Is MMA Judging Getting Worse Despite Media Outcry?

judging judges is even more subjective, how do we train people and then hold them accountable, and to what standard.

About a month back I contacted the Georgia state athletic commission and asked for information on how to become liscensed to judge mma events in the state of georgia. My email was fairly thorough, asking for what qualifications were required. I received a prompt response asking if I had completed any training courses. I replied stating that I had not, but that I was willing to take any courses recommended by the commission. I asked if they would forward me the info on the recommended courses. I never received another reply. I emailed back a few days later again asking about the courses, and again no response. I found it all quite weird. My initail email received a prompt reply. Once I stated that I had not completed any courses, I could not get any further responses or information.
If the commissions are unwilling to assist potential new judges in getting liscensed, then we are guaranteed to be stuck with the old regime.

It all comes back to, what’s in it for me. It’s not like having a better judging system will garner a state more big events like the UFC or Strikeforce. Which would be the real $ return that commission would report as revenue generated for the state, which in turn increases their political worth.

Even if one did, the other states would just copy it if the promoters choice those states over the other (which they won’t). How many times have cards gone off poorly in Cali cause of judging whoas. Aside from Vegas it’s still a very popular state to hold fights in.

Hell the “unified mma rules” basically came from the UFC and yet White just throws up his hands like Zuffa can’t do anything about judging.

I believe a simple change that could be made would be to place the 3 judges at different spots evenly around the cage. This would eliminate the possibility that all 3 see a fight from the same bad angle. It would give 3 different views of the fight, and hopefully 2 of those views would render accurate results. If there is any validity to the issue of proper view for the judges, then why put all 3 in the same spot guaranteeing they all could possibly have a bad view? I have also thought that 5 judges spaced out evenly around the cage would be best. It seems there would be a higher probability that 3 of the 5 would have a good view and render proper verdicts.

This might be an unpopular opinion around these parts…but I don’t necessarily think there’s been any increase in bad decisions. However, I have noticed a signficant increase in whiny fans who think that any decision they disagree with is some kind of robbery or grave injustice. Hell, even if the “right” guy wins, they’ll still complain if a judge disagreed on a round, or if it was a split instead of unanimous decision. While I’ve disagreed with plenty of decisions, there are probably only a handlful over the last few years that I would personally consider legit robberies, and even then I’ve noticed many of them were open to interpretation.

It’s the commissions, and how vitally important it is for guys like Dana White to stay on the good side of them. We saw it already with the steroid testing issues, and Dana’s firm regurgitation of the commission position that the current testing procedures are just fine.

We can plainly see in New York and British Columbia just how tenuous a position this sport really has despite its growth in the mainstream media and the preponderence of MMA gyms throughout the country. These athletic commisions were and still are dominated by boxing guys and the boxing mindset, and there are still plenty of powerful boxing guys and boxing-backed politicians who would love to make MMA illegal. Dana can be in bed with Spike, ESPN, CBS, whoever he wants to be, but it won’t matter at all if the commissions start outlawing the sport or, even worse perhaps, start watering down the rules to the point that it hurts the product.

So yes, there are plenty of common sense improvements that could be done to the major issues that plague the sport. Obviously, and I’m sure Dana and Lorenzo are well aware, it’s preposterous to have a judge in a sport who doesn’t know or fully understand all the techniques involved. You see the judges for Olympic figure skating, gymnastics, diving, etc. and even on the lowest amateur levels these are people who have an intimate knowledge of the various techniques involved and what really comprises a high-level move or routine. Heck, the officials at any grappling event have the science down so well that they are able to award real-time points for specific moves— they’re not just deciding the winner based on takedowns and ‘mat control.’ Dana did not hire Cecil Peoples and is not the one who requests him to judge an event. The real question to ask is who did hire him and why does he keep employing him despite his obvious faults?

The big problem is that they know nothing about jiu-jitsu, and they only know something about wrestling, all of them are forgeting that the UFC only began to grow ’couse of BJJ – Royce Gracie!
 And the 10 point must system is only suitable to boxing, they should aply the Dream-Pride rules wich are much better for the sport. Otherwise mma will dye and fans will only see boring wrestlers all the time !

About Aguilar vs. Frausto.

Welcome to the club, i’ve been yelling about bad judges decisions for a long time now but I do wonder why the uproar has started again over these fights and not others. Did people not see Toby Imada get robbed of a 100k dollars on Bellator?, did they miss Brilz being robbed of a career making win?. I don’t remember the outcry being all that loud then but now because of Sherk/Dunham which was scored correctly imo now it brings out articles?. Maybe I don’t get it but mma judging is horrible but some of the complaining and call about bad decision don’t merit it imo.

I am a licensed judge for the state of Illinois. This is a requirement for all pro fights in MMA. I have several hundred amature MMA fights as well as boxing and Muay Thai fights. Before I was contacted by the state of Illinois, I had a team of Judges. We had trained together, we also did our home work together. We would watch fights on tv then check our scores and talk about why we judged the way we did. We were professional before we did pro fights. One of the amature fights I was at, I was approached by a retired fighter who was quite drunk, he told me if I needed a break he would spell me or the other judges. We did not let him judge. Now, the Sate of Illinois has an unofficial code of conduct. One, you have to wear a suit, you have to be there early, you cannot talk to any fighters or managers, and you cannot even drink water when judging. They keep it very professional. Even with this code, I have seen other judges not wearing suits, talking to fighters etc. At the end of the year the State of Illinois judges the judges. I was rated almost perfect. Other judges were judged with a very low score. Some judges for what ever reason work more then others regardless of their scores. Why, I do not know. Now, the crappy part of being a judge. I usually have to practically sneak in. Rarely is my name on a list to get in. I do have a card to be a pro judge. The security people are not always to keen to let you in if your name is not on the list. I usually have to sit for two or more hours before the fights, and then I usually have a two to three hour drive home. The money isn’t all that great. I do it because I feel I can give the fighters the best that I can. And usually if it is that close, someone didn’t work hard enough. When judging the amatures I actually had to argue with people ring side to get a spot to judge. One event was so crappy, the promoter had sold the actual ring seats. Now in the pros, we are treated with some respect. One crappy amature fight, I was not given any score cards, when I asked why, I was asked if I had ever done it before. I found out later, they were all mis-matched. Not one fight went past the first round. My point is there are good judges, but some of the promoters do not want to pay for them. Or they want to use their friends, what ever.