It goes to show the incompetency in judging in MMA.

As a fan I prefer Machida over Shogun but the reality is that Rounds 1 and 2 should both probably have been scored 10-10. Round 3 I would have given to Machida and Round 4 and 5 to Shogun.

In my humble opinion that would have been the fairest and most accurate way to score the fight.

K-1 it is clear that they encourage draw rounds in their rules b/c of the extension rounds. It allows them to use draws liberally and still get a definitive winner at the end of the fight most of the time

In MMA, without extension rounds, it would be absurd how many draws there would be. Probably 1-2 per event. I don’t have a problem with that, but fans seem to hate draws, just look at the crowd reaction to Tito vs Evans.

If there were extension rounds in MMA then I think judges wouldn’t be afraid to call a 10-10

As much as the 10-9 rounds occasionally get, they’re still probably the best system for avoiding draws. 10-10s would lead to a lot of draws – as would, incidentally, 10-8s. Say fighter A wins rounds 1&2 10-9 – only for fighter B to come back and take R3 10-8. Whoops – 28-28 draw.

While I agree with the premise of the 10-10 round, I’ve seen very, very few MMA rounds that I couldn’t make a reasonable argument that neither guy actually won.

I don’t think calling more rounds as a draw makes the scoring more (or less, for that matter) fair. What really needs to happen is that State sanctioning bodies need to recognize that boxing judges shouldn’t be judging MMA. However, most governing bodies don’t technially differentiate between boxing and MMA whatsoever. Go and read the bylaws and you’ll see terminology such as “combat sport” and “full contact competiton”, but seldom, if ever “boxing” or “MMA”.

So, because the State of California assigns the “combat” judges, you get guys who know liltte about MMA reffing our sport. Cecil Peoples stated that “leg kicks certainly don’t [finish fights],” and therein lies the problem. Peoples’ comment was so ludicrous given the fact that multiple fights in the UFC have been stopped via TKO due to leg kicks alone. But, worse still, to hear a judge essentially admit to ignoring a viable technique in a sport in which they’re supposedly impartial is abhorrent to me.

If a football team could run the ball every single down and win every game, people would simply talk about their amazing running game, not criticize them for not passing.

I think the matter really comes down to judge education…(and this doesn’t even get into the topic of a judge giving a round to a fighter fighting off his back — which may NEVER happen in American MMA, and is really sad…)

For the record, I scored it 49-46 with rounds 1, 2, 4 and 5 for Rua.

is where the problem lies. I personally like the fact that in Pride the entire fight and not any particular round is judged. As I posted earlier, boxing is a long drawn affair of upto 15 rounds and each individual round doesnt matter as much. In MMA where most fights are 3 judging by round can mess with the system.

I used to endorse draw rounds, but it is far too likely that fights will end in draws with the 10 point system. It’s just impractical – mostly because fans would be extremely upset if half of the fights on a card ended in draws.

The problem would be solved If there were allowances for even more points of difference than 10-10, 10-9, 10-8. But I’m not sure whether someone would like to lose something like 28.5-28.3.

Judges should be able to rank different type of damage comparatively. If you just edged a round then you should win the round. The only real 10-10 rounds I see are just ones with a total lack of action or sparse action that makes a 10-10 likely.

I’ve heard good arguments as to why rounds 1 and 2 were judged either way. Just because we disagree doesn’t mean that was actually a 10-10 round.