The two biggest things that have hurt MMA
The issue that people have with MMA today is that it may be becoming over-saturated. In the latest pre-fight scrum with Dana White, he admitted that there are 34 UFC events this year. That means that are only 18 weeks, where there aren’t fights happening. I’m happy that they are allowing their massive roster the chance to fight three times a year and giving them opportunities to showcase their talent. The argument can be made that they are over-saturating the product a bit. Still the roster is as stacked as ever and they need to keep putting fighters in fights, if they are healthy.
That isn’t the problem for me, especially if you look at the past weekend. The biggest problems with MMA today involve judging and refereeing. The refs aren’t as anemic as the judges, but there are still some questionable stoppages. Its tough to fully fix these problems because of the fights being so unpredictable. Still improvement has to be made based on some events in the past.
The two biggest things that have hurt MMA
This doesn’t apply just to UFC, especially if you saw World Series Of Fighting last Friday night. Once again, Steve Mazzagatti proved on how incompetent he is at being a ref. Josh Burkman locked in a guillotine on Jon Fitch that was perfectly executed. It was only a matter of time before Fitch was going to pass out. Mazzagatti was on the wrong side of the submission and stood around like nothing was wrong. He wasn’t aware of Fitch clearly passing out and Burkman was wise enough to let go after feeling he was helpless in fighting back.
It was embarrassing to see a fighter stop the fight rather than the actual ref. When Burkman celebrated and Mazzagatti was still standing there, it just made me shake my head in disgust. Fitch could have been seriously injured, if the submission was locked on for a few seconds. This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this when it comes to submissions.
Who can forget the infamous Brock Lesnar debut at UFC 81 against Frank Mir? Mir locked in a tight knee bar and Lesnar is clearly tapping. It takes Mazzagatti about five-seconds before finally realizing that the fight needs to be stopped. It may only be seconds, but seconds can determine whether you’ll recover in a few weeks compared to six or eight months. He is getting a bad reputation and Kenny Florian went to the extent of protesting the decision, if Mazzagatti was going to ref his fight.
There are other refs like Kim Winslow and Yves Lavigne that have been below average. Winslow is known for stopping fights too early such as Cat Zingano vs. Miesha Tate. There is a reason why she’s mostly a ref on the preliminary card because she’s made too many mistakes in the past to be on an actual big pay-per-view card.
Lavigne may be a veteran referee, but he tends to break fights up too quick. While I’m against fighters stalling and holding their opponent against the cage, you have to give them some time, before breaking them up . He was breaking the fights up way too quickly last Saturday. There are fights that use dirty boxing to finish off their opponent. If you look at Shane Carwin vs. Frank Mir, you’ll see Carwin press Mir against the cage and land some vicious punches to rock Mir.
Lavigne needs to understand not all fighters are looking to use the cage just to hold a fighter. Carwin proved that by using the cage to his benefit and to used powerful uppercuts to rock Mir, before finishing him off on the ground. Also, let’s not forget when Matt Wiman locked in a guillotine on Mac Danzig. Lavigne just grabbed his arm and ruled the fight over. Danzig was up a few seconds after and looked conscious.
It’s hard for the refs to always be on point, but they deserve to be criticized when mistakes become apparent and fighters are calling you out. We’ve seen Tate publicly criticize Winslow and several fighters express their frustrations about Mazzagatti. Despite my criticism towards refs and wanting to see less stalling from fighters, there is nothing worse than judging right now.
The judging has really been a problem over the past year or so. The first major debate was from UFC 104 when Lyoto Machida won a close fight over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. That drew a lot of debate because Machida wasn’t that aggressive and he didn’t seem like he was going to finish the fight. Obviously the challenger should be aggressive because he is challenging for the title. That being said, the champion can’t think he’s going to get all the benefits if the fight goes to a close decision just because he’s champion.
That applies to the Benson Henderson vs. Frankie Edgar fight at UFC 150. Edgar was clearly more aggressive with more takedowns and strikes on Henderson, yet he lost the fight in the end. I’m still surprised that there wasn’t more of an outrage to that fight.
Another thing with the judging is that they may favor takedowns too much. Obviously takedowns are important, but their needs to be some kind of attack from the takedown. This is directed towards the fighters that lay & pray once again. If fighters aren’t looking to ground & pound or submit their opponents, how should they be rewarded points for a takedown? All they are doing is making sure that their opponent can’t put full power into their strikes.
The other thing that doesn’t make sense is how some judges are totally off on scoring. If you look at Jake Shields vs. Tyron Woodley, how does one judge score the fight 30-27 for Woodley then the other two have it 29-28 for Shields. The judges can have different opinions, but how can it be so lopsided? The fact that Shields won that fight was a ridiculous decision and Woodley should feel absolutely robbed. The same can be said for the infamous fight between Leonard Garcia and Nam Phan, which led to Joe Rogan venting about judging and the NSAC.
“It’s gross. You should be able to leave it in the hands of the judges. You should be able to just fight,” Rogan said.
There’s been some shaky decisions on UFC cards all over the world in 2010, but Rogan launched into an attack on the quality of judging in Nevada.
“And we should point out, that is the situation because of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It has nothing to do with the UFC,” said Rogan. “People keep saying ‘oh the UFC!’ We have no say whatsoever. And (NSAC executive director) Keith Kizer has denied that there’s an issue”
Rogan wants most of the judges relieved of their duties.
“I think (Kizer) needs to clean house. There’s a few very good judges surrounded by a bunch of incompetent morons, who know nothing about the sport,” said Rogan.
The list can go on and on about poor judging decisions from Diego Sanchez beating Takanori Gomi last March in Japan to Johnny Hendricks beating Josh Koscheck last year on UFC on Fox 3. Fighters should be rewarded for being aggressive and landing significant strikes. Also, they should be more rewarded for defending against takedowns and submissions. It seems like some judges are forgetting that, especially since defending takedowns can be extremely difficult.
People can complain about there being too many events or too many divisions, but there are more things to be concerned about. The stoppages and properly stopping holds against the face has to improve from referees that I mentioned before. The judging has to be more consistent by not favoring wrestlers so much. If that doesn’t improve, you’ll hear more people complain from fighters, fans, and even Dana White himself who is never afraid to voice his opinion about anything.
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You can follow me on twitter at @Allen_Strk Be sure to follow @MMASucka for all the breaking news and updates of MMA.
