Rogan: MMA judging, scoring system both to blame
On Monday, Rogan, the UFC’s color commentator for nearly 10 years, reiterated his stance that the mixed martial arts judging…
On Monday, Rogan, the UFC’s color commentator for nearly 10 years, reiterated his stance that the mixed martial arts judging system needs an overhaul. And as he has done in the past, he put some of the blame for perhaps the biggest perceived problem in the sport on the shoulders of Keith Kizer, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
“I think very clearly, the people that we have in the position of choosing judges and deciding how the judges’ criteria (and) the scoring criteria is set upon, they really don’t want to do anything about it,” Rogan told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “We know the Nevada State Athletic Commission is very aware that people are upset about it, yet they do nothing. It’s a political system, I think. Keith Kizer is a politician. If you step up and fire all these people that you’ve hired and had working for you for years, and you do make a big change, it opens you up for criticism.”
“What they basically have is a bunch of people who were boxing judges who really had no business even judging boxing,” Rogan said. “Boxing is a little easier to figure out if you’re not an athlete and not a competitor and not someone who really understands the game. It’s a little easier to figure out because it’s simply who hits who more. … Obviously there’s a little more to it than that, and that’s what makes bad decisions in boxing. But in MMA, it’s so much more complicated when you get takedowns and submission holds and what is worth more, a leg kick or a jab? Or what is worth more, a takedown or a knee or submission attempt from the bottom? Things get very squirrelly. It’s very hard to figure out.”