UFC and Judge Selection

[soleprovider14]

I was just watching the 164 post-fight scrum and Dana, answering a question about judging and 10-8 rounds, again, says that that's what you get when you go to these new markets and have inexperienced judges. One of the three judges last night was Sal D'amato who has judged plenty of UFC fights before (badly), and has been one of the judges for the past 5 events.

So how does judge selection work? I thought it was up to the commissions of each state to select judges, but how does someone like D'amato judge 5 events spanning multiple states, and one being outside of the U.S.?

Are there only handful of MMA judges in the entire U.S.? Do the state commissions just pick the most well-known MMA judges regardless of where the event is taking place?

 

[tigerstripes]

The commissions choose the judges I believe.

Peoples and D'Amato are most likely "easy to work with".

 

[akutz1]

judges get licensed by each state commission individually and then get placed into a pool where they are supposed to be chosen randomly so a judge can be licensed in every state if he chooses

 

[soleprovider14]

Thanks for the info. So Sal D'Amato being selected for 5 UFC events in a row doesn't make any sense. I wish Dana would put more pressure on the commissions when it comes to things like this. Be more vocal about how the process works/doesn't work, and how it is threatening the sport.

Of course it's all politics so I shouldn't expect to see anything change.