We can't do much about the judging in MMA; we just have to wait for more people with solid MMA backgrounds to take up the call for judging MMA fights, and for them to figure out how to judge MMA using boxing's standards...but this is not another argument about judging in MMA. That's all been done, by much more qualified people.

No, I have a different idea, one that keeps popping in my head every time I see the mat of the Octagon...

The UFC / Zuffa / Dana give out awards, bonuses to encourage fighters to fight for a finish. We know of the Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night and Knockout of the Night awards, while other locker room bonuses are often rumored of and hinted at.

I think there is room for one more...logistically a bit more challenging, but I believe the technology is there.

For every second a fighter spends standing on the Bud Light logo, he is awarded 2 points. For every second he stands between the Bud Light logo and the black octagon that fighters stand behind before Big John will let them start fighting, he gains 1 point. For every second spent against the cage, between that black octagon and the fence, he loses 2 points. At the end of the night, the fighter with the most "center of the ring" points wins a fat bonus check. Ties are decided by the points accumulated on the logo versus those accumulated between the logo and the border, or possibly by the fighter with the fewest seconds outside the border.

This would be too heavily weighted towards fights that went the distance, though, so some sort of "per capita" corrective metric would have to be figured out...haven't quite sussed that one yet. A fight that ends abruptly due to a finish should be its own reward, but if they don't win one of the other bonuses, it would seem unfair that someone who spent fifteen minutes in the octagon had a better bonus score built up.

Thoughts? Do we just propose a penalty system for fighting between the black octagon border and the fence? Only deducting points would not harm the fighters who finish fights. What if the whole thing was a ticker counting down points...1 point lost per second spent on the logo, 2 points lost per second between logo and border, with 4 points lost for every second outside the border? Then the fighter with the fewest points lost would be the bonus winner, which would also work if he finished the fight quickly...

Then you have the problem of a fighter standing on the logo but getting beat in a short contest...I suppose the winner would have an automatic 50 points or whatever added to their score; that way, a fighter that lost would not beat the winner of that same fight for the bonus, but would still have some reward versus a guy who wins a boring fight.

Thoughts? What about your thoughts? Have any thoughts on this? Jackal?