The 10-10 Round: MMA’s Urban Myth

While my data may be a little bit off, it would seem to the casual observer that a 10-10 round in a mixed martial arts bout is about as rare as a UFO sighting, finding a leprechaun in your backyard, or an entire season of “The Ultimate Fighter” where the fighters’ house isn’t torn apart out of boredom.  Sure, legends are passed on, but no one knows whether to believe them.  The dude down the street claims he saw a 10-10 round at a local fight card at the county fairgrounds once.  A few fans these days claim to have actually been around to have seen the five-round draw between BJ Penn and Caol Uno when it originally happened.  Of course, they suspiciously have join dates in 2007 on their MMA forums of choice, but who are we to judge?

While my data may be a little bit off, it would seem to the casual observer that a 10-10 round in a mixed martial arts bout is about as rare as a UFO sighting, finding a leprechaun in your backyard, or an entire season of “The Ultimate Fighter” where the fighters’ house isn’t torn apart out of boredom.  Sure, legends are passed on, but no one knows whether to believe them.  The dude down the street claims he saw a 10-10 round at a local fight card at the county fairgrounds once.  A few fans these days claim to have actually been around to have seen the five-round draw between BJ Penn and Caol Uno when it originally happened.  Of course, they suspiciously have join dates in 2007 on their MMA forums of choice, but who are we to judge?

I digress, though.  Anyone who has watched their share of MMA fights will surely attest to the rarity of a round that is scored equally in the eyes of even one judge.  Even 10-8 rounds are doled out with much greater frequency that an even round, which seems strange, considering that the kind of dominance that would justify such a round, yet not end in a stoppage for the better fighter seems much more rare than a round that was “too close to call”.

OK, you say.  You don’t see many 10-10 rounds in MMA.  What’s your point?  Well, if you watched the WEC fight between Ben Henderson and Donald Cerrone, you may have seen a great opportunity for such a score to be given.  Nearly everyone with an opinion on this fight (and everyone has an opinion) grants that Henderson certainly won rounds 2 and 3, while Cerrone took the final two rounds.  Some even gave Cerrone a 10-8 round to end the fight.  No matter.  The real round to look at is the first, which has people seemingly split down the middle.

The problem, as many have noted, with MMA is that the huge diversity of techniques utilized makes the sport hard to judge.  For what seems like ages, we have pondered exactly how an ultimately successful submission attempt stands up against a takedown, how taking someone’s back ranks against a submission escape, how reversing position holds up against a few hard leg kicks.  So, the question: do you value Cerrone’s barrage of early near-submissions over Henderson’s late striking in the first round, or vice versa?

Why should we have to choose either?  If there has ever been grounds for a 10-10 round, that would be it.  After all, if it is unclear how the different techniques should be viewed against one another, why should judges be put in the position to make that decision, particularly if the goal is to have a unified system of judging where both fighters and judges know what constitutes “winning” a round?

The thing is, MMA promotions, fans and even fighters would not probably be huge fans of 10-10 rounds.  After all, most MMA fights are three rounds.  A 10-10 round will drastically increase the chance of a draw in any particular fight, and no one likes draws.  Still, is the object of a judging in a sport, such as MMA, to satisfy those who want a “real” conclusion, or to accurately score the outcome?

How many times have we seen a fight where, like with the Clay Guida-Diego Sanchez bout, at least one round is incredibly close?  Why should judges feel forced to select a winner when neither fighter clearly won the round?  More importantly, why should a round where the action was very even be scored in the same manner as a round where a fighter didn’t dominate, but still clearly won the round? 

Also, if indeed one of the reasons why 10-10 rounds are discouraged except in the most necessary of instances is to avoid a high level of draws, we have already seen an unfair influence on the outcome of countless MMA fights.  A judge should not feel the need to avoid a 10-10 round because of the likelihood of a draw any more than they should feel the need to avoid a 10-8 round, which is also likely to cause a draw.  Nor should the referee be afraid to take a point from a fighter who fouls his opponent, simply because that lost point could result in a draw, as it did in the fight between Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans.  Each round should be scored on its own merits, without regard to how it will affect the total score of the bout. 

Perhaps the logistical issues that keep 10-10 rounds off of many scorecards don’t so much show that such a score should be withheld from most fights after all, but instead that the ten-point system simply doesn’t fit the sport of MMA at all.  For all of its outlandishness, perhaps the now-deceased Pride organization had it all right after all.  While scoring a fight in its entirety may seem like an easy way to allow judging to become even less consistent and harder to hold accountable (since it introduces even more subjectivity to the mix), it also allows for what is possibly a more just conclusion to many typical fights.  But hey, that’s an argument for a different column, perhaps one entitled, “When Pigs Fly: Revamping MMA Judging”.

It’s true that no fighter wants to train hard for three months just to walk away with what is possibly the most unfulfilling of possibilities in competition: a draw…and it’s similarly clear that a 10-10 round in a three- or even five-round fight increased the chances of just that happening.  However, ask that same fighter whether he or she would have preferred to drop a razor-thin decision, and their feelings would inevitably change.  Draws are not very convenient, particularly when a title is on the line, as was the case last Saturday.  Still, MMA has become a big business, and a fighter’s career can change drastically based upon what numbers are in the “win” and “loss” column.  Again, the emphasis here should be on getting things right, and not providing a resolution where one isn’t justified.  If a round is “too close to call”, why call it at all?

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Clay Guida, Diego Sanchez, Rashad Evans, Tito Ortiz, WEC