3. This point is being hyped past the point of relevance.

There is much less competition for SotN though.

-Mark Twain

to prove just about anything….64% of people know that!

—-Lionel Hutz

Two of BJ’s last three wins are by submission.

Even if it is random, it is a good pool of data to draw from

In terms of looking at statistics you can’t pick a specific group that you KNOW will fit your theory and then use it as proof. That is the problem with what Dave did. He didn’t pick a random group of data, he picked one that said what he wanted.

the sport changes constantly. Because of the diverse nature of the game there is always a fluctuation in these numbers.

Furthermore, I’ll throw this out there. Who cares? If the sport naturally evolves to where submissions are all but completely phased out that is just a part of the game. I understand that a part of the problem is the reward system benefiting stand up fights and that is clearly wrong. But as the sport evolves it is entirely possible that the game could change to where submissions drop to 5%…I don’t think it will, but it could. And if that is the natural evolution of the game then so be it.

I don’t agree with Nate’s thing that the fight game should be equal parts range fighting, clinch work, and ground fighting. The point of the sport is to win using whatever skills (within the rules) are needed. If the evolution of the sport hits a point where the increase in submission training means that you see less submissions then that is just the way the sport moved.

That all being said I’ve made it clear that I’m in Fagan’s camp on this issue and I think the entire situation is being overblown

I would argue that instead of ditching the FOTN bonus, that they re-work the “criteria” employed to decide which fight wins this bonus. I use the term criteria very loosely because I’m fully aware that all of these are quite subjective.

However the types of fights that are consistently awarded this bonus could certainly influence the frequency fights go to the ground going forward. I don’t know if there is any real trend with the types of fights being rewarded this bonus, as I can recall that Sanchez v. Stevenson was awarded FOTN but that is an n of 1. Moreover, I should also mention that only a sub-set of fighters approach their fights looking to garner FOTN honors while plenty of others are primarily concerned with winning the fight; so this theoretical influence is far from ubiquitous.

That’s the ticket! Punish wrestlers to benefit submission guys!

/sarcasm

Wouldn’t that increase sloppy kickboxing disease instead of decreasing it?

I think most of the time when a fighter pulls guard the judge knows what the fighter is doing. I mean, this sport and the fans watching it have evolved so much. When fighters work their way back into guard after being in side control or having their opponent take their back, the crowd cheers, which never used to happen. I think people don’t give enough credit to the judges, who largely do a good job.

Also, it might just be possible that people have trained more and more on their sub defense so they can use their gameplan more effectively. Strikers and wrestlers have developed some pretty good sub defense, a skill that many have lacked in the past. Guys with good BJJ aren’t getting as many subs, it takes the aces like Maia to score the subs because their BJJ game is so good it is almost impossible to learn how to defend it.

Judging is already subjective so individual judges can already decide things like that for themselves.