IMO it comes down to round 2 and MAYBE 3 but I don't agree with people saying 3 was closer or more favorable to Jon than round 2.
I saw a clip of our favorite, Schaub, talking about the fight and he was saying it all came down to round 3 because the other 4 were clearly 2-2.
I think that's pretty good proof that getting former fighters as judges is NOT going to fix the so-called judging problem. It's martial ARTS. An art is a subjective thing. It's not martial sciences, were we can deduce a winner with some formula (e.g. a takedown is worth X, a jab is worth Y, etc.) That was the solution Joe was ranting about after the fight -- also a non-starter. MMA has to be judged subjectively by guys with the knowledge and just as important, the ATTENTION SPAN to pay full attention for 5 minutes and not forget by round's end what happened in the early part of the round. I find many otherwise knowledgeable observers have serious flaws with their retention of what happened throughout the round, and let recency bias wrongfully award the round to the guy who did better at round's end.
BTW, if you think the judging is bad now, you're either a noob or have no memory of how it was.
2009 anyone? One TD wins you the round no matter what? A minute of cage control was given more favor by judges than 3 minutes of badly losing the striking? Randy vs Vera anyone????
At least today's judges are giving guys controversial rounds for the right reasons: damage, cleaner harder shots, efficiency. That one judge in the Jones fight was a complete ass-clown and needs to be removed. But the other judges are very experienced and while you might disagree, their scores are legitimate. They don't inherently reflect a misunderstanding of what happened in the rounds.
We see guys win rounds from the bottom now. It's rare, as it should be, but it has happened and more frequently as of late. Guys are more likely to win rounds where they won the striking over 3 mins even if they were taken down and controlled for the other 2 with minimal offense resulting. That would NEVER EVER EVER happen 10 years ago.
We are progressing. All the bitching now has me wondering, did everyone just completely forget the last 10 years? And before 10 years ago, I think even the sports biggest experts didn't/couldn't really understand how to score as well as we do now.
