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

[ezekielthree]

Dana is right. It would lead to a lot of Kalib Starnes' third rounds.

 

[Vec-Tron]

Let the fighters know. That way you can lube the fighters up before fucking them.

 

[capnlarge]

Up 2 rounds = boring 3rd round
Tied 1-1=exciting 3rd round

A lot of times someone up 2-0 already coasts. I think the only thing it would cost is some of the excitement of Bruce Buffer's announcements.

Another big problem is that it is impossible to get the different states to agree to any rule changes, and there are other rules that need to be tweaked before this. Plus, all the states have yet to agree on the new rules from like 5 years ago LOL

 

[yougetKTFO]

What happens when you know it's 1-1. Also if you're down 2 0 you should be trying to finish, I disagree with dana

 

[Coconutwater]

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.

Without open scoring, it’s harder to fix fights. There’s always a loophole for corrupt entities to mess with pro sports and boxing is notorious for such things, MMA, should it be widespread, would be fertile territory. Imagine homegrown decisions or gambling payouts in Vegas, Russia, Macau, Mexico City....

Cashcows would be harder to build up without being so obvious.

 

[Safton]

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

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.

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

Open scoring is great.

This pretty much sums up my feelings on it. I've watched one iKON event (which doesn't have "official" open scoring but does have a professional pundit guy who's like an ex-ref or coach or something? and he gives what he feels the rounds should be scored between each in a brief hot mic session alongside the actual commentators) and one LFA event (Demopoulos vs. Godinez, which had legit, official open scoring). At first my reaction was. "What, everyone can see the scores?! Like Joe Rogan always talked about? Ha! *swish wine glass* How very quaint... that would never work in the big boys' league..."

But the more I thought about it and actually having watched all of each event... I really don't hate it. It seems to make the excitement quotient higher, if anything. And as @Zebra Cheeks said, while it does nothing to "fix" bad judging, that's not really what it's meant to do -- but it can partially alleviate the symptoms in some bouts.

 

[H41ph_84k3d]

Open scoring?

 

[Memeojima]

What an idiot no it doesn't dumbass lol Dana doesn't know anything about fighting. Open scoring exposes his clown circus

 

[Herwald]

I'm in favor of open scoring. What boring rounds is Daner talking about? If I know I'm down 2, I will know to not fuck around and bring it for the 3rd - the heat will be on with no doubts in my mind, especially if the audiences are back and are just as aware as I am to add the boost. This would be awesome.

The opponent might try and run, but you still see that shit now anyway, when dudes think they're winning. And conversely, you get guys like Wonderboy who go 4-0 vs Geoff Neal and still show up for the 5th right in the opponent's face.

So open scoring won't change some guy's nature and sense of pride - neither will it fix goofy judging, but it will make things more honest and straight forward. No more guessing. You're either up or down. Other sports have score boards for a reason.

 

[Ken Fresno]

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?

The whole “push” for open scoring in the mma community is just another example of many mma fans not having knowledge of combat sports in general and certain things that have already played out.

Open scoring does not work.

Belts will never be based only on rankings.

Women fighting will never be as entertaining as men.

MMA will never be bigger than soccer.

 

[BigGing]

IDK what his point is...fighters tend to do that anyways if they think they're ahead

 

[leto1776]

Dana makes a valid point about the winning fighter coasting.

However, the losing fighter would be going balls to the wall in the third round if they are down two rounds.

Yeah, that happens occasionally, but the reality is, if a fighter is down two rounds, it’s for a good reason, that he can’t get anything done against his opponent. Usually it just makes someone fight a sloppy third against a fighter who keeps,doing what is already working.

 

[justdangerous]

if you know you are down 2-0 in 2 close rounds you will go for the finish when in the past you may have just fought to win the round

 

[Aurelian]

Open scoring + 5 judges instead of 3.

 

[ChangeIsComing]

I agree and disagree with Dana, he is right that some fighters will coast if they know they are up. But some times a fighters corner tells them they are up when they are not and they coast believing their corner...so yeah it can work both ways pros and cons...

TBH just keep it the way it is and improve the quality of the judges.

 

[Shishio]

I could see how it would be a fuck up but also how it would work well....most people are worried about buddy knowing hes up 2 rounds and coasting but there are fighters that already do that regardless......I think if someone definitively knows theyre behind they'll come out looking to finish in round 3 or theyre already fucked regardless

 

[markg171]

This argument is, and has always been, dumb. The guy winning isn't fighting himself. He's fighting another person... who's going to see they're losing and need a finish. It goes both ways. And if the lead fighter is able to maintain his lead, then the other certainly doesn't deserve to win.

Which is no different than how pretty much every other sport works. Nobody gets angry when a football team runs out the clock, or a hockey team pulls their goalie to try and use the extra player to get another goal. Those are are just live adjustments teams make based on the objective, open score. Fighters should do the same. Which they're doing anyways, based off their internal subjective scorecards. All that changes is they'd at least have it right this time like those other sports are doing.

 

[gevoudane]

Not sure how to fix MMA scoring. They should reinvent the scoring and not to try evolve the boxing system. How many grappling sports use a 10-9 must?

 

[ChristianZilla]

Would it? I feel like it could make things more exciting and clear about how the judges are seeing the fight. If a fighter is clearly winning 2 rounds, in a 3 round fight, then we don't need open scoring to see that. It's in the close rounds. And it could give a sense of urgency for the losing fighter. Plus, we've seen some incredible comeback wins. Anything can happen in mma and the tide can turn in a second. It's not boring, it's informative.

 

[Aurelian]

Not sure how to fix MMA scoring. They should reinvent the scoring and not to try evolve the boxing system. How many grappling sports use a 10-9 must?

I think mostly the judging can be improved just by adding 2 judges to have 5 instead of 3. There's a lot less room for error when determining a winner.