Amadi's Take
AMADI: The 10-point must system in three round MMA fights handcuffs all judges regardless of their competence
Jul 12, 2011 - 4:15:33 PM AMADI: The 10-point must system in three round MMA fights handcuffs all judges regardless of their competence

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By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

If you've ever heard Keith Kizer "make the case" for there being "no problem in Nevada" then you probably are familiar with how the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission is able to justify the current state of judging. According to Keith Kizer, because there are many ways to view most fights, no viewpoint can truly be wrong. It's almost as if by virtue of the fact that there are two fighters in the cage, as long as an NSAC appointed judge picks one of the two, then Kizer is satisfied with their efforts.

On the whole, there are two attitudes responsible for the state of MMA judging, and Keith Kizer's attitude is obviously one of them. However, the other attitude is the one that most MMA fans and media seem to exhibit. Yesterday, I came across an article by Leland Roling at BloodyElbow.com on how the real problem with judging in MMA is the incompetence of the judges. Roling put together a solid argument, but the tone of the article seems to imply that judges were so overwhelmingly incompetent that scoring a round with a more sophisticated set up would confuse the already "simple" judges we have in place.

It is easy to look at a robbery like Leonard Garcia vs. Nam Pham and just decide that all judges are morons and that the only reason there are ever bad decisions are because judges don't know what they're looking at. But the fact is, that isn't what most bad decisions look like today. At this point, most bad decisions look more like Quinton Jackson vs. Lyoto Machida, Jon Fitch vs. B.J. Penn, or more recently Dennis Siver vs. Matt Wiman.

Fights like the aforementioned three are what you get when you match up two top notch mixed martial artists at this point in time. Two rounds in each of these three bouts were razor close, yet not quite 10-10 worthy, while one round was completely one sided, yet arguably not quite up to the standard of an obvious 10-8 round.

Under the standard 10 point must system, there is no difference between a razor close round and one that is less competitive without delving into 10-8 territory. Conversely, because there are only three rounds in a mixed martial arts contest as opposed to in boxing (the originator of the 10 point must), judges are too hesitant to even declare a round 10-8 because of the difference that an entire point makes in a three round fight.

If you need an example of just how inappropriate the 10 point must system can be in a truly competitive mixed martial arts contests, look no further than the bout between Carlos Condit vs. Rory MacDonald at UFC 115 last year. In this fight MacDonald was competitive with Condit on the feet, but stole rounds with takedowns that didn't lead to any real offense whatsoever. In the third round, Condit put in serious 10-8 work against MacDonald and devastated him en route to a late third round stoppage. Had the fight not been stopped, and had the judges awarded the decision to MacDonald, most people would up in arms about another fighter getting robbed by the judges. In fact, it would have been a prime example of the judges being handcuffed by the system.

It is as if fans and media are so busy berating the judges for being incompetent fools that they forget that the 10 point must system in a three round fight only asks judges who won what round, when how much a fighter wins a round by is far more important when deciding who won. It's clear that there are a lot of incompetent judges out there, but that doesn't change the fact that those judges are also handicapped by a scoring system that was meant for another sport entirely.

Doc Hamilton's half-point system might not be a complete game-changer for sport of mixed martial arts, but it is a necessary step in the right direction. As I've stated in the past, MMA developing its own scoring system and open round scoring are tools that would actually allow mixed martial artists to compete more like athletes in a real sport, and less like tough men who "better not let the fight go to the judges."