Great topic! To me Sanchez vs. Guida was fairly easy to score but Winner vs. Pearson could be a tough one.

“What counts more…a punch/kick to the head or a punch/kick to the body?”- Personally, I would say that there should be some credence given to damage inflicted, wherever the blow was landed. More often that’s likely to occur via headshot but not always. I’ve seen vicious body shots that have noticeably hurt a fighter and would have greatly influenced the way in which I would have scored a round.

“How much are kicks to the leg worth?”- When unchecked, they should count the same as landed bodyshots, I would think (just as unblocked kicks to the head would count the same as unblocked punches to the head).

“Is damage caused by a strike taken into account?”- I don’t see how we could do anything other than consider damage inflicted. Amateur boxing doesn’t consider this criteria and it has helped kill its credibility.

Overall, I employ Max Kellerman’s philosophy on round scoring: “Taking a look at the round as a whole, which fighter would I have rather been?”

Welcome Nigelzackit!

I think it’s the octagon control criteria that messes things up quite frankly… more often than not it’s blanket wrestlers who are unjustly favored by the current system. In fact, in a scenario where a wrestler takes down a BJJ guy and the BJJ guy is the one who’s active submission attempts from the bottom should account for more than the takedown IMO.

I gave that 2nd round to Sanchez on account of him pounding Guida with elbows from the bottom – damage is what I look at first and foremost, followed by close submissions.

It’s an interesting subject because so many aspects of it are subjective.

I understand that, but if the guy has the wrestler in his guard preventing the wrestler from doing anything isn’t that a stalemate, or wouldn’t he be controlling the wrestler?

if you are a wrestler and you take the guy down and lay on top doing not so much, as long as the other guy isnt doing anything or is being prevented from doing anything, you are controlling the fight. theres no argument about it. if you want the guy on his back and thats where he is after you put him there, thats effective grappling and octagon control

It all comes down to the judges. For example, when Diego was elbowing Guida off of his back…an inexperienced boxing judge would see Guida on top and give him the round. A knowledgeable MMA follower would see Sanchez being more aggressive and causing more damage…and give Sanchez the round. We need MMA judges, not boxing judges, who can navigate that gray area. I think a panel of MMA bloggers could do a far better job than these “professional” MMA judges.

Here’s another thing that I’ve observed. Judges seem to almost never exercise the option to score a 10-10 round. I agree that it should not be used very often, but frankly there are rounds where it is warranted. The judging criteria instructional videos that some athletic commissions have for boxing judges state that every round, in effect, begins as a 10-10 round. It’s up to each competitor to then change the score in their favor. Basically, I think it’s up to either fighter to assert their will in a round and take control to “earn” that 10-9 score. Too often it seems judges are kind of like “Ehhh…that was a super close round. Guess I’ll give it to fighter A.” Just a pet peeve of mine, I guess.