This past week it was announced that the Nevada State Athletic Commission approved Zuffa’s request to provide the judges with monitors during each of the fights. This is yet another move that the UFC has taken in recent weeks to improve the state of mixed martial arts, one which could help correct the judging issues that fans and fighters have had to endure in recent months.
With these monitors, the judges will be able to get a better view of the action, without being hampered by various angles. Judges will also be able to move the camera view in and out when needed during the fight. The idea is that with a better view of the action, the judges will have a greater ability to correctly evaluate the action going on in the cage.
With that being said, many of these judges need better education on how to score the action they are watching. Many of the judges do not understand the importance of MMA “basics,” such as leg kicks, or what is happening when two fighters are grappling on the mat. Without this knowledge and understanding, one must question how these officials will be able to correctly “judge” what is going on in the cage.
Yet Zuffa can continue to lead the charge in this area, by leveraging the company’s growing resources of mixed martial arts history and knowledge to attempt to educate these judges. With such minds as Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, John McCarthy, and other established names associated with their organization, the UFC could create a judging course that could help improve the sport.
Zuffa could use fights from its massive tape library to provide examples of how to score what is going on. Contests such as Demian Maia versus Mario Miranda can be used to show the importance of grappling on the ground, the intricacies of the position battle, and how to score attempts, transitions and sweeps. Striking battles such as Jose Aldo versus Mark Hominick could be dissected to display the importance of a variety of attacks, such as leg kicks, jabs and power blows. Certainly many other UFC fights can also be used as “game film” to help judges assess all the techniques that may be employed in a round.
When preparing for a fight, many professional fighters use film research to dissect their opponents. If fighters and referees can be trained to do their job at a high level, why can’t the judges receive further training?
There already is a Judging course, through the Association of Boxing Councils. It should be required of MMA Judges at ALL levels!
Bill —
I actually remember hearing about the referee course, but have no recollection of the judging course. Either way…you're right it should be 100 percent required. In what other job do people get to call themselves "experts" without any formal training on how to do their job. Especially since these guys have a direct effect on the financial welfare of so many fighters.
Training judges may not be "up to the UFC" but that doesn't mean that they can't go above and beyond in this area to compensate for the shortcomings of 'most of' the athletic commissions.
Nobody said that monitors are 'the answer' or that they would help educate judges or clarify ambiguities in the scoring system, but they are one solution to one specific problem, which is that judges cannot always view the action from their seat. This is a FACT. And given this fact, how can you suggest that having monitors is an impediment?
Suggesting that monitors present a slippery slope to removing judges from the vicinity is foolish to say the least. Given the existence of a monitors, do you think there is any benefit to having judges directly around the cage? Do you think there would be any benefit from removing them from the vicinity? The answer is really that simple.