Doc Hamilton now believes Shogun won against Lyoto
Machida-Rua and other fights, including the Nov. 14 Brandon Vera-Randy Couture match and the Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin fight…
Machida-Rua and other fights, including the Nov. 14 Brandon Vera-Randy Couture match and the Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin fight seven days later, underscore points that Hamilton has been trying to make about the current system. Most of the regulations in the sport were put in place in 2000, when New Jersey’s Athletic Control Board started regulating UFC events in Atlantic City. It created rules for the sport and its judging, which, with some modifications, turned into the current unified rules used throughout North America.
But we’re a different sport, said Hamilton, 61, a chiropractor by trade and lifelong martial artist who not only regularly judges MMA events under the current system, but who has also judged MMA in Japan for Pride with a different system, as well as kickboxing with another system. We’re not wrestling, we’re not judo and we’re not boxing.
The single most obvious problem with the current scoring system came with Ortiz vs. Griffin. Judges are discouraged from handing out 10-10 scores in a round, and they usually only hand out 10-8 scores for an incredibly one-sided round. So most of the time, anything from winning a squeaker of a round to completely dominating a round yet coming short of destroying the guy ends up on the scorecard at 10-9.
In the case of Ortiz-Griffin, the first two rounds were close and could have been judged either way. The third round saw Ortiz run out of gas. Griffin picked him apart at will, out-striking Ortiz 41-5 in a round that didn’t go to the ground. Still, he never knocked Ortiz down or had him on the verge of finishing, and thus didn’t get a 10-8 score.
Griffin’s dominant second round counted as much in the scoring as the two previous rounds, which were coin-flip close. In judging the fight overall, Griffin clearly won, and he did get the split-decision win. But a very reasonable judge could have scored it 29-28 for Ortiz based on the flaws inherent in the round-by-round scoring system, while being fully cognizant that Griffin clearly won the fight.
Another inherent problem is that while judges are told they can give 10-10 scores, they also believe if they do so with any frequency, they won’t be asked back.
I’m not going to die on that sword, said Hamilton.
There is also a reluctance to give 10-8 rounds unless a fighter is completely dominant in the round.
Judges think that if they give a 10-8 in a three-round fight that they’ve made it almost impossible for the other fighter to win a decision, said John McCarthy, MMA’s most well-known referee, who frequently works as a judge and teaches seminars in judging the sport.
Half-point proposal
