Joe Rogan: Current MMA judging system is ‘ridiculous’
BloodyElbow’s Stephie Daniels does an in-depth interview each year with Joe Rogan. This one comes in at a staggering 10,000…
BloodyElbow’s Stephie Daniels does an in-depth interview each year with Joe Rogan. This one comes in at a staggering 10,000 words or so, and is organized into three parts. Today, in part III, Rogan discusses the UFC travel schedule, his hit SyFy show, traditional martial arts techniques in MMA, UFC weight classes, commentator favorites, genetically amodified athletes, and what is wrong with MMA judging.
Stephie Daniels: ..what did you think of the Machida vs. Davis fight?
Joe Rogan: Yeah, I saw it. I was surprised by the decision, quite honestly. I thought Machida won, but I thought it was a close fight, and when you’re dealing with takedowns… Machida stuffed a lot of takedowns, but he did get taken down a couple of times. Some people score takedowns very highly. People say, ‘Oh it was a robbery.’ I think the real issues are we need to define what the parameters are for success in the Octagon. Is it successful when a guy takes you down once, or is it more successful when you stuff ten takedown attempts and punch the guy in the face?
There was a similar situation recently where Danny Castillo took Tim Means down, and a lot of people thought that he didn’t do enough damage after the takedown, and that Tim Means done more damage standing up and should have got the decision because of that.
In my opinion, instead of people concentrating on, ‘oh that’s a robbery, it’s bullshit.’ We need to define what success is. What is more important? Is it more important to land a really hard punch, or for a guy to take you down and do nothing? It’s a very important question, and I don’t think it’s one that has been clearly defined to the judges, especially the judges who don’t have a background in martial arts. It’s a real issue in MMA, and I have been very vocal about my feelings. I think there are a huge amount of fans out there who are massive, massive martial arts fanatics and they would make incredible judges. I think a lot of people feel it would be an honor to have that position, but there are a lot of people who are judges now, and to them it’s just a job, it’s just a gig.
I can’t hate, we’ve all had jobs, and I don’t fault them. I fault whoever gave them that job. I think that in order to be a judge in mixed martial arts at the highest level, I feel like you have to have some deep background in martial arts. You have to have been hit in the face. You have to have been strangled. You have to have been arm barred. You have to know what it feels like. You have to know what is a danger and what’s not. There are certain scenarios a person can get put into where they’re not in danger, but to a person who is uneducated in martial arts it might look like they are, and that can f— up scoring.
We have a problem, and that problem is pretty deep. First of all, judging is on a ten point must system, which is completely stolen from boxing. The system that we have in place right now is ridiculous. Doc Hamilton had a really interesting fix to that system, which was a half point system, which I like better. I think Doc is a very wise man, and he’s also a long time martial artist. He’s been involved in martial arts since I was a baby, probably even before then. I respect guys like that who have been around for a long time. He has an educated take on the current situation that I think should be respected. I think the scoring system needs to be revised, and the way we decide to score things needs to be better defined.