Dana White Not In Favor of Open Scoring: “It would make for boring third rounds”

[Zebra Cheeks]

Recently the mma community has become more vocal about the idea of open scoring, especially after the recent draw between Moreno and Fig.

“If a guy knows that he’s up two rounds and you’re a professional fighter, you can absolutely stay away from a guy for an entire round and make the fight completely horrible,” White said (transcription via MMA Junkie). “If you already know you’ve got two rounds in the bag, guarantee if you saw your score up there, all (you) have to do is stay away from this guy for the next five minutes. That makes for a lot of bad third rounds.”

“When we do the fights, I have an idea of who I think won or lost or whatever, but when I’m standing there with the belt, I don’t know what Bruce Buffer is going to say,” White said. “He doesn’t tell me anything. The judges tell him, the commission do their thing, they tell him, and I’m standing there waiting to hear too, so I’m just as blown away as the fans are. And I agree with you: It completely takes away the anticipation of who won the fight.”

Feel free to take a look at MMA Junkies full article: here

What do you guys think? Would open scoring light a fire under guys more often then it creates a boring third round?

 

[Jose Beehive]

I think it could benefit the fighters, and i'm open to hearing more about why it would be better... But I'm not into it to be honest as of now, I like the surprise.

 

[Dick Niaz030]

I like how they doing it in Glory.

 

[Kos Fan]

I agree with Dana. Plus open scoring won’t fix bad judging.

 

[Bearknuckle]

I think the opposite, it adds urgency for the guy losing to try to finish the fight. Like in sports, they know time is running out, and what is needed, everyone is aware of what is needed to win. A finish or a 10-8 round etc.

 

[VinceArch]

I think it has it's positives along with negatives. This is a rare occurrence but Dana has a good point.

 

[KH4818]

“If a guy knows that he’s up two rounds and you’re a professional fighter, you can absolutely stay away from a guy for an entire round and make the fight completely horrible,”

Can't the ref's penalise a fighter for not engaging, that surely has to be the answer and how great of Dana to shoot down an idea without attempting to offer an alternative.

Open scoring + points deducted for not engaging - solved.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

I agree with Dana. Plus open scoring won’t fix bad judging.

Agreed it won’t fix bad judging. But I think there’s a fair argument for the fact that it would give fighters a little more control. If to everyone watching, and both fighters, one guy is clearly up 2 rounds, and the judges botched it, they might take it easy that 3rd round anyway right?

I think that’s sometimes how “robberies” or controversial decisions take place. Someone thinks they’re up, and they aren’t. So even though it won’t fix bad judging, it might remove some of the controversy and outrage when we get a “surprise” blown scorecard at the end of the fight

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I've seen open scoring quite a few times in Invicta and LFA now and I'm yet to see a fighter fight what I would describe as a really cautious third round because of it.

 

[Ares Black]

Recently the mma community has become more vocal about the idea of open scoring, especially after the recent draw between Moreno and Fig.

“If a guy knows that he’s up two rounds and you’re a professional fighter, you can absolutely stay away from a guy for an entire round and make the fight completely horrible,” White said (transcription via MMA Junkie). “If you already know you’ve got two rounds in the bag, guarantee if you saw your score up there, all (you) have to do is stay away from this guy for the next five minutes. That makes for a lot of bad third rounds.”

“When we do the fights, I have an idea of who I think won or lost or whatever, but when I’m standing there with the belt, I don’t know what Bruce Buffer is going to say,” White said. “He doesn’t tell me anything. The judges tell him, the commission do their thing, they tell him, and I’m standing there waiting to hear too, so I’m just as blown away as the fans are. And I agree with you: It completely takes away the anticipation of who won the fight.”

Feel free to take a look at MMA Junkies full article: here

What do you guys think? Would open scoring light a fire under guys more often then it creates a boring third round?

As usual, Dana White is completely wrong. Open scoring has been used by multiple promotions and that has not happened.

Open scoring is great.

 

[Reach4theSky]

“If a guy knows that he’s up two rounds and you’re a professional fighter, you can absolutely stay away from a guy for an entire round and make the fight completely horrible,” White said (transcription via MMA Junkie). “If you already know you’ve got two rounds in the bag, guarantee if you saw your score up there, all (you) have to do is stay away from this guy for the next five minutes. That makes for a lot of bad third rounds.”

I think the opposite, it adds urgency for the guy losing to try to finish the fight. Like in sports, they know time is running out, and what is needed, everyone is aware of what is needed to win. A finish or a 10-8 round etc.

Both are good points. I'd like to see them test it out and see how it goes. Maybe do it for some prelim fights..

 

[Jose Beehive]

What if they let the fighters and corners know, but made it so they weren't allowed to mention.

I know that's ridiculous and wouldn't work, but that would maybe be ideal.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Can't the ref's penalise a fighter for not engaging, that surely has to be the answer and how great of Dana to shoot down an idea without attempting to offer an alternative.

Open scoring + points deducted for not engaging - solved.

Yes they can, but the problem is, and always had been that removing a full point can completely fuck up a fight. You have to win all three rounds to get a W after a point deduction. Think about that.

If you are ahead 2 rounds, and you give up 1 round it’s a tie. That’s such a significant disadvantage that I think the over enforcement of this issue, among others, would really screw up the sport.

 

[DS7]

I don't really think the scoring system is the problem, i think it's the judges in a few ways:

-Imo it should be 5 judges instead of 3
-Judges should give more 10-8 and even 10-7 rounds

Judges in several times are way too skeptical to give 10-8 rounds so you have lots of 10-9 rounds in which a fighters did much better than other in a round but they will have the same score. It's why then people will call for robberies because its the perpection they will have. A great example is GSP vs Hendricks

 

[Hellowhosthat]

As usual, Dana White is completely wrong. Open scoring has been used by multiple promotions and that has not happened.

Open scoring is great.

I suppose the only argument that I can think that he might have is that the stakes in the UFC are financially bigger, so maybe if someone is on 60/60 then they might be more likely to fight defensively to protect that 60k than they would be if there wasn't a win bonus.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

I don't really think the scoring system is the problem, i think it's the judges in a few ways:

-Imo it should be 5 judges instead of 3
-Judges should give more 10-8 and even 10-7 rounds

Judges in several times are way too skeptical to give 10-8 rounds so you have lots of 10-9 rounds in which a fighters did much better than other in a round but they will have the same score. It's why then people will call for robberies because its the perpection they will have. A great example is GSP vs Hendricks

They have 5 judges in ACA and it seems to work okay.

 

[kenetics]

Agreed it won’t fix bad judging. But I think there’s a fair argument for the fact that it would give fighters a little more control. If to everyone watching, and both fighters, one guy is clearly up 2 rounds, and the judges botched it, they might take it easy that 3rd round anyway right?

I think that’s sometimes how “robberies” or controversial decisions take place. Someone thinks they’re up, and they aren’t. So even though it won’t fix bad judging, it might remove some of the controversy and outrage when we get a “surprise” blown scorecard at the end of the fight

Going to be alot of fighters coasting for wins .

 

[Fight Professor]

I do not think open scoring would solve anything. It can certainly makes later rounds boring or even make fighters quit if they realize they are gassed and have no way to win a decision. It would also make commentating a lot more annoying since Rogan and friends are going to commentate on recent scores instead of the fight.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

Going to be alot of fighters coasting for wins .

I think I've probably seen about 30-40 fights with open scoring at this point, and I genuinely haven't seen anyone coast yet.

 

[FIghtxIQ]

That has always been the argument about open scoring, but guess what? Fighters already coast in the final round if they think they are up. Only difference now is that they will for sure know they are up, and the other fighter will know for sure they are down - this forces the other fighter to go for a finish because it's their only way of winning. So it actually makes for more exciting fights, because too many fights end with both thinking they won and if they actually knew they were losing would've fought harder trying to win.