Texas Commission Responds To UFC 247 Judging Blunders

The main takeaway from UFC 247 in Houston, Texas, this past weekend was the amount of judging blunders.

There were four notable instances that caused controversy: the scorecards in the Andre Ewell vs. Jonathan Martinez bout; one scorecard in the Trevin Giles vs. James Kraus fight; one judge who allegedly wasn’t paying attention during the Andrea Lee vs. Lauren Murphy bout; and the scorecard giving Jon Jones four rounds over Dominick Reyes in the main event.

There have been copious debates since about a judging overhaul with some calling for open scoring while others feel more judges are required. Another suggestion was employing more judges with a combat or mixed martial arts (MMA) background.

When it comes to the Texas Department of Licensure and Regulation (TDLR), which oversees MMA events in the Lone Star State, all they could do was applaud the passion of the MMA world following the events of UFC 247:

“As in all athletic events, athletes, teams, judges, fans and media representatives can – and often do – have differing opinions about what happened in a combative sports match,” commission spokesperson Tela Mange said. “TDLR applauds the passion everyone is exhibiting about this sport. Comments have been made about the selection of the judges and the referees. In selecting ringside officials, TDLR takes into consideration recommendations made by UFC.

“As with all events, TDLR works closely with UFC and other promoters to ensure the quality and experience of referees and judges to protect the health and safety of the fighters.”

They did, however, have a response to UFC commentator Joe Rogan‘s claim that one judge wasn’t paying attention during the Lee vs. Murphy prelim bout:

“Claims have been made that a judge was not paying attention to the fight and was looking down at the floor,” Mange added. “One of the advances that UFC has made in the past several years has been to provide small video monitors below the floor level of the octagon for each judge to more closely monitor matches.”

What do you think of the Texas commission’s response to the judging at UFC 247?