Here at BloodyElbow, we have been having a back and forth about MMA judging,  and now we've got someone whose career is in the hands of that system chiming in. From MMA Junkie:

"A lot of the [judges] just kind of at the very end (of a round) remember the last 10 seconds or 15 seconds or whatever, and that's how they judge it," Davis said. "It should be maybe an easy breakdown for them in front of them. Maybe a card that has a breakdown of, I don't know if you want to do breaking a five-minute round up in to different quarters or by minute or whatever, but some way to easily categorize those things that they're looking at: cage generalship, grappling, takedowns, strikes."

Davis believes additional clarification is needed on the importance of those items in relation to their effectiveness in the outcome of the bout.

"We've got to figure out what do you score more," Davis said. "Do you score 'one takedown is greater than however many strikes,' or should a takedown even be considered for full points or full benefit if somebody takes somebody down and they don't so anything with it.

"If you take somebody down and automatically they stand up, or they take them down and they don't really do anything, they don't ground-and-pound, what kind of credit do you do for that?"

As much as I enjoy watching Marcus' work and respect him as a fighter, I have to completely and utterly disagree with him here.

First off, IMHO he lost the Hardy fight. It was a classic case of Marcus dominating most of the minutes but Hardy scoring the most points. If it had been a football game, Davis would have dominated yardage and time of possession but Hardy would've scored all the touchdowns. In baseball, Davis would have pitched a great game but given up those crucial runs that cost him the game. In MMA, he dominated position and many of the exchanges, but Hardy landed the big shots. Its not just that Davis got cut and bruised even worse than usual, its that he got knocked on his ass, repeatedly.

Secondly, adding more complications and requirements to the scoring regimen just muddies the waters. Anyone who tried to watch Olympic boxing this year knows we don't want to go down that route. Fundamentally, judging by human beings is going to be inherently subjective and flawed. Deal with it.

If fighters don't like the decisions the judges come up with, they have a much better option: finish the fight.

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UFC 99 has come and gone, but there was one notable submission that's worth paying a little more attention to, namely, the brabo choke (a clean and simple demonstration of which can be found here) Terry Etim used on Justin Buchholz. Before we get into the details of Etim's excellent finish, let me address the "brabo vs. D'Arce" choke situation. Folks often ask me what the difference is between a brabo and a D'Arce choke. In short: nothing. They are essentially the same choke, but each time a grappler creates his own set-ups (and it should be noted the brabo choke has a huge variety of set-ups that grapplers and fighters use) the choke can often get a new name. The D'Arce got it's name from Joe D'Arce (and it's properly pronounced Dee-arr-see), who showed his set-up and entry attacks to others (like Marc Laimon) who then began using D'Arce's last name to identify the choke to others. From there the rest is history. I've heard others say the D'Arce choke is different in that you don't use the figure four bicep grip to finish, instead opting for a gable grip that cranks the opposition's spine, but the reality is in the grappling world there isn't any consensus about it.

With that out of the way, on to Etim.

What's really fun about this brabo choke is that there isn't anything fancy about it. Etim didn't use some wild knee on belly set-up or some estoric grappling positioning to open Justin Buchholz up. Rather, he used a very fluid (and clearly rehearsed) transition ability to sink the choke before Buchholz knew what hit him.

For starters, by the time the choke was cinched Buchholz had already been badly hurt by Etim, although Etim had suffered a severe beating in the first round by Buchholz. This is only to say that Etim's choke was excellent, but was aided by an opponent who had been beaten to the point where he was a little softer for the choke.

Complete breakdown plus animated gifs in the full entry.

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From Fighters Only:

Mostapha Al-Turk's management say they will be launching an appeal against the result of their client's fight with Mirko 'CroCop' Filipovic.

...

"We are going to appeal that, we don't think its right that it should be a TKO. The referee should have got onto the eye poke," said Al-Turk's agent Ken Pavia. "Look at Henderson v Franklin at UFC 93 in Dublin. Franklin got a timeout when he got eye-poked.

"With the fight taking place in Germany we aren't sure what the protocol is, but we will put our appeal in writing and see what we can do."

Anthony Johnson tried to appeal his eye poke loss to Kevin Burns at UFN 14 in 2008. The Nevada Athletic Commission infamously turned that down due "to lack of remedy."

Since there is no athletic commission in Germany the UFC will likely be in position to make that ruling. I imagine their decision could be influenced by the state of negotiations with Cro Cop.

HT Fightlinker

UPDATE: MMA Payout has this find from the UFC contract:

Any and all Bouts that occur in a jurisdiction or country without an Athletic Commission shall be conducted pursuant to the statutes, rules and regulations of the State of Nevada in effect at the time of the Bout, including, but not limited to, the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts (the "Nevada Rules"); for the protection of the health and safety of the Fighter, to promote fairness in the administration of the Bout, and to preserve the integrity of the sport of mixed martial arts. In its sole discretion, ZUFFA may utilize the Nevada Rules in the oversight of any Bouts that occur under this Subsection 4.7. Fighter may appeal any advisory opinion by ZUFFA regarding any violations of the Nevada Rules relating only to Bouts that occur in a jurisdiction or country without an official government mandated Athletic Commission to an independent third-party arbitrator or arbitration panel selected pursuant to the guidelines developed by the American Arbitration Association. All costs and fees associated with an appeal taken pursuant to this Section shall be the exclusive responsibility of the Fighter. Regardless of where a Bout occurs, in no event shall a Fighter have any right to appeal a decision by ZUFFA relating to the UFC Title or the UFC Championship belts.

The way I read this, the Anthony Johnson-Kevin Burns decision in which the Nevada State Athletic Commission decided there is nothing in their rules that would allow a fight to be overturned in these circumstances would seem to shut down Al-Turk's case pretty quick.

UPDATE 2: MMA Weekly reports:

Marc Ratner, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Monday told MMAWeekly.com an appeal was not possible.

"It's very simple," said Ratner. "By the unified rules... first of all the referee didn't see the foul. What you're asking is can we go to instant replay. You're saying now that the fight's over, can you take a look at it? If the referee had seen the finger and stopped the fight immediately, he could have given a stop for five minutes to recover, and then if (Al-Turk) couldn't have gone on, it would have been a no-contest."

...

"In any sport, a judgment call cannot be overturned," he continued. "It's one of those things that happens, but nobody saw it around the Octagon until the replay."

"I felt good. I can do way better though. This is not my best fight. No way."

HT: Telegraph.co.uk

The Event:

• UFC 99: The Comeback - Live Results and Commentary - Brent Brookhouse
• UFC 99 Post-Fight Press Conference - Bloody Elbow
• Snapshot of the Day: 99 Undercard Photos - Bloody Elbow
• UFC 99 bonuses and awards for ‘The Comeback’ PPV fights - Jesse Holland
• Dana White UFC 99 vlog parts 1 and 2 - Watch Kalib Run
• Bloody Elbow Betting Game Results: UFC 99 - Eugene Schelfaut
• Photos from UFC 99 -- Fanhouse
• The Week in Quotes: June 7th - 13th - Mike Fagan
  

Wanderlei Silva vs Rich Franklin:

• Rich Franklin Decisions Wanderlei Silva in Three Round Battle - Kid Nate
• Rich Franklin feels ‘really good’ after win over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 99 (Video) - MMA Mania
• Power versus precision battle taken by Franklin - Steve Cofield
• Rich Franklin vs. Wanderlei Silva - In-Depth Report - Fight Metric

Other Main Card Fights:

• Cain Velasquez Grinds Down Cheick Kongo in Three Round War - Kid Nate
• Velasquez arrives by brutalizing Kongo - Steve Cofield
• Mirko Cro Cop Batters Mustapha Al-Turk For First Round Win - Kid Nate
• Mike Swick Stops Ben Saunders in Two Rounds - Kid Nate
• Spencer Fisher Wins Unanimous Decision Over Caol Uno - Kid Nate
• Marcus Davis Drops Decision to Dan Hardy - Kid Nate
• Marcus Davis ‘didn’t lose’ to Dan Hardy at UFC 99 - MMA Mania
• Dan Hardy vs. Marcus Davis - In-Depth Report - Fight Metric

Post Fight Analysis

• Thoughts Coming Out of UFC 99 - Michael Rome
• UFC 99 a winner for Franklin, Filipovic, Velasquez, Swick - Sergio Non
• UFC 99 Recap/Quick Results: Rich Franklin Edges Wanderlei Silva - Kelvin Hunt
• UFC 99 recap and post-fight discussion for ‘The Comeback’ in Germany - MMA Mania
• Foreign relations, falling axes and more - Jake Rossen
• Kongo's ground game is less shitty than it appeared at UFC 99 - Fightlinker
• After UFC 99 What's Next for the UFC's Heavyweight Division? - Leland Roling
• A Look at the MMA Heavyweight Rankings Shake-Up - Brent Brookhouse
• What we learned from UFC 99 - Zak Woods
  

The Future of Wanderlei Silva

• How much more can Silva give? - Kevin Iole
• Wand isn't done, and neither is Cain - Fightlinker
  

Mirko Cro Cop Leaves the UFC After One Fight:

• Report: Mirko Cro Cop Denies Signing With DREAM - Kid Nate
  
• Mirko CroCop Already Done With UFC, Signs Again With Dream - BloodyElbow
• Dana White Talks Mirko Cro Cop (Video) - Watch Kalib Run
• Quote of the Day: "Cro Cop Was Punking All of Us" - Nick Thomas
• Ken Imai’s magic with Mirko Cro Cop - Zach Arnold
• Adios, suckers: Mirko Cro Cop leaves UFC (again) and signs three-fight deal with Dream (again) - MMA Mania
• Cro Cop screws over Dana White and MMA fans - Steve Cofield
• Mirko Three Fight Deal! Reported In Japan Even Before UFC 99 - Nightmare of Battle
• Another View on Mirko Cro Cop Leaving the UFC for DREAM - Kid Nate
• Crocop signs with DREAM, Dana slightly pissed about it - Fightlinker
• Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic acts like Fredo and leaves the UFC for Dream - Zak Woods

The Future of Cain Velasquez:

• Future Heavyweight Champ Cain Velasquez? - Michael David Smith
• Cain is able to become a champion - Kevin Iole
• Velasquez takes big leap - Dave Meltzer
• Slowing Down on Cain Velasquez, Shane Carwin, and Junior Dos Santos -- Michael Rome
• Sacrificing the Young - Jordan Breen
• Velasquez victory raises questions and praise - Zak Woods
• Heavyweight Expectations - MMA For Real

If there's a good story -- especially good analysis -- that I missed please be sure and let me know in the comments.

A few years back I didn't endear myself to a lot of MMA fans and writers by coming out in support of the 10 point must system.  I still feel that it is the best way for transparent, honest scoring in MMA but that is neither here nor there for the point of this article.  What does matter is that the system is what is in place and it has to be understood by someone before they can argue about the outcome of decisions.

Brickhaus over at BadLeftHook wrote a piece in response the outcries of "Robbery!" after Miguel Cotto was awarded a split decision victory over Joshua Clottey.  It has become such a common thing for fans of both boxing and MMA to claim that the losing fighter was robbed in every close fight.  Brickhaus does a great job of explaining the difference between a close decision fans wanted to go the other way and a "robbery."  He says:

What is a robbery in boxing?  Here's a hint - it's not a decision that you merely disagree with.  It's a decision that is impossible; that there's no reasonable way the judges could have scored the fight in favor of the fighter who actually won.

Obviously this translates to MMA the same way.  A fight like Bisping/Hamill is a great example.  I score that fight for Bisping every time I see it, FightMetric also scores it for Bisping...etc.  But people will constantly bring it up as a robbery when it is actually a fight that legitimately could go either way.

Brickhaus goes on to explain 4 major scoring fallacies such as:

Scoring fallacy #1 - "Fighter A can't have won, he got beat up, and Fighter B looked like he just walked out of the shower."

Real-life non-robbery example: Kessler-Andrade.  This argument is so silly when you think of how many times a clear winner has looked worse for wear than the loser, yet the argument comes up again and again.  The fact is, some guys just get more beat up looking than others in a boxing match.  Arturo Gatti and Vito Antuofermo would probably get cut from someone else's stubble rubbing against him, yet they won their fair share of fights when they looked like murder victims at the end of the fight.  Also, even if someone takes a real licking in one round, that's still one round.  If they go on to win the other 11 rounds, then it's a blowout win, and there's just no argument that can be made that the more beat up boxer won the fight.

This is just such a great piece that really translates to MMA scoring perfectly.  I really want to encourage everyone to go take a look. But the main thing I hope the piece does is encourage people to stop calling every single decision they don't agree with a robbery.  This, of course, won't happen as fans are generally too emotional in their response to events.  But still, it is something that needs to be absorbed and understood by fans of both MMA and boxing.

According to a translation posted on the Sherdog forums, this Croation news account has Cro Cop denying that he signed with DREAM:

ZAGREB - The same Saturday night in which Mirko Filipović in only three minutes TKOed Britain Mostapha Al Turk, President of American Organization UFC Dana White without any argument accused the Croatian master of the ultimat fighting for the fraud and hypocrisy.

Ten days ago Dana White and Cro Cop have a phone made arrangements for the duel on the UFC 99 tournament in Cologne Lanxess Arena, leaving open the possibility that cooperation prolongs for the two further tournaments. However, the head of the UFC on Saturday felt fooled because he thought that the Croatian gladiator signed a new contract with the Japanese Dream.

...

Before we accuse Crocop for hypocrisy, let us see what lays below Dana White's empty phrase of honor. UFC leader is angry because Mirko, just as Fedor Emilianenko, the best MMA fighter in the world, did not agree to perform only twice in the next 12 months.

However, it is not true that Cro Cop signed with Dream. We have learned that Mirko Crocop still did not sign neither with Dream nor with UFC, and that he is ready to discuss any offer. Moreover, Mirko expected after the victory in Cologne immediate talks with Dana White about the new contract and is surprised by the accusations of UFC's president.


"I don’t know why White listened to the roumors instead of talking to me. I hoped that we will talk about a continuing of our collaboration, because the only obstacle was the long period between two fights that has been offered to me. I don’t want to sit at home so long and waiting that someone calls me for a figh. However, I am grateful to Dana White for an opportunity to fight in Cologne and despite his harsh words, I don’t see the reason that we don’t prolong the contract – explained Mirko after returning from Germany.

White gave Crocop the opportunity to fight in Cologne to use his charisma of the most popular European fighter and suggested two more bouts, under the condition that he doesn’t fight for other promotions. Because Dream offered him also three-fights contract, but in the next 6 months, why shouldn’t Mirko take some time to consider what is better to him?

Hard to parse this all out. I certainly wouldn't consider it out of the question for Dana White to have flown off the handle without confirming with Cro Cop first. I certainly wouldn't consider it out of the question for the Japanese media to have gotten the story wrong -- or more likely for the DREAM promoters to feed them misinformation. And I wouldn't put it past Cro Cop and his management to have pulled a fast one on both Dana and DREAM -- they've got a track record of duping promoters.

No matter what the truth is, Fightlinker points out it seems like the old gang (no pun intended, he he) from PRIDE has Dana's number:

The funny thing about this is that Dana just seems to keep getting fucked over by this strange nebulous group of PRIDE-related assholes. 364 days of the year, he keeps his poker face on and refuses to cut anyone any slack. But one day a year his inner PRIDE mark re-appears and he ends up cutting a deal that results in him getting fucked over. And people wonder why he’s not willing to co-promote or bend any rules. Because every time he does, he ends up like Charlie Brown trying to kick that damn football.

Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez, and Junior Dos Santos are hyped as the next generation of top UFC heavyweights.  In the past few months we've seen Carwin and Velasquez defeat legitimate heavyweight competition, but in the process they exposed holes in their game that suggest they are far from being elite fighters.  Nobody should be surprised; between the three of them they have 26 fights combined.

Is it any shock that six fights into his MMA career, Cain Velasquez doesn't have the ability to deal with Cheick Kongo's kickboxing?  He has serious work to do on his striking, but this is a very young fighter that showed a tremendous ability to recover from serious danger and still put on a dominating performance.  

A big part of the problem here is hype thrust upon these fighters by overeager fans looking for the next big thing.  Not to mention hype from their camp members, who should really think twice before creating unrealistic expectations for their teammates to live up to.  Is there any way Cain Velasquez can avoid disappointing people when his coach calls him the best fighter in the history of AKA?

Junior Dos Santos is fighting Justin McCulley in August.  Many people don't understand it; Ariel Helwani claimed it made "no sense" on Steve Cofield's show last night.  Actually, it makes a lot of sense.  He has a lot of work to do on his wrestling and ground game, and there's no reason to put him in do or die situations before his game has fully developed.  Similarly, throwing Carwin and Cain against one another at this point would be a ridiculous choice.  Both men proved they can hang with the elite, but they'd be better off getting a few more training camps in before facing guys like Couture, Mir, and Nogueira, let alone a guy like Fedor.  This isn't to say Cain couldn't beat any one of them right now; perhaps he could.  But if he did it would be a result of brute strength and youth, and not because he's developed a complete game.

The winner of Randy and Nogueira should get the next title shot, because the next generation of heavyweights needs more time.  More time to develop their skills, and more time to develop name recognition with UFC fans so the fans care about their eventual title shots.  Instead of fighting each other now in a match that means nothing to casual fans, they can wait until it means something.  

The problem is there's very little inbetween guys like Cheick Kongo and the champion in the UFC heavyweight division.  There aren't a lot of lateral options, you can only go to the top or to the cans.  Unfortunately, the weakness of the division may result in these guys biting off more than they can chew at this point in their careers.

Only one more event to go in this season of MMAPlayground's betting game. The last event will be The Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale on June 20th. Important: If you wish to join the Bloody Elbow betting ensemble, send me a message or leave a comment in this thread so I can send you an invite. Please make sure your MMAPlayground login name is the same as your BE name or as close as possible so we can give you the proper credit.

Updated camp rankings in our Super Heavyweight division (60+ members) after UFC 99:

Our camp's leader in points awarded through correct fight picks out of this event is KneeToTheFace. He was able to earn 107 points at UFC 99, good for 19th place out of 4989 at MMAPlayground. KneeToTheFace was able to predict the Franklin vs. Silva, Fisher vs. Uno, Saunders vs. Swick, Struve vs. Stojnic, Kelly vs. Delgado, Hathaway vs. Story, and the Cro Cop vs. Al-Turk fights perfectly. Well done.

As for wagers, I am the leader in earnings for UFC 99. Including the money made from correct picks, I was able to turn $1,000 (the limit for betting on this season) into $5,987 largely from a parlay on Franklin, Hardy, and Velasquez. I am also now the camp leader over the season thus far with a combined $8,077. Next weekend we shall see if I am able to hold on to the crown. My wagers for UFC 99:

The extended entry has complete camp listings on wagers and picks for UFC 99.

UFC 99: The Comeback coverage

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