We face two major predicaments in the MMA world today. Both of these problems reared their ugly heads during the action packed WEC 50 fight card and, luckily, did no damage. Yet the what ifs of WEC 50 brought to light again the two things that keep fighters up at night in a cold sweat: bad judging and bad refereeing. On WEC 50, everyone who should have won, won but ask this: What if judge Nelson Hamilton, who scored the main event between champ Dominick Cruz (15-1) and Joseph Benavidez (9-2) a 48-47 for the challenger, had passed whatever he had smoked prior to the bout to his fellow judges? Even the judge who scored the bout 48-47 Cruz was far from on point as Cruz clearly won no less than four of the five rounds with the only round in question being realistically more a draw than a round for Benavidez. The second issue, involving the officiating of the bouts themselves, came in the form of Steve Mazzagatti’s stoppage of the Zachary Micklewright (10-2) “Bartimus” Bart Palaszewski (34-13) fight. This stoppage was a good stoppage, Micklewright was done; but even with Zach mechanically working his guard against an imaginary opponent while ordering a happy meal from the ring doctor, some people in the MMA community still felt the need to cry foul about the fight being stopped early. Had Micklewright still been coherent, this stoppage would have been a disaster. Unfortunately, it is more likely that this stoppage was a just one by luck rather than design. Let’s explore these issues one at a time.
There are several issues with scoring in the MMA world. Bad judging is easily the biggest problem in American MMA and isolating the source of the problem is no easy task. Among the numerous culprits are the following: a faulty scoring system that gives undue consideration to takedowns and top control, an unwillingness to score rounds as draws, the lack of reasonable consideration being given to submission attempts especially from the bottom positions, lack of reasonable consideration being given to damaging blows that don’t result in a cut, knock down, or “rocked” state, and the presence of cross over judges brought in from boxing. Of these, the most important and difficult to remedy is the last. The world of the Associated Athletic Commissions is rife with what southerners refer to as “the good ole boy system” where top level and more desirable positions as judges are given to officials who have been involved with the commission for years, sometimes generations, and not to the more qualified judges who are less well connected. Time and again we see yesteryear’s big name karate judges and old guard boxing judges award rounds and even fights to fighters who were clearly dominated throughout the entire fight. Names like Cecil Peoples, Nelson Hamilton, Marcos Rosales, and Doug Crosby appear on almost every major MMA card in the states and they consistently turn in indefensible score cards. The citizens need to give the Commissions a nudge here. Commissions are state controlled so write your state athletic commissioner and tell them you don’t want to see these guys. If they don’t respond, write your governors and congressmen and inform them that we need new management in the Athletic Commission along with a petition from your local MMA fans. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks so we have to let the younger, more MMA minded judges who have spent their lives cross-training take over for the obviously inept good ole boys.
The second issue to discuss is the third man in the ring. Our referees are in desperate need of help. It’s easy to blame the referees themselves but that isn’t necessarily where the fault lies. Surely some serious screw-ups have come courtesy of the ref himself, but the real issue comes in a lack of defined regulations on when to stop a fight. Almost everything in the Unified Rules of MMA is left up to a very open definition based entirely on the subjectivity of the referee in charge. On WEC 50, Bart Palaszewski knocked Zachary Micklewright into another reality and Steve Mazzagatti stopped it immediately. Despite a clearly just stoppage, many still cried it was too early. I am of the opinion that had Bart landed two or three more shots those same detractors would cry about a late stoppage. The problem lies in this: there are no guidelines on when a ref should step in and stop a fight, only vague concepts like “intelligent defense” and “unable to continue” which are entirely subjective. We watch time and again as two similar TKOs on the same card, even with the same ref, are called in which the number of unanswered blows suffered by the losing fighter varies to a great degree. We have seen multiple submissions called on a single vague tap while others are allowed to continue until the classic clear three taps are given. Its goes without saying that MMA is too broad a sport with too many possibilities to write specific regulations for every situation, but is it too much to ask that a general outline of what constitutes “intelligent defense” or a definition of what constitutes a tap out be added to the existing regulations? Before we grab our torches and pitchforks and go on a referee hunt, we should petition the athletic commissions to clarify the rules in order to give everyone a better idea of when a stoppage should take place.
The officiating epidemic in MMA is a serious cancer on the heart of our young sport and it is long over due for a heavy bout of chemotherapy. Many journalists have cried for new judging criteria and individual referees to be removed from the big stage, but it’s the opposite that needs to happen. The current crop of judges haven’t shown an ability to understand the nuances of the game and need to be replaced by those who do; new criteria on how to score the bouts won’t help when the men who score the fights clearly don’t understand the action. While there are some exceptions the current referees are very capable and understand the subtleties of the sport well; however they need more defined guidelines on when to stop a fight or when a stand-up or point deduction is warranted in order to give the fans, fighters, and promoters more consistent results. It’s all in the hands of the fans. Get out your pens and write your commissioners or if need be your elected officials and demand change. This is our sport and its our responsibility to see to it that it’s run properly.
