I know the topic has been debated ten million times – but, one more won’t hurt.

Here are my two major problems with the current scoring system in MMA.

1) Most ringside judges don’t really have an understanding of what “effective grappling” is.

In a fight, what really matters is the amount of damage you inflict upon your opponent regardless of the position you are in. For instance, at the last WEC event Jeff Curran fought Takeya Mizugaki. Curran, who is a jiu-jitsu master & sometimes a training partner of Marcelo Garcia, put on a beautiful display of how to be offensive from your back. During the second & third rounds Curran spent most of the time on his back but continually battered Takeya with elbows and punches. He also was constantly working sweeps and subs and kept Mizugaki’s hips high in the air taking the steam out of Takeya’s punches from the top. During the last 45 seconds of the fight Curran sunk in a deep triangle. He used the position to sweep Mizugaki while still in the triangle a la Fischer vs. Alves. Takeya was saved by the bell.

Two of the scores for this fight were in favor of Mizugaki, 29-28, 29-28, 28-29. Now, there was no controversy about the first round in which Mizugaki clearly won with ground n’ pound. However, in the second and third, whether standing or on the ground, Mizugaki got his ass kicked.

There should be two lessons taken from the fight:

First, is that just because your on top does not mean you should be awarded points, it’s what you do while in that position that matters.

Second, near submission attempts clearly don’t get enough credit. Let’s say that instead of sinking a triangle, Curran drops Takeya with a right and then continues to ground n’ pound until the bell rings. In a normal boxing fight, if you drop your opponent it’s almost always a 10-8 round. Why aren’t near submissions scored the same? You have your opponent in a position he doesn’t want to be in and you’re most likely causing him pain or blocking airflow or blood to the brain.

2) MMA needs to institute a half-point scoring system.

There are a number of reasons to go in this direction. To name a few:

A) Since all but Championship fights are 3 rds. That leaves little margin for error. Meaning if a judge incorrectly scores a round by a full point it will have much less of a magnitude if he only incorrectly scores it by a ½ pt.

B) The inclusion of grappling makes it harder, sometimes, to say that the grappler controlled position, but did little damage and deserves a full 10-9 rd (instead of a 10-9.5 rd).

C) With a ½ pt system, it’s possible to end up in a tie after 3 rds. Which brings me to my next feature that they use in TUF: The “Sudden Death” 4th rd… winner of that round wins the fight.

Let’s revisit Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida from UFC 94 and use the ½ scoring system.

1st rd: 10-9.5 (Guida) Nate lands some good peppering shots for the first 2 mins but the next three mins Clay dominates the grappling w/little damage to Nate.

2nd rd: 10-9.5 (Guida) Nate lands shots for the first minute. Then, we get 4 mins of butt-humping by Guida.

3rd rd: 10-9 (Nate) Clays corner even tells him to stop stalling and open up. Nate punches him many times in the face. Clay goes back to butt-humping for the last two minutes but Nate plants Clay on his head with a good judo throw then to end the fight with a hammer fist from the top.

Score after 3 rds: 29-29 — sudden death bitches!!! And, had it gone down, Nate wins the 4th with many punches to Clay’s Face.

Let me know if you have any gripes with the way MMA currently scores their fights.

Ryan
http://IntelligentlyDefending.com