Although I understood the decision win for Randy Couture at UFC 105, I was surprised that he won. That got my mind going so I got in touch with a pro MMA judge to ask him about that decision, judging MMA, and why there have been so many bad judging errors of late.

The entire breakdown can be found here

If you have any questions you would like to ask, throw them in the comments and I will send them his way. If there are several I will post them (making sure you and BE get full credit).

It was nice to get his thoughts about the sport! He was truly an unbiased look behind the scenes! It was also interesting to hear that he though "Randy got his ass kicked!"

Please remember this is the actual judging criteria, not what the UFC puts out before the event but then again they are not the judges. A Key note is in the “- Criteria Evaluation line 1″ it states “Thus striking and grappling skills are top priority.” So you can think what ever you want about the fight, based on the actual judging guidelines of the athletic commission Randy(as much as I love him) got his ass kicked.

Octagon Control...

- Octagon Control
1. The fighter who is dictating the pace, place and position of the fight.
2. A striker who fends off a grappler’s take down attempt to remain standing and effectively strike is octagon control.
3. A grappler who can take down an effective standing striker to ground fight is octagon control.
4. The fighter on the ground who creates submission, mount or clean striking opportunities

We also talked about ways to fix the judging problem in the sport.

He explained that the athletic commissions are one entity for MMA and Boxing. There are far more Boxing judges than MMA judges in most commissions. Bad decisions will never completely go away, but one way to greatly reduce the number of them is to separate the two commissions. Make them two different agencies that control their own sport, letting each expert work in their own area of expertise.

Hope you guys enjoy!