UFC 106 Quote of the Day: Marcus Davis Talks MMA Judging
(MMA Judging) definitely needs to be changed, it needs to be improved. It needs to be totally dissected by a panel of people that are involved in the mixed martial arts. No special movie actors or special judges to come up with these rules.
(We need) people who are deeply rooted in the sport that can go and say, "Okay, wait a minute, should we give a fighter a full round just because he gets a takedown? What if he gets a takedown, and the other fighter immediately stands up on him? Should there even be any credit for that?" It's like throwing a jab and missing. It's trying to take a guy to the ground and try to do my game, but you lose that whole opportunity. Whereas, if you took him down and grounded and pounded him or passed his guard, that's a big deal. But if you just take people down, and they just keep standing up on ya, how are you being effective? You're really not, you're just losing energy, you're wasting energy.
And likewise with a striker. If you're a striker and you throw 100 punches but only land 10, and the other guy has only thrown 20 but he's landed 12, who's being more effective? And then on the ground thing, somebody takes somebody down, they're holding them there, but they're not really doing anything ... if you take someone down, and you're sitting in their guard and all you're doing in their guard is defending submissions, you've made a bad choice in taking that guy down. But (the judges) don't do that. They say, "Well, he got the takedown, that's huge. Give him the round because he got a takedown."
So it definitely needs to be cut up and looked at. Not maybe by somebody like me, but by somebody who's not favoring one style or one anything. You get a panel of people together and they decide, "Okay, we're going to put up this chart, so that at the end of each round they can put a check in whatever box, for red corner or blue corner, saying effective striking goes here, Octagon or cage control goes here, submission attempts, takedowns or throws, etc. Just cut it up that way and figure out exactly who deserves to win these fights. Because it is becoming more and more ... I hate to say it, but I'm starting to see a lot of things that I saw in boxing. In the past you could arguably say, "Okay this guy won this, but it was really close, so you coulda given it to the other guy because of this." And you had those kind of fights.
But now you are seeing ones that really don't make any sense at all - and more often. So there should be some way to get in there and do this before the purity of what we do starts to go in the crapper like it did in boxing. That's why boxing lost a lot of fans, and they went to MMA, because MMA was so pure, and it was this primeval thing. At the same time, ethical judging and just more competition ... a guy that was 10-0 could get beaten by a guy that was 5-4, whereas in boxing it wasn't like that. So I really want to see something happen quickly. Anytime we can do something to improve our sport, especially the judging, that needs to be done.
Marcus Davis talks to MMA Mania. Tonight he'll face Ben Saunders at UFC 106.
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Comments
I think that, at this point, a change to the way fights are scored is inevitable. And, in spite of Davis saying he may not be the best person to do it, the perspective he just voiced is the exact perspective needed by the people will be making the changes.
by McEwen on Nov 21, 2009 5:00 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
Well said. Agree 100%.
Keep sleepin' on me...
by Neo X on Nov 21, 2009 5:41 PM EST via mobile reply actions 0 recs
i like the way he’s going, but the problem with that is if people know exactly what the judges are looking for (let’s say takedowns are favored heavily), then everyone will train in wrestling and it will just become a takedown artist.
just judge the fight in its entirety!
by slantedwindows on Nov 21, 2009 6:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I was pleasantly surprised by reading this, as I expected something a little bit more petulant, which I seem to recall was his tone when talking judging changes after the Dan Hardy fight. But I think that the kernel at the heart of what he’s saying, considering how effective somebody is actually being, is extremely important and often overlooked in favor of nebulous garbage.
50% more Ultimate than the leading competitor.
by Dodectagon on Nov 21, 2009 6:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs
I’ve mentioned this under other posts about judging, but I think the whole thing could be streamlined considerably by the total removal of octagon/cage/ring control and defense as scoring criteria. Those things will be reflected in other, more important criteria, like effective striking and grappling. If you need a tiebreaker criterion, go with aggression. If that’s not enough, the round is a draw.
by JRN on Nov 21, 2009 7:31 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

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![Ben Saunders receives his BJJ brown belt:
"Ben started training in the gi in 2003. He received his blue belt in 2005 from Gracie Barra Orlando, his purple belt in January 2007, and his Brown Belt in 2010. He has met all the requirements (application of skill in sparring, technical knowledge and proficiency, training hours in the gi, history knowledge of BJJ and his lineage, etc..) to be a brown belt. On top of that, like our students who don't fight in the UFC, Ben formally tested in front Ricardo Liborio to seal the deal..."
-- image via shomanart.com
HT: ATT Orlando via the UG
UFC 111: St-Pierre vs. Hardy coverage [vs. Martin Kampmann]](http://cdn3.sbnation.com/fan_shot_images/93761/hvw4mg_small.jpg)














