The issue of inadequate judging continues to loom over the MMA world, notably affecting the UFC.
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The issue of inadequate judging continues to loom over the MMA world, notably affecting the UFC, which has faced its fair share of controversial decisions this year. During the UFC Vegas 78 event held on August 12th, a perplexing set of scorecards marred the proceedings. Despite appearances suggesting that Cub Swanson had lost two out of three rounds, his victory was declared, leaving both fans and observers puzzled and raising significant concerns.
A significant majority of 11 out of 13 media members scored the fight in favor of Dawodu, and intriguingly, even Swanson conceded in his post-fight interview that he didn’t believe he had emerged as the winner in the bout.
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When the topic of addressing the judging issues in MMA came up, Jason Herzog, the referee who presided over the Swanson vs. Dawodu match, shared his perspective:
“I think it’s less about the competency of our judges and more about the limitations in the tools they have. They need half points. The range of fights that fight into a 10-9 is way too large. Close round. 10-9.5, decisive round, 10-9. [Dominant] round 10-8.5 or 8.”
Herzog proposes a novel idea: the implementation of a decimal-based modification to the existing 10-point-must scoring system. Initially borrowed from professional boxing to establish legitimacy in the early days of the UFC, this scoring approach struggles to capture the intricate complexities of MMA. Given the distinctive nuances of mixed martial arts, there’s a clear necessity for a revamped scoring system.
According to Herzog’s proposed framework, we’d assess the fight as 29-28.5 in favor of Dawodu, acknowledging the fractional nature of the scoring, or opt for a 29-29 score if Swanson’s impactful punch in the first round significantly swayed the outcome, resulting in a draw.
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