Dana White shocked by UFC 106 judging, says reform out of his hands.




LAS VEGAS – It was no Machida vs. "Shogun," but judging once again became the center of attention following a UFC main event.

Immediately after Forrest Griffin was awarded a split-decision victory in the main event of Saturday night's "UFC 106: Ortiz vs. Griffin II," the third-straight UFC feature bout to receive at least one questionable score, UFC president Dana White was forced to try and explain how the final score was reached.

"The fight could have gone either way," White said. "(But) 30-27? I mean that's crazy."

White was referring to the official scorecard of judge Lester Griffin, who awarded Forrest all three rounds of the fight, resulting in the 30-27 total.

"The 30-27 score is outrageous," White said. "It's insane."

White considered the opening frame of the fight the closest of the the three rounds. Griffin landed the better shots on the feet and fended off two takedown attempts, while Ortiz scored an early takedown and landed a few blows before his opponent escaped to the feet.

"It was a close first round," White said. "The first round was tough to score. As soon as that fight was over, all of us that were sitting down were like, 'That was a tough round to score.'"

Judges Glenn Trowbridge and Marcos Rosales each awarded the first frame to Ortiz, 10-9, effectively placing Forrest in the hole after the first five minutes.

White thought the second frame, which featured two Ortiz takedowns and elbow strikes from the top that cut Griffin, was much easier to score.

"Tito clearly won the second round," White said.

Unfortunately for Ortiz, only Trowbridge agreed. Judges Griffin and Rosales each awarded Forrest the round with a score of 10-9.

The final round was clearly Griffin's, and the one-sided nature of the frame left a 10-8 score for the original winner of "The Ultimate Fighter" a real possibility. None of three judges felt inclined to do so, and each penciled in a 10-9 score for Griffin.

"I can understand Forrest getting a 10-8 in that last round," White said. "He dominated that round, and Tito hardly threw any punches that last round. But for anybody to call that fight 30-27, you're out of your mind."

Ortiz, who won the close first round but lost the second in what White felt was a frame clearly in the "Huntington Beach Bad Boy's" favor, felt he had been wronged.

"I thought I won," Ortiz said. "I thought I won the first round, and I thought I won the second round. I got two takedowns. You saw the damage on his face. I got him good."

For Griffin and Ortiz, the split-decision result was the second such instance in the pair's two fights. A rubber match will likely ensue, and the contest will result in a nice payday for each fighter. But when focusing on the big picture, the fight is another instance in which both fighters, promoters and fans clearly are unsure what the judges are watching.

White said he realizes there is a real need for improvement in scoring, but he clarified that the process isn't in his hands.

"Believe me, you're preaching to the choir here," White said. "There's nothing worse than when guys go out and train hard for a fight and lose fights that they won. It drives me nuts.

"That has nothing to do with me, though. The best thing we're doing on our side is that we've got Marc Ratner, and Marc Ratner is out there trying to work with these guys everyday to make it better. I mean, when you watch a fight like this tonight and hear a 30-27 score (for Griffin), I mean – I don't even know. I'm just so exhausted by this whole thing. It's tiring. It's terrible."

White said the controversies regarding recent bouts between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua as well as Randy Couture and Brandon Vera are particularly frustrating because many people feel the UFC executive is involved in the process.

"You should see the emails I get," White said. "'You scumbag. You're just like Don King.' I get literally hundreds of them.

"It's crazy, but that's what people think. People think we pick (fighters) to win or lose and tell the commissions to do it. It couldn't be further from the truth."

For fans hoping for some type of judging reform, White recommends contacting the athletic commissions with demands for change.

"I don't know what to say," White admitted. "If everyone wants to call the (Nevada State) Athletic Commission and talk to (executive director) Keith Kizer – he's the guy you have to ask questions to, not me. ... The reality is you guys have to call Keith Kizer. Call Keith Kizer and asked him what we can to do to fix this judging and scoring.

"These athletic commissions need to start looking at this and figuring out what they're going to do. It's wrong."



Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/16961/dana-wh ... -hands.mma

The first thing so say, of course, is that everybody sees a different fight. That can't be helped. That's why we have three judges.

It's seems obvious that the problem isn't the 10 point must system as such, it's that these referees just don't know what they're seeing.

How do you score a takedown, or a takedown defence? Or a submission attempt? The relative values of each are more like arbitrarily defined unwritten guidelines rather than rules. When you add to this that these judges are not fans, and have no idea what they're seeing, it makes for a complete clusterfuck of a score card.

You know what? Fuck round limits. Or give us 5 rounds for every fight. The 10 point must system works best over many rounds (designed for boxing, as it is). Makes the rounds shorter. Or, Dana and Kieth, sit these guys down in front of the fights and educate the fuckers. Show them fights that have gone to decisions. When the decision is good, explain why, and when the decision is bad, explain why. Show them what the rest of the world sees when they're watching a fight.

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Yeah some of the decisions lately have been pretty bad. The judges definitely need more training in MMA.

When they announced the judges for Tito vs Griffin, I said to the Canadians that I was sitting with one of the judges has the same surname, that's not good.

Then when I heard 30-27 from judge Griffin all I could do was laugh.

Maybe they are all related to Peter Griffin?