How Should Submissions Be Scored in Mixed Martial Arts?

As I touched upon in my column last week about the lack of 10-10 rounds in MMA, there is a huge problem in mixed martial arts regarding how submission attempts should be scored.  While it’s clear that an attempted submission- especially one that nearly ends the fight or puts a fighter in serious danger- should be worth something, what’s not clear is how much it should be worth.  This is especially true when trying to figure out where it should rank against strikes, takedowns, and other techniques.

The first question is, should a submission attempt have any value whatsoever?  While it may seem to be a silly question, it is the first step in figuring out where to go with the judging criteria of the sport.  Well, no one would argue that if one fighter attempts a submission and is working for it for a substantial part of the round, and there is no other real action in that particular round, the submission attempt will win the round.  So obviously, submission attempts have some value.  It doesn’t hurt that just about every major MMA promotion has “aggression” or something similar as part of their judging criteria, and a submission is an attempt to end the fight quickly.

Still, let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.  Should a failed submission attempt really mean anything when it comes to scoring?  After all, for the most part, a failed submission does no lasting damage to the opposing fighter.  Sure, there are exceptions, such as an arm bar or kimura where the other fighter refuses to tap out but seems to have suffered at least a minor injury, or a choke hold that doesn’t end the fight but leaves the defending fighter gasping for air and suddenly tired.

Then again though, many submissions, particularly chokes (the guillotine comes to mind) actually wears down the fighter attempting the submission much more than the fighter who is defending it.  For the fighter caught in a guillotine attempt, the keys include relaxing, working to pass the guard (if applicable) and taking your time to get out of it.  The attacking fighter, meanwhile, is squeezing the life out of his opponent and working very hard to make the choke happen.  At the end of a failed guillotine attempt, the defending fighter is actually better off than the attacking fighter in many cases.

Okay, so while it may be interesting to look at the extreme side of the argument, I can’t say with a straight face that a submission attempt shouldn’t be worth anything in the eyes of the judges.  So, what should it be worth?

Many times, we hear that a takedown is “scoring points” for the fighter who is taking down his opponent.  I always sort of scoffed at that, because other than controlling where the fight takes place, a takedown in itself is rarely an offensive maneuver in and of itself.  Instead, it is a maneuver that changes the way the fight happens and puts both fighters in a new situation.  Also, I always wondered: should a fighter’s “points” for taking down his opponent be nullified if that opponent simply ends up standing up, a la Chuck Liddell?  What if the bottom fighter sweeps the top fighter?  Does that cancel out the takedown?

The reason that I bring this up is because of the obvious parallels to submission attempts.  If you attempt a submission, but I am able to get out of it, should that lessen the “points” granted for the submission attempt?  What if I used the escape to improve my position, such as when someone tries to pull guard when looking for a guillotine, only to have his opponent pass to half guard or side mount?  Now, I’m in a better position than you, and I escaped the submission.  Who gets the better of that transaction in the eyes of the judges?

Also, it is important, even if it seems obvious, to remember that not all submission attempts were created equally.  If there was some sort of ridiculous system in place where an actual value was assigned to all submission attempts, it would be easy to abuse as a fighter.  Anyone can “attempt” a submission that they know they have no hopes of actually finishing, especially if they know it will help them on the scorecards.  Clearly, some submission attempts should be worth more than others.  Forcing a fighter to fight off a rear-naked choke attempt for three minutes of a five-minute round, or throwing submission attempt after submission attempt to stifle the other fighter’s offense and game plan the way that Donald Cerrone did a couple weeks ago should be worth more than going for a bad guillotine that you’re never going to actually submit the other fighter with.

In other words, even if every judge in the world agrees that submission attempts should have some sort of value, we’re still not going to be rid of all of the crazy scorecards and post-fight controversies, because that still leaves so much room for personal bias and interpretation with regards to how much a particular submission attempt should be worth. 

The first round of Cerrone-Henderson is a great example.  Cerrone controlled about half of that round with what appeared to be really close submission attempts, while Henderson controlled the other half with his stand-up strikes against Cerrone.  Now, to begin the second round, Henderson has done more physical damage to Cerrone in that round, but Cerrone was unquestionably closer to finishing the fight, since it’s not as if Cerrone was ever close to being knocked out or anything.  So, you can’t simply say that if a judge gives that round to Henderson that he doesn’t value submission attempts whatsoever, when it could be the case that they just believed Henderson’s striking outweighed the attempts.

There is no easy solution to this problem, and it goes without saying that judging a fight will always be a very subjective endeavor.  At the same time, it is clear that the more we can apply some set of accepted standards and guidelines for judges to follow, we will continue to have decisions that make us shake our heads.  At least if the guidelines were a bit more particular, we could take judges to task much more easily on the scores that they put out.  With the way things are now, the criteria are often too vague to really be able to point the finger at a judge for his or her scorecard.  For instance, the fighter on top who took down his opponent is seemingly showing “octagon control” (a silly term if there ever was one), but the fighter on the bottom who is using submission attempts to try to end the fight is showing aggression, which is another of the generally-used criteria.  Both are using effective grappling, albeit in their own ways.  So, how do you score that?

Until we can reliably even answer a question relating to a simple scenario like that, we will continue to have controversial decisions, as neither fighters, fans nor judges really know what a submission attempt should be worth.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Chuck Liddell