MMA Scoring & Judging is Broken: Can it be Fixed?

If UFC 126 emphasized any point other then Anderson Silva vs. Georges St. Pierre will be an epic fight for the ages, it was that the judging and scoring in mixed martial arts (MMA) is broken and badly in need of repair. Let’s take a look at the current system and what it brings to the table as well as its shortcomings.

The ten-point must scoring system is defined as:

“A system of scoring whereby the winner of a round must receive ten points and the loser of the round nine points or less if knocked down and/or thoroughly dominated by his opponent. If there is no clear winner of the round, each fighter must be awarded ten points”

The ten-point must system is by far the most popular method of scoring a fight, whether it is boxing or mixed martial arts (MMA). It is the official scoring method of the American Boxing Congress (ABC) under their Unified Rules as well as the standard that has been adapted for professional and amateur MMA bouts in the United States. Some states, Illinois for example, do still employ a five-point scoring system and amateur boxing employs a point scoring system that measures the number of clean blows landed rather then physical damage inflicted. The point here being that although the ten-point must system is the most universally recognizable scoring system it’s not the only one in existence and not above being changed or refined.

When MMA began to gain approval from state athletic commissions across the country the ten-point must scoring system was simply adapted from boxing over to MMA because it was the standard at the time. That doesn’t mean it was well thought out but it was easy. MMA was still a sport at that time very few members of athletic commissions knew anything more then a cursory amount about and it was easy to just use the existing boxing scoring system they already had in place. Here are the most glaring weaknesses of the system when it gets transferred from boxing to MMA:

• It was designed for a single discipline sport. Boxing is just one of the disciplines used in MMA and when fighters are restricted to just boxing it is much easier for judges to score. There are no kicks, takedowns, submission attempts, etc. to factor into the scoring of a round.

• The shortened number of rounds in an MMA fight amplifies the issues with the scoring system. The majority of MMA fights are 3 rounds, with some championship bouts being 5 rounds, versus 10 or 12 rounds in a boxing match. As a result, the impact of just one poorly scored round in an MMA fight is significantly greater then in a boxing bout. Boxers have 12 rounds to overcome a poorly scored round or a narrowly lost round (or even a few for that matter) but MMA fighters don’t have that luxury. In a 3 round fight if a fighter narrowly loses just one round under this system it has to be scored a 10-9 round for his/her opponent and all but forces the fighter to win the other two rounds to have any chance at winning the fight if it goes to a decision. This helps transition into the next point….

• Doesn’t always judge the totality of a fight. For example, Fighter A barely loses a hard fought and very even 1 st round and then proceeds to win the 2 nd round convincingly the score for the fight would be even, 19-19, going into the 3 rd round. It is obvious to officials, fans, other fighters, the hot dog vendor, and everyone else watching that Fighter A is winning the fight at the end of the 2 nd round but due to the way the scoring system is constructed the fight is dead even going into that 3 rd and final round. There is no leeway for judges to differentiate between a convincingly won round, unless the round warrants a 10-8 score which is a minority of the time, and a round that is back and forth with only a slight advantage going to one side.

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This is not meant simply to denigrate the ten-point must system, because it does work the majority of the time when applied properly but that doesn’t mean the efforts at innovation and redesign of an improved system for MMA should cease. There are some alternative scoring systems that have been proposed including a half-point scoring system that is already in use in Britain and offers some intriguing benefits (along with one major flaw) which I’ll examine under my suggestions for fixing scoring in MMA. There are too many cases of such atrocious scoring decisions across all MMA organizations to ignore the fact that a major revamping of the system is long overdue. For example, the scores in the Garcia/Phan, Dunham/Sherk, and Ellenberger/Rocha fights, just to name a few, place a black stain on the sport. It speaks to the very legitimacy and integrity of the sport and that is the most disturbing part. Critics point to incidents like these and make back handed accusations that the fights are somehow fixed or are akin to the predetermined outcomes in professional wrestling. We as dedicated MMA fans know these types of comments are completely baseless and are born from ignorance but that doesn’t stop the average person from wondering if they are true or not. The ten-point must system does have its shortcomings when it gets applied to MMA but it alone is not to blame for unjust decisions that have been rendered. The overall quality of judging at the present time is mediocre at best. I’ve sat cage side and judged amateur MMA fights and I can tell you that it’s not as easy as many people think. The judges do have a difficult job but there are steps that can be taken to improve the judging process and increase the accountability of their decisions. Here are my top 5 suggestions:

• Access to TV monitors – Sounds so simple that I can’t believe it hasn’t already been introduced. The television coverage of professional MMA and boxing events is usually outstanding and to not give the judges access to this tool is absurd. There are times when the action is on the other side of the cage or ring from where the judge is sitting and they can’t always see the action as clearly as they need to. This is an easy solution. You have the monitors next to them so they can refer to them with no sound so they can’t be influenced by the commentators and have the feed cutout once the round is over so they can’t view any instant replays that might influence their scoring.

This could even be taken a step further and not have the judges sit outside the cage or ring at all. Have them in separate isolated rooms with the TV feeds sent directly to a monitor just as described above and let them judge the fights from there. This eliminates any influence that crowd noise or other external forces may have. This might ultimately be the best solution.

• Display scores between rounds – MMA and boxing are the only sports I can think of where the fans and the competitors themselves have no idea if they’re winning or losing. How does that make any sense? Could you imagine watching the Super Bowl last weekend and saying to your buddies at the end of the 3 rd quarter, “This is a good game; I think the Packers are winning by 7 but I don’t know for sure…I can’t wait until the game is over for them to announce who won!” How ridiculous does that sound? The fighters and their corners deserve to know how the judges are scoring the fight so they can make adjustments to their game plans accordingly rather then having to guess if they’re ahead or behind in the fight. They should be able to get immediate feedback on whether the strategy they’re implementing is working in the judge’s eyes so they can either stick with that strategy or make adjustments as needed. Obviously if a fighter knows he has lost the first 2 close rounds then he knows he needs a knockout or submission in the last round in order to win the fight.

• Better use of 10-8 rounds – Judges in MMA fights seem very reluctant to score rounds 10-8 and the reason seems to be that there are no clearly defined criteria for issuing the score. In boxing a knockdown in a round clearly mandates the round be scored as a 10-8 round for the fighter who scored the knockdown, assuming he didn’t get knocked down himself or penalized a point. That is a clear cut standard with no ambiguity. However that criterion hasn’t been carried over to MMA. A knockdown in a round doesn’t automatically guarantee a 10-8 round; partially because a knockdown in MMA quite often leads to the fight being stopped soon after since there is no standing 8 count as in boxing, but also because it’s not as cut and dry as in boxing. If a fighter truly is being dominated in a round, whether standing, on the mat, or both, the judges should be trained enough to recognize that and not be afraid to score that round accordingly.

• Training and Accountability – The fact is that judges for MMA fights need to be better trained in the sport they are watching and judging and need to be held accountable for their decisions. Athletic commissions can’t simply take veteran boxing officials in their organization and have them judge MMA fights because they are the most senior with the attitude that a fighting sport is a fighting sport and how much different can it really be from boxing. That sort of ideology can’t be tolerated. The judges need go through high level training on the intricacies of the different disciplines used in MMA so they can actually understand what they are seeing. They can understand that a fighter can be on his back but still winning the fight, stop overvaluing takedowns in their judging and give equal weight to a fighter consistently stuffing takedown attempts, etc. In conjunction with this training they NEED to be held accountable for their decisions. A perfect example happened in the Ellenberger/Rocha fight last weekend at UFC 126. One of the three judges scored the fight 30-27 for Rocha while the other two judges scored it 29-28 for Ellenberger, which was the correct score. The 30-27 score for Rocha was so horrendous it was laughable. The judge that scored it 30-27 should have to review the tape of the fight with a panel from the Nevada state athletic commission and justify their scoring decision. Once they have done that they need to be educated why their decision was wrong and have to prove their worth as a judge again in amateur fights before being allowed to judge professional fights again. Accountability for poor scoring decisions is long overdue and needs to be implemented across all state athletic commissions.

• Consideration of the half-point scoring system – Nelson “Doc” Hamilton, a martial arts veteran and MMA ring official in Nevada and New Jersey, has been one of the prominent proponents advocating adopting a half-point scoring system. Essentially it calls for closely won round to be scored 10-9.5, a clearly won round to be scored 10-9, and a round where a fighter inflicts significant damage that may not fully warrant a 10-8 round it could get scored a 10-8.5 round. On the surface the system does seem to address the inadequacies of the current system in distinguishing between a closely won 10-9 round and a clearly won round that also gets scored 10-9. However, I do see one significant potential drawback to the half-point system and that is a rise in the number of decisions that result in draws. The three round length of the fights is the sticking point here. If a fighter wins two closely contested rounds and loses the other round in a decisive manner then the scores of the rounds would look like this: 10-9.5, 10-9.5, 9-10. That results in a 29-29 draw. A good portion of the poor decisions that we complain about would fall into this category. Nothing leaves a worst taste in everyone’s mouth then a draw. Like waking up the next day laying next to Snooki and not really remembering how you got there. The system is certainly worth considering and in fact the California State Athletic Commission will start testing in amateur MMA fights in 2011 so there should soon be some comparative date to see how effective it can be.

The only thing that the MMA community, from fans, commentators, trainers, fighters, etc., can agree on is that the scoring system and judging in MMA needs to be improved. With the cooperation of the various state athletic commissions and the work of those in the MMA community, ideas and innovations are out there and they should be embraced and tested as they will be a key component to the future of the sport.

By Jim McClelland
ProFighting-fans.com Senior MMA Staff Writer

Thank you for reading and you can reach with me feedback by sending me an email at jimmymac895@live.com. You can also follow me on twitter @therealMMAguru.