Interesting data was shared by Anthony Cummings, the Director of Colorado Combative Sports Commission, in a regulatory hearing this week.
Anthony notes that in 2021 their commission implemented continuing education for officials. Something that is not the industry norm. Split decisions (decisions where officials disagree on who the bout winner was) were drastically reduced as a result of this. These changes were noticeably significant in both MMA and boxing. In fact split decisions in boxing became three times less common.
I have made an open records request for the raw data and will review this further. Anthony shared the broad findings of their review on Twitter and the data makes a compelling case that other regulators should consider following this lead.
Boxing also enjoyed improved results in split decisions with these moving from one in every 25 bouts to one every 36.
Combat Sports Law 