MMA’s Judging Criteria To Be Reviewed By ABC

MMA’s current judging criteria will be up for review at next month’s Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) convention, with the scoring language of 10-8 and 10-7 round’s being extensively evaluated.

Dominance, Duration, and Damage will be the evaluated criteria for 10-8 and 10-7 rounds, where if a round contains two of the three characteristics a 10-8 round must be considered. If a round contains all three it would then lead to a 10-8 or even 10-7 score being awarded to the respective fighter.

Here are the combat definitions for the Dominance, Duration, and Damage terms:

Damage -€” A judge shall assess if a fighter damages their opponent significantly in the round, even though they may not have dominated the action. Damage includes visible evidence such as swellings and lacerations. Damage shall also be assessed when a fighter’s actions, using striking and/or grappling, lead to a diminishing of their opponents’ energy, confidence, abilities and spirit.  All of these come as a direct result of damage. When a fighter is damaged with strikes, by lack of control and/or ability, this can create defining moments in the round and shall be assessed with great value.

Dominance -€” As MMA is an offensive based sport, dominance of a round can be seen in striking when the losing fighter is forced to continually defend, with no counters or reaction taken when openings present themselves.  Dominance in the grappling phase can be seen by fighters taking dominant positions in the fight and utilizing those positions to attempt fight ending submissions or attacks.  Merely holding a dominant position(s) shall not be a primary factor in assessing dominance. What the fighter does with those positions is what must be assessed.

Duration -€” Duration is defined by the time spent by one fighter effectively attacking and controlling their opponent, while the opponent offers little to no offensive output.  A judge shall assess duration by recognizing the relative time in a round when one fighter takes and maintains full control of the effective offense. This can be assessed both standing and grounded.

ABC Chairman Sean Wheelock recently commented on how judges are failing to score 10-8 rounds, courtesy of MMA Fighting, after some referees have come close to calling for a stoppage in some instances:

“In many cases, unless someone is getting destroyed and the referee is about to step in, judges are not giving a 10-8,” Wheelock said.

Wheelock also claimed that since the sport has dramatically evolved since it’s inception, the rules and scoring should follow in it’s footsteps:

“The sport has radically changed in every conceivable way since April 2001,” Wheelock said. “It’s shocking how different the sport is. If the sport has changed so much since 2001, why haven’t the rules and scoring and officiating changed with it? Where is the evolution? We’re trying to evolve.”

The ABC Convention will take place on August 1st with it’s general body voting on the new Judging Criteria in Las Vegas. Any changes would not go into effect until January 1, 2017. You can check out the proposed judging criteria here.