Subjective Scoring
Wins are Losses Losses are Wins
10 Point System Sucks
After listening to the Joe Rogan Experience (#684), he loosely talked about how the UFC scoring is done with the traditional boxing scoring system. He generally says that it just doesn't work in Mixed Martial Arts. Rogan inspired me to look at alternatives. What could be a better system? First, lets address how scoring works today. Second, explain why the current system sucks. Third, go through an exercise of an alternative mixed martial arts scoring system. Fourth, how we can actually make it happen. (Corresponding podcast)
The 10 Point Must System
Boxing's 10 point Must System, where the winner of the round scores a 10 and the loser scores 6 to 9 points. Generally, if a fighter gets knocked down then they lose a point. You hardly ever see anyone score a 6 or 7 points for every round. Even less than five is generally unheard of. So why is this applied mixed martial arts? Well the short answer is the governing non-profit, Association of Boxing Commissions created the uniformed MMA rules. Most likely they roughly based MMA rules on the unified boxing rules. I am as confused as you are to why they did that. Laziness, lack of trained boxing judges, or even just trying to be traditional. I don't know. But Why should we change the system?
How Scoring is Applied Today
Boxing only uses punches, so using a simple scoring system isn't that bad. I am not here to argue against boxing using the 10 point system. Boxing has at least twice as many rounds as MMA, but has fewer striking capabilities limited to Jab, Cross, Upper Cut, Hook, and maybe an overhand punching strikes. So you are either punching or your not
Per the Association of Boxing Commissions, here is the current criteria for scoring an MMA round:
1. A round is to be scored as a 10-10 Round when both contestants appear to be fighting evenly and neither contestant shows superiority by even a close margin. This score should rarely be used.
2. A round is to be scored as a 10-9 Round when a contestant wins by a close margin, landing the greater number of effective legal strikes, demonstrating effective grappling, and utilizing other effective legal techniques.
3. A round is to be scored as a 10-8 Round when a contestant wins by a large margin, by effective striking and or effective grappling that have great impact on the opponent.
4. A round is to be scored as a 10-7 Round when a contestant totally dominates by effective striking and or effective grappling, which put the opponent in great danger throughout the round. In a 10-7 round referee stoppage may be eminent. This score should rarely be used.
Notice how this doesn't go any lower. So this essentially allows judges to use multiple choice to score a fight. At UFC 191, the judges were Tony Weeks, Marcos Rosales and Derek Cleary. Tony Weeks and Marcos Rosales seem like mostly boxing guys. Weeks was named one of the worst MMA judges by Bleacher Reports a few years ago (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1090849-the-worst-judges-in-mma-history/page/4). I am not saying that these guys are terrible people or even bad judges, I think they just need a better way to score.
Why 10 Must Scoring System Sucks for MMA
Judge's Skillset
If I had to guess, I am pretty sure most the judges do not have enough martial arts experience to realistically judge MMA fights. You would have to essentially be a black-belt in Jiu Jitsu and Judo and very knowledgeable in a striking art like Muay Thai, Karate, Tae Kwon Do, etc in my opinion to accurately judge a match. Very few people would have that skill set and even if they did it is almost impossible to watch for everything during a match.
Not Enough statistics or judges to make decisions
Like I expressed above, judges can essentially score the fight any way they want as long as it falls into the 4 categories. In the NFL, you have teams of people working with the officials to make the correct decisions during the games. You have the score on a giant board for everyone to see. Not some weird hidden speculation until the end of the game. What if you didn't have a score board in NFL, then an official came out and announced who won the football game, pure lunacy.
Why is there only 3 judges? Is it because boxing only has 3 judges? Three people is probably enough for the simplicity of techniques of boxing. But how many judges should there be for MMA?
MMA is not as simple as Boxing
MMA is much more dynamic than boxing. The amount of techniques is staggering compared to boxing. Here is a list of some techniques of MMA:
- Striking: Jab, Cross, Upper Cut, Hook, Over hand, Elbows, Spinning backhand, front kick, side kick, foot jab, cut kick, spin kick, spinning back kick, knees.
- Wrestling/ Grappling: variety of Take Downs, Sweeps, Guard Passes, Mounts, Back Control, Chokes, Cranks, Locks, Armbars, Kneebars.
What Should the Scoring look like?
Keeping Score
Since MMA is dynamic a more dynamic scoring system should be incorporated. Actually post the results after every round and actually create a substantial scoring system. Wouldn't the fighters try harder if they knew they were down in points? Wouldn't they try a bit harder for the submission or knockout with 30 seconds left in the match.
For grappling and wrestling lets reuse the scoring system by the IBJJF. Why reinvent the wheel for grappling scoring? They already have a decent scoring system in existence.
The IBJJF scores grappling as follows:
- Mounts and Back Control scores - 4 points
- Guard Pass Scores - 3 Points
- Take Downs, Sweeps - 2 Points
Why can't the same be applied to the striking side? In most fights, many more striking techniques are thrown. So lets only give significant strikes any worth-while points. This way regardless if you are a striker or grappler you will get roughly the same amount of points.
Here are the possibilities:
- Significant Punching strikes - 1/3 point
- Significant Kicking strikes - 1/3 point
- Advanced strikes (spinning kicks) - 1 points
- Knock Down - 10 points
Create Teams of Judges
Instead of 3 judges, have 6 judges. 3 judges for each fighter. One that concentrates on striking, one focuses on grappling/ throws etc and one that focuses on penalties and dominance. This would allow the boxing associations to still use some of the boxing judges, but also add the depth needed to accurately score these contests. Additionally, provide a staff or stat trackers to provide accurate information to the judges in order to make the right call.
How do we get these changes made?
One way is chang.org. It is a site that allows you to start a petition to make changes in the world. If you get enough people to sign, you can probably influence the athletic commissions to make changes to this antiquated scoring system. It appears that the commissions of the various states meet up at a conference every year and they probably vote on measures to adopt. The last time they changed the scoring system was 2012...
So to wrap this up, the current scoring system sucks, we have explored a possible way to make it better. Let me know what you think, how can the scoring system be improved?
-Dwight
References:
http://abcboxing.com/documents/Unified%20Rules%20of%20MMA%20Judging%20Criteria.pdf
http://www.ufc.com/discover/sport/rules-and-regulations
http://ibjjf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/RulesIBJJF_v4_en-US.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment