Perhaps no area of MMA regulation receives more public attention than judging.
This month a US based athletic commission is rolling out major changes to MMA judging that can go a long way in creating better accountability for officials.
Presently all the public (and athletes and their managers) receive are a judges score. 10-10,10-9, 10-8 or 10-7. There is no feedback on how a judge came up with their score. When an official is in the minority there is nothing to scrutinize other than the fact that their scorecard differs from their colleagues.
Enter a radical idea. A second score card explaining the unified criteria that were used in arriving at the score.
Anthony Cummings, the Director of the Colorado Combative Sports Commission, is rolling out exactly this. On June 17th the Sparta MMA card is going to be the first event to see this new idea in practice.
The idea is simple. After each round judges fill out their scorecard. Then they fill out a second card. It only takes a few seconds. The second card asks the official to check the criteria they used in reaching their decision. If effective striking/grappling decided the round they identify that. If that was even and the official moved on to aggressiveness they identify that. If that was even and they moved to the tertiary factor of fighting area control that is identified.
This reform creates an instant papertrail of accountability. It will identify whether a judge’s score can be justified under the criteria they are required to use.
This has potential.
If you have a Twitter account feel free to share your thoughts on this novel judging reform on the below poll:
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