by Kevin Ross
It has been very obvious to me, especially over the past few years, that something seriously needs to be done about the judging in combat sports. Whether it be in Muay Thai, boxing or MMA we have all seen decisions that just made you question what fight the judges could have been watching.
Now having judged fights in the past I know how difficult of a job it actually is. There are so many factors that go into it that when you are just sitting in the stands, enjoying the fights, you don’t actually see. Being that close to the fight you are actually feeling the power of the strikes, the affect they have on the fighters, who’s really getting hurt, tired, etc. Not only that, think about the fact that you can watch a fight from one angle and it will be a completely different experience than if you had sat on a different side. Whether it be because you couldn’t see a certain strike land, or maybe there was a portion of the fight blocked by the ref, ring posts, camera men, etc, you don’t always see everything that is actually happening in there. Another thing I have noticed over the years is try and watch a fight video with the sound on, then go back and watch it with it off and you might see something completely different. Sometimes the announcers can sway you into believing that things are happening that really aren’t or the sound may make it seem like shots are landing a lot cleaner than they actually are. Another thing that can really open your eyes is go back and watch the fight in slow motion, it will blow you away. Strikes you think landed cleanly were actually slipped or rolled off.
I think a huge part in bad judging can be the simple fact that a good majority of judges have no experience in actual fighting. They don’t know what’s truly going on in there; they don’t know what those strikes actually feel like or which ones are causing the most damage. I think it should be mandatory for judges to have at least some actual experience in training in the style of fights that they are judging. How can you possibly judge something that you have no real knowledge about?
Now having judged fights in the past I know how difficult of a job it actually is. There are so many factors that go into it that when you are just sitting in the stands, enjoying the fights, you don’t actually see. Being that close to the fight you are actually feeling the power of the strikes, the affect they have on the fighters, who’s really getting hurt, tired, etc. Not only that, think about the fact that you can watch a fight from one angle and it will be a completely different experience than if you had sat on a different side. Whether it be because you couldn’t see a certain strike land, or maybe there was a portion of the fight blocked by the ref, ring posts, camera men, etc, you don’t always see everything that is actually happening in there. Another thing I have noticed over the years is try and watch a fight video with the sound on, then go back and watch it with it off and you might see something completely different. Sometimes the announcers can sway you into believing that things are happening that really aren’t or the sound may make it seem like shots are landing a lot cleaner than they actually are. Another thing that can really open your eyes is go back and watch the fight in slow motion, it will blow you away. Strikes you think landed cleanly were actually slipped or rolled off.
I think a huge part in bad judging can be the simple fact that a good majority of judges have no experience in actual fighting. They don’t know what’s truly going on in there; they don’t know what those strikes actually feel like or which ones are causing the most damage. I think it should be mandatory for judges to have at least some actual experience in training in the style of fights that they are judging. How can you possibly judge something that you have no real knowledge about?
Another thing that is a huge factor in some crazy decisions is the fact that there is so much going on in there and you have to decipher which strikes, techniques get more credit than others, especially in sports like Muay Thai or MMA where there is such a wide variety of techniques/strategies involved. Yes there are guidelines and criteria on how to score these fights, but it’s not like you can sit there with a calculator and say this technique did this percentage of damage or this strategy gets this much credit. Like it or not it is nearly impossible to be unbiased when judging a fight, regardless of whether or not you know the fighters you are going to favor one over the other. Maybe you just enjoy the way they fight better or maybe you just like one of their haircuts more than the others. We’re humans and we are going to be influenced no matter how unbiased we try and be.
I think for things to change a lot more fighters/trainers need to get into judging and refing, or there at least needs to be some kind of regulation where you need to have had at least a certain amount of training and experience in whichever sport you happen to be judging/refing. Now I’ll be the first one to say that I will never judge a fight again, once was enough for me. Granted it was an amateur event and those are much harder to judge then pro ones, but either way I am not getting involved. You have to realize, especially at the top level, that your judging is affecting someone’s life. One bad decision can completely change a fighter’s career; I don’t need that kind of pressure in my life.
I think for things to change a lot more fighters/trainers need to get into judging and refing, or there at least needs to be some kind of regulation where you need to have had at least a certain amount of training and experience in whichever sport you happen to be judging/refing. Now I’ll be the first one to say that I will never judge a fight again, once was enough for me. Granted it was an amateur event and those are much harder to judge then pro ones, but either way I am not getting involved. You have to realize, especially at the top level, that your judging is affecting someone’s life. One bad decision can completely change a fighter’s career; I don’t need that kind of pressure in my life.
I watch fights the way that I like to judge them, and the way I think a lot of fights should be judged, or at least taken into consideration, is this; which fighter would you rather be at the end of it? I could care less about points, or numbers, whoever got their ass beat lost! Obviously this isn’t very scientific and would probably cause even more problems than we already have but like I said, it should be taken into consideration. As I said before, judging a fight is a very complicated thing, scoring a fight is just one person’s opinion. If you don’t want to worry about whether you will get the right decision or not don’t let it go to the judges, easier said than done!
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