What Changes Are Most Likely in MMA?

With yet another event marred by poor judging having just taken place, it seems like as good a time as any to renew the talk revolving around what needs to change in mixed martial arts. So, I figured I would take a few things that nearly everybody believes has to be re-evaluated, and look at how likely they are to actually changing anytime in the near future. Watch out kids, this one could be a painful read, unless my sense of unfounded, unreasonable optimism takes over.

Change #1- Better, More Experienced Judges

After UFC 119’s fights, this seems as good a topic as any to start with. This would almost seem to be somewhat likely to change, especially because athletic commissions are supposedly intended to be working on improving their roster of officials (including referees) on an ongoing basis, anyway. However, a deeper look provides a much bleaker future when it comes to the sport coming under the control of more capable judges.

First of all, since the UFC and other MMA organizations largely do not select their own judges, there really isn’t a lot that even the UFC can do about the poor judging. Dana White can complain about particular judges as much as he wants (and believe me, he does), but at the end of the day, he doesn’t hire the judges, anyway.

Also, the UFC could conceivable stay away from states and areas where MMA is relatively new and the judges are relatively inexperienced, such as Texas. However, the UFC is more worried about expanding to new areas than having the best possible pool of judges, so this isn’t a likely finish, either. The UFC simply isn’t going to avoid states that have below-average athletic commissions that hire awful referees.

Furthermore, Dana White’s “throw your hands up in the air” approach doesn’t seem to encourage much hope. Instead of working for serious judging reforms or better trained judges, he simply tells his fighters, “Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.” The problem is, sometimes that’s not possible. In those cases, we should be able to count on judges to assign the win to the correct individual…period.

Still, most states are working to at least train judges to understand the sport and how to score it. Therefore, you have to give at least partial credit to this one, as it is always happening in some form or another.

Chance of Happening Soon: Moderate.

Change #2- A Better Scoring System

The 10-9 “must” system simply is not a good fit for MMA. It doesn’t allow for scoring close rounds differently than obvious ones, it leads to disproportionately-large penalties when a point is taken away for an infraction by the referee, and it leads to many of the judging problems that we have.

Also, everyone from Dana White to BJ Penn and the vast majority of MMA journalists out there have said that this scoring system is not good for MMA. However, as of now, we’re still stuck with it.

Noted judge Nelson Hamilton has worked on his own system to fix the problems, one which many have presented in the press in their own forms, as well. That would be a “half-point system”, where judges could give the losing fighter anywhere from 8 to 9.5 points (in half-point increments) to draw a better line between a closely-contested round and a clearly-won round, without having to resort to a 10-8 to do so. Furthermore, since judges are discouraged from using 10-10 rounds, this system would help to give a slight edge to a fighter during a very competitive round.

Also, this would help to fix a problem that I addressed (and advocated half-point scoring to fix) in a previous column: that of point deductions. Right now, a point deduction makes it prohibitively difficult for a fighter who gets a deduction to win the fight, to the point where a referee is often penalizing a fighter by saying, “Now you can’t win a decision”, whether they mean to or not.

With a half-point scoring system, you could take a half-point for these infractions, then take subsequent half-points for continued infractions…all without necessarily deciding the outcome of the fight in one fell swoop.
With many advocates within the sport (Hamilton says everyone he has talked to loves the idea), this would seem to have a shot, especially since no one seems to like the 10-9 must system for MMA. Well, no one except Keith Kizer, that is. The executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, Kizer is in a place to either support this type of idea and give it a chance or to shoot it down, and so far, he’s not supporting it. He says that it’s the second-best possible system, but that the system that is already in place is better. Groan.

Chance of Happening Soon: Low

Change #3- Knees on the Ground

I constantly champion the cause of adding knees to the head of a grounded opponent in areas of the world where they are currently disallowed in MMA, mainly because of how they can change the dynamics of a fight. In many of the situations where fights reach a stalemate, knees to the head would force the fighter who is in trouble to make a move much quicker than he or she would have to as it stands today. Furthermore, a position like side mount, which is currently not all that useful for many fighters, would instantly become that much more dangerous.

At first, this would seem to have a good shot of being added. Dana White and many others are fans of adding this type of strike, and this is one that Kizer and other officials don’t seem to be completely closed off to.

However, no one is really getting the ball rolling either, even though fans have been clamoring for such a change for years. There’s no reason for this not to happen, but with all the other areas to be addressed in the sport, and the UFC more worried about getting the sport regulated in different areas and expanding their own reach, this one could end up taking a while, sadly.

Chance of Happening Soon: Minimal

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Tags: Dana White, horrible judging, horrible refereeing, Keith Kizer, Nelson Hamilton, UFC