the Unified Rules, so yes.”
@CHRISRATHE
YES
“Over emphasis on takedowns is again a problem with the actual judges not the system!”
@ROBMILLSMMA
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