Robberies tend to happen more in five round fights than in three round fights

[Not A Real Fan]

Three round robberies exist but statistically there should be WAY more given that three round fights outnumber five rounders 10+ to 1. For every five round robbery, there should 5+ on the undercard. Instead, if you get any, you have one maybe two at the very most.

Below is just a sampling off the top of my head as I'm sure many of you can add to this list. I don't necessarily agree that these were all robberies but for each fight enough fans thought so.

Jones-Gus 1
Jones-Santos
Jones-Reyes
GSP-Hendricks
Condit-Diaz
Machida-Shogun 1
DJ-Cejudo 2

The longer the fight, the greater the chance for a robbery. Why is that?

 

[updowniri]

2/3 > 3/5.

More people are invested in those fights so they are noticed more.

 

[calisoul]

 

[ignorant MMA fan]

I don't think the "3 round robberies" need to exist on the same card. But 5 round robberies probably have something to do with more opportunity for judges to score rounds differently leading to an unpopular decision.

 

[Sweater of AV]

You're just remembering the bigger fights. There have been plenty of bad three round decisions.

 

[Substance Abuse]

Hardly.

 

[El Fernas]

The longer the fight, the greater the chance for a robbery. Why is that?

More rounds = more chances of a different opinion, also the later rounds seem to vary depending on fighters cardio rather than their skills, so one guy more active can sway judges into thinking he won.

 

[Rambo89]

The 5 round fights are typically bigger name/title fights so you remember them much clearer than the dude that got screwed over on the prelims.. there are tons of awful decisions in 3 round fights. The worst robbery imo in modern UFC history is Ross Pearson vs Diego Sanchez

 

[Ares Black]

Three round robberies exist but statistically there should be WAY more given that three round fights outnumber five rounders 10+ to 1. For every five round robbery, there should 5+ on the undercard. Instead, if you get any, you have one maybe two at the very most.

Below is just a sampling off the top of my head as I'm sure many of you can add to this list. I don't necessarily agree that these were all robberies but for each fight enough fans thought so.

Jones-Gus 1
Jones-Santos
Jones-Reyes
GSP-Hendricks
Condit-Diaz
Machida-Shogun 1
DJ-Cejudo 2

The longer the fight, the greater the chance for a robbery. Why is that?

None of those fights are robberies IMO.

 

[Volador]

You are wrong.

The only conceivable robberies there are GSP-Hendricks, Jones-Reyes and Machida-Shogun 1. There’s more 3rd robberies, but they happen in less important fights so you don’t remember them, or ever find out because they are less memorable. This is a basic logical fallacy called notoriety bias.

On top of that, pure mathematics would also predict that, not only are there many more 3 rounders, it is also more probable for poor judging to affect the result of a 3rd fight than of a 5rd fight, because there’s less buffer for errors the less rounds you have.

The only other factor would be that sometimes I think judges are biased in favor of the reigning champ (evidenced by the “to be the champ you gotta beat the champ” drivel), but I don’t think nearly enough to offset the other factors.

 

[felmmando]

None of those fights are robberies IMO.

All of them have been denounced as such. I reckon it would be easier to find someone who thinks all of them were than someone who agrees with you that none of them were. Personally, I think most of them were and the ones I don't deem robberies, I recognise were close enough to be controversial.

 

[RustyShacleford]

I watched all those fights and pretty much had them called the same way as the judges. The Reyes fight was the only one where I actually thought Jon had lost 3 rounds, but even then I wouldn't call it a robbery considering how close it was.

Frankly I'm hard pressed to think of anything outside of Pearson/Diaz where there was really no explanation for the judges decision. Maybe Hammil/Bisping.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

I wholeheartedly disagree.

What you're seeing is more fan attention on bigger fights, not more robberies.

Case in point, the Soliz round 1 score of Gavin v Krause was exponentially worse than any of his scores in Jones v Reyes, including rounds 2 & 3.

But Jones v Reyes got exponentially more fan attention than Gavin v Krause.

That's exponential^2, in case anyone is following.

Bias is a bitch. Being smart enough to overcome biases proves you're not a bitch.

(apologize if my spelling is off)

 

[Ingjr]

Notice how Jones appears in your list multiple times. Not only a cheater but gets the nod from the judges way too often.

 

[LEWIS540]

All of them have been denounced as such. I reckon it would be easier to find someone who thinks all of them were than someone who agrees with you that none of them were. Personally, I think most of them were and the ones I don't deem robberies, I recognise were close enough to be controversial.

Close fight where the fighter I wanted to win lost = robbery.

All those fights were clearly competitive and close.

 

[capnlarge]

From your list, it appears to me that you are heavily invested in seeing Jon Jones lose and he only fights in 5-round fights, so that could be the explanation.

 

[felmmando]

Notice how Jones appears in your list multiple times. Not only a cheater but gets the nod from the judges way too often.

Which at least raises the suspicion that he cheats in ways that don't involve drugs or eye pokes.

But in fairness to Jones, I think Benson Henderson was the beneficiary of even more robberies and he doesn't cheat, as far as I know.

 

[felmmando]

Close fight where the fighter I wanted to win lost = robbery.

Naw. I mean, I don't doubt any of us can be misled by partiality but there are fights where I really wasn't rooting for anybody that I think were robberies.
I can also think of at least one fight that was denounced as a robbery where the fighter I wanted to win lost and I recognised it was a legit decision.

 

[leto1776]

No stats in OP, uses the word “should.”

fail

 

[13 others]

Statistically there are way more three rd fights thstatistically there is more 3 round robberies. You must have a PhD in stats.