The debate over judging is sort of a constant happening in MMA, but it’s especially been all the rage in the past month.
Whether it was Carla Esparza and Rose Namajunas’ boring fight at UFC 274, Logan Storley’s grappling-heavy performance that won him an interim title at Bellator 281, Ketlen Vieira eking out a split over Holly Holm at UFC Fight Night 206, or another pick from a handful of “controversial” results, there has been no shortage of takes on MMA judging and how to fix it.
Which brings us to UFC color commentator Joe Rogan, who said this to UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling on a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast (h/t MMA scoring criteria aficionado Sean Sheehan):
Truly incredible clip here.
Joe Rogan, in his podcast, suggests changes to fix MMA judging.
Just so happens those are the EXACT changes which happened in 2016 and have vastly improved judging, with a lot of people, like Joe, seemingly unaware. pic.twitter.com/Sm7MG7EbSA
— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) June 7, 2022
“Maybe there’s a way to score it like you would give points for moments in fights where someone either did damage or someone had control, but control was not worth as much as damage,” Rogan said. “Because you can survive control unscathed. Just because someone has you down maybe in half-guard, and you’re just clinching and controlling, you can survive that for a couple minutes sometimes, and nothing happens. Even though the person’s in control of you, it’s not that big of a deal. But then damage: How much more is damage worth? Like if you see the person gets wobbled or you see like a big, impactful kick, you’re like, ‘Wow, that was a significant moment in the fight. So that would be worth more.’”
Genius idea!
In fact, as Sheehan pointed out, it’s so genius that it’s already been thought of by the Association of Boxing Commissions whose unified rules of mixed martial arts state the following:
Effective Striking/Grappling shall be considered the first priority of round assessments. Effective Aggressiveness is a ‘Plan B’ and should not be considered unless the judge does not see ANY advantage in the Effective Striking/Grappling realm. Cage/Ring Control (‘Plan C’) should only be needed when ALL other criteria are 100% even for both competitors. This will be an extremely rare occurrence.
You’d think Rogan, one of the guys calling fights on the UFC’s biggest events each year, would have at least a basic understanding of the criteria judges use to score fights, but alas, it appears that’s not the case.
Let’s hope that changes, because Rogan’s commentary certainly is influential in steering the conversation and attitudes about judging in specific fights and the discourse on the topic overall. It’d be nice if he just knew what he was talking about.
The Blue Corner is MMA Junkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly serious, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.
Joe Rogan’s genius idea to fix MMA judging is to … use the current scoring criteria?
