I judge amateur MMA and kickboxing in Tampa, I can fully say, firsthand, it's incompetence. I've discussed fights with other judges that I felt, were wayy off, and the judges are fully convicted in their own decisions.
Also to add, some judges are primary boxing judges, at least in the amateur circuit and have little knowledge in MMA.
A small example, the first fight I had ever judged I had one fighter win 29-28, which I thought was clear, the other 2 judges had it for the other guy 29-28. I remember thinking maybe I did fuck up, but the ref, who refs UFC fights and was one of the Lions Den founders, was pissed and was arguing with the other 2 judges on how they got their scores. I could've been wrong, but I felt alittle justified that a pro ref was pissed enough on the scores and saw it how I did.
TLDR, judges alot of times don't follow the guidelines on how it's scored but come up with their own scoring system.
