By Bryan Lee
Do you remember when a fight would break out at school and every single person within earshot was crowded around the two (or three, or four…) combatants as they slugged it out. At the end of the fight, especially one that is broken up, people will start talking about who kicked who’s ass. Yeah, the number of strikes landed or who was on top of who play a big role in that, but it usually boils down to who got messed up the worst (very simple judging criteria).
“Dude got hit like 20 times!”
“Yeah, but look at the other guy’s face! His eye’s already swollen, you know that’s gonna be turning black and he had a busted up lip, leaking on the street!”
The next day at school, if the two weren’t suspended, you’d hear rumors of the fight, both sides of the argument. But when you see one guy show up with lumps, a fat lip and sunglasses on, you know he got his ass kicked.
Obviously, this is just a street-fight scenario and doesn’t necessarily have a direct correlation with the sport of mixed-martial-arts, but there is a similar spirit that is inherit in both.
At UFC on Versus 3, Diego Sanchez and Martin Kampmann battled back and forth with Sanchez, eyes slowly swelling to a close and blood streaming from his face and mouth onto his chest and the octagon floor, walked away with a controversial decision win. Kampmann spent the first round defending take downs and tagging Diego in the standup with a number of jabs and a short right straight that dropped him. The second round was also decided on the feet, with Diego finding a second wind, pushing the pace and landing punches when he had Kampmann backed up against the fence. Martin also landed punches, but nothing quite as significant as the flurry Diego landed that momentarily buckled Kampmann’s knees. Martin was also now cut open above his right eye as well. One round a piece.
The third round is where it gets tricky. Diego was definitely pushing the pace, moving forward the entire round. He even scored a take down into side control, although nothing came of the position. Kampmann was also landing punches and Diego Sanchez was officially leaking blood all over the Octagon. Both of Diego’s eyes were getting close to closing and he had multiple cuts on his face. He was a bloody mess. Neither fighter was able to do anything significant and I was undecided on who won that last round, giving a 10-10 and a 29-29 draw for the match, but didn’t necessarily disagree with the judges decision.
Here is yet another case where I could see one person winning the match, but their opponent winning the fight. MMA is a sport, with rules and regulations, referees and reprimands. That being said, the nature of the sport is not a game like other sports; it is a fight. The fans are aware that there are rules and sportsmanship involved, but they came to see a fight and, will generally view the outcome of an MMA match in the context of a fight, not a sport; although undeserved, I can see why they booed the decision in Kentucky.
The current system of judging in place for MMA is incredibly flawed and inefficient. A 10-point must system will simply not work in a fight of only three rounds with so many ways to score points. Top control with no clean strikes or advancing of position/submission is given too much credit as “Octagon control”. Take downs defended and submissions attempted are extremely undervalued. 10-10’s and 10-8’s are held back far too often, and understandably so, due to their massive effect on a three round bout. Cumulative damage is non-existent, only damage inflicted within a given round, which in and of itself is hard to do, as the damage from a previous round does not magically go away the next.
This is not meant as a rant against the system or the athletic commissions; it is what it is. I don’t have some magical system or checklist to use in order to accurately judge a fight. Whether it’s the unified criteria for judging or Pride/Japan style judging, there will always be controversy in combat sports. A fight that doesn’t end is difficult to judge, regardless of criteria.
All I know is that if the KFC Yum! Center in Kentucky was the creek by my high school, all that everyone would be talking about the next day is how bad Diego got beat up by Martin.
