Written by Jim Murphy
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Sunday, October 25 2009
'Shogun' Rua did enough to win his UFC 104 fight against Lyoto Machida in the eyes of everyone except the three people that mattered--the judges at ringside (Photo: UFC)
Every now and then, life gives you a gift. We’re not talking about ‘karma’ here which is something good happening to you based on the good you do throughout your life—we’re talking about a gift. Something that you didn’t necessarily deserve nor did nothing to earn, yet it falls in your lap. Here’s an example—about 10 years ago I went to the local 7-11 to get a Slurpee. When I went back to my car parked on the opposite side of the empty parking lot, I saw a $100 bill on the ground. I thought for a moment about taking it in to the 7-11 cashier, but then realized that it still wouldn’t end up in the pocket of whoever lost it. So I headed home $100 richer, the beneficiary of a cosmic gift.
Lyoto Machida received a similar gift on Saturday night at UFC 104. He won a unanimous decision victory in a fight that he had rightfully lost by most accounts. He even thought he’d lost the fight as he stood with his head down in a state of dejection waiting for the judges’ scorecards to be read. By all accounts, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua had carried the scorecards as he took the fight to a tentative and somewhat frustrated champion. Here at THE SAVAGE SCIENCE, our scorecard went 49-46, four rounds to one for Shogun. Most every MMA website and journalist I respect—and even some I don’t respect—scored the fight for the challenger.
‘Shogun’ had clearly won the fight, except in the eyes of the three people that mattered—ringside judges Nelson Hamilton, Cecil Peoples and Marcos Rosales scored it 48-47, three rounds to two for Machida. Peoples and Rosales gave the first three rounds to Machida, and the last two to Rua. Hamilton gave Shogun the first, Machida the next three and Shogun the fifth. The crowd booed the decision when it was announced, and continued heaping their scorn on the immensely likable Machida during his postfight interview. To his credit, ‘Shogun’ accepted the unwarranted defeat with the class of a champion and both men agreed that a rematch should transpire. Even Dana White second guessed the decision in the postfight press conference and agreed that there should be a rematch.
I didn’t have time to stick around for much post UFC chit chat this time, since DREAM 12 was just over an hour away and I needed some food. Still, I received at least a dozen text messages in the next few minutes decrying the injustice that had taken place. The recurring theme was, to paraphrase Megadeth, that “the system had failed” had something needed to be done and Zuffa must lead the charge. Then the conspiracy theories began—bookies conspired to deny Shogun a win so they wouldn’t have to pay out on his +400 underdog price, a take that evidences a complete lack of understanding how sports gambling works in the first place. Not only had most of the money come in on Machida at -400 up to -500—meaning that a Shogun win would be in the best interest of bookmakers—but the money they handled on this UFC fight was a drop in the bucket compared to their overall handle on a busy college football Saturday.
Another line of reasoning was that Machida was worth more to Zuffa as champion with an undefeated record than Shogun. Perhaps, but were that the case they would have never booked the fight in the first place. Others suggested that it was the old boxing axiom at play that a challenger needs to ‘do enough to take’ a champion’s title.
While I sympathize with those who feel an injustice was perpetrated, and particularly sympathize for Shogun who fought a great tactical fight ultimately this is the nature of the beast in any discipline with human judging. Granted, the 10 point must system retrofitted from boxing isn’t a perfect fit for MMA its acceptance as the norm in judging the sport helped facilitate its regulation and growth. For the time being, it’s a necessary evil. This was a fight where there simply weren’t any of the major criteria used to determine winners and losers—eg: knockdowns, takedowns or submission attempts. In my opinion, when a fight lacks those components you evaluate things like who is the aggressor, who is controlling tempo, who is causing most damage and under this criteria Rua’s kicking game was carrying the fight. The ringside judges apparently gave precedence to Machida’s counterpunching.
It’s interesting just how little direction that judges are given in determining who wins or loses. On balance, I think this is a good thing. Still, this is all California has to say about determining winners and losers under the 10 point must system:
Judges shall score all contests and determine the winner through the use of the ten point must system. In this system the winner of each round receives ten points and the opponent a proportionately less number. If the round is even, each boxer receives ten points. No fraction of points may be given.The only difference between boxing and MMA is that in boxing there is a formal definition for a knockdown and in MMA there is not. Other than that, it’s up to the judges to fill in the blanks. And as I noted above, this in general is good for the sport. It allows fighters from different disciplines to compete on equal footing under the rules and gives an incentive to fighters to “finish” fights. Based on the experience in boxing, most attempts to ‘democratize’ the judging of fights have been disastrous.
Within the context of the current system, the easiest change to implement would be to move away from the ten point must system to the format they use in Japan. There, winners are judged for the entire fight and not on a round by round basis. In this case, however, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome since all three judges would have still given Machida the victory.
So what, then, should be done? It’s cathartic to some to talk of a fix or to suggest that ulterior motives were at work. Still, all three of the judges for this fight were experienced, highly respected fight judges with numerous championship fights under their belt. And I still haven’t been convinced that Machida is such a potential cash cow for Zuffa as to justify any sort of hanky panky in the first place.
There’s a better case for an argument that judges from a boxing background may have a bias towards striking, which would help explain the decision in this case. Some have suggested that boxing judges are ‘ignorant’ to MMA rules and techniques, which I can assure you is not the case. While on one hand I can see the value of having MMA specific judges, I also see the value of having judges experienced in officiating high stakes prizefights. With the oversight of MMA in the United States under the auspices of the Association of Boxing Commissions and their member organizations in each state, this is also just a fact of life for the sport in this country.
This wasn’t a decision based on outside influence, favoritism or ignorance to the nuances sport. This was simply a case where the three people whose opinions counted the most saw the fight differently from everyone else. It goes back to the old justification for why you don’t want to leave the fight in a judges’ hands—you never know their criteria or how they saw the fight. In a fight that was tough to score, the individual biases of judges become even more pronounced.
Even though I had Shogun winning, ultimately this is the way things are in a sport with arbitrary judging standards administered by humans. In other words, it’s just the way it is and I’ve yet to hear a solution that makes sense for MMA judging. In theory, I agree that the 10 point must system is a bad fit for MMA but until there’s a viable alternative presented it’s a fact of life in the sport.
You know that there are no easy answers to a thorny question when UFC President Dana White—a man who has a decisive and f-bomb laden opinion on everything under the sun—makes such an equivocal statement as this:
“It’s disheartening [when you get a decision like this]. I used to complain about decisions like this when I was watching boxing. We have absolutely no say in it. It was a tough fight to score. What we saw was Rua back to his best. Perhaps he should have pressed more, but this is a definite re-match.”If there is any good to come out of this it’s that it looks like there will be a quick rematch between Machida and Shogun. For some reason rematches have fallen out of favor of late in MMA and it’s in the best interest of the growth of the sport to have them return. In a fight this close, a rematch is the best solution regardless of the outcome and hopefully one would have been forthcoming had Shogun been declared the winner.
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