It seems no UFC event goes past without someone commenting on the quality of judging, or lack thereof. While some advocate for open scoring in MMA, Al Iaquinta, a veteran fighter of over a decade, doesn’t think that will solve much.
Iaquinta, on Heck of a Morning, explained his reasoning. “It changes everything. That would change the sport. In between rounds, everyone’s going to be looking up at the scoreboard, and how many guys would it really affect? Even with bad judging, it’s almost like it’s part of the sport now.
Al Iaquinta: MMA Doesn’t Need Open Scoring, just “Better Judging”
I’d tell you one thing: if I thought I was up two rounds, and they flashed the scorecards in-between the second and third, and I found out that I was down, I might have a mental breakdown. I might jump over the cage and attack the judges.
I just have a feeling that it sounds good in theory, but then when you add something like that in it just changes the experience.
I can understand why, in some circumstances, it would’ve been useful, but in 99 percent of fighting in the UFC, or MMA, we just need better judging.
We need to figure out the judging. Having the fighters know there’s a bad judge, I’d rather just have good judging. Then fighters don’t need to know that they’re down.”
Currently, fighters in the cage don’t know during the fight whether they’re winning or losing, apart from their own estimations and those of their corner. Whenever a fight goes to the judges’ scorecards, controversy ensues, particularly following a split decision. Al Iaquinta recently lost three in a row, including two decision losses to Cowboy Cerrone and Dan Hooker.
To Al Iaquinta, fighters doubting whether they’re ahead in the final round encourages better performances, and a higher finishing rate.
“That’s the beauty of fighting sports, the fighters need to go out there without really knowing if they’re winning, if they’re losing, or if they have to go out there and finish. With open scoring, it’s, ‘We have to finish him this round.’ Now, it’s like, you might have to finish.
There’s a little bit of mystery in there. But I’m an old school guy and I like the old school ways, it’s been this way forever. I think it would be a lot to do something like that, especially in the UFC, to play around with something like that.” Do you agree with Al Iaquinta? Let us know in the comments.
