Tuesday afternoon I left work early and eagerly rushed to my local Gamestop store to pick up my preordered copy of UFC Undisputed 2010. It wasn't long before I was back at my apartment on my couch impatiently watching the load bar as THQ's most recent volume in the UFC line installed itself to my PS3. Right off the bat I noticed that the graphics have been vastly improved from 2009, especially in the surrounding enviorment of the corner, cage, gym, and crowd, giving the game a much more realistic feel. The game is utterly addictive and makes you want to play it for hours on end...then you start to see the unresolved issues that THQ simply decided to ignore.
Game Play: The controls remain for the most part the same as they did in 2009. Movement is controled with the left stick, striking the function buttons, levels and defense with the shoulder keys, and grappling with the right stick. The most noteable changes are in the clinch work and the use of the cage. Where 2009 offered a truly minimal experience involving a race to the thai clinch and the ability automatic escape double unders by stepping backwards, 2010 took strides to make this facet of the game more than just a poor extension of the kickboxing system. Players must now via for position in the clinch and worry about the takedown and gone is the ability to simply break the clinch when you find yourself in a disadvantageous position. Also new to 2010 is cage work. In 2009 the cage served no real purpose other than to serve as a barrier to the fighting area with no effect on clinch work, grappling, ground 'n' pound, or anything else. 2010 provides even more depth to its realism by allowing players to use the cage for everything save standing up. You can lean against it to stop a double leg and drive your opponent into it with the clinch, providing previously unattainable levels of control over an opponent. These changes are a vast improvment over 2009, providing a far more ingrossing experience and a more real life feel to the game.
Less successful are the new sway system and the abysmal AI. The sway system allows players to slip and counter punches with well timed defensive manuvers that in theory provide a more realistic stand up experience. The issues lie in the fact that it has two major flaws: it's overpowered and it lacks intuitiveness. Slipping punchs isn't just a matter of timing, its almost a matter of mind reading. It isn't as bad as the first generation UFC games submission defense system where defense was a matter of hitting the exact same button combination as your opponent, but its close. Players must use near perfect timing and select the proper directional counter to any one of his opponents multitude of strikes in order to dodge the punch. The reward for this? A counter punch that is an instant KO 95% of the time, regardless of your range or the opponents previous condition. This system is designed to simulate the flash KO that sometimes comes with a skilled and well timed counter punch but unfortunately its lack of intuitiveness makes it nearly impossible to use defensively and its overpowered effect on the counters means that a shot in the dark slip results in a one button instant finish. Overall the sway and counter system will end up being just a way for the computer AI to piss you off again and again with results like Eddie Sanchez defeats Brock lesnar via KO after three rounds of being totally destroyed. The second issue with gameplay is the unrealistic AI. When you square off against Mirko CroCop you look for an exciting stand up fight, but the computer opponent will spend the entire fight shooting doubles. This seriously detracts from the feeling of a real UFC fight as the AI causes the fighters to behave in a manner completely against their nature. When you get submitted by Antoni Hardonk, its really hard to say "Man this game is realistic! It's just like watching a pay-per-view!"
Last but not least, the transitions, which were abysmal in 2009, have not been fixed in 2010. This issue is mainly a result of camera angles and zoom. When you move in for a takedown or the clinch, the camera jumps to a close up view in a way one would expect from a video came. This detracts from the realism of the game and THQ would have been much better served by a slow pan more like the changes found when watching a pay-per-view.
Play Modes: Undisputed 2010 provides gamers with a plethora of ways to experience the UFC. Want to fight as your favorite UFC fighters? You can choose from a one match exhibition, a climb up the ladder in title contention mode, a take all comers experience in title defense mode, an old school fight for survival in tournament mode, or a chance to relive your favorite fights in Ultimate Fights mode. Want to experience the long hard road to the UFC with your very own fighter? Career mode takes you through your amature carrer, fights in the WFA, visits to other camps to learn the moves and attacks you want to learn, and finally, to the UFC. Want to play with your freinds or just dominate people around the nation? You can take your favorite UFC fighters or your created fighters online and even form an online fight camp.
With so much to do, the replay value is immersurable. THQ has shown true genius in taking what basically ammounts to doing the exact same thing over and over and making it into a collection of unique experiences. Road to the title? Thats 8-12 fights in a row. Defense mode? Thats 12 fights in a row. Tournament mode? 4-6 fights in a row. THQ has built an experience that makes you truly feel the distinction between taking Lyoto Machida against Shogun in each of the diferent modes.
In career mode, though the training system is a bit confusing and tedious and lacks a tutorial thats even remotely helpful, the ends to which you can customize your personal fighter are boundless. Gone is the instant trip to the UFC with a predetermined skillset from 2009. THQ replaced it with a completely open-ended system where you train your fighters overall skills by sparring, his physical attributes by training, and build a custom move list through camps that YOU select. This system, while at times confusing and tedious, allows you to build a truly unique fighter who is all your own and pits you against lesser competition in the WFA while you do it, so you never end up fighting BJ Penn or GSP three fights into your career with half a move list like you did in 2009. This is a truly remarkable custom fighter engine.
The only dark spot to 2010s game mode options is the online server. Finding a game is next to impossible and joining that fight is even harder. If you do manage to get in the cage with someone, the gameplay is laggy and often freezes. In one partiqularly bad example, I spent two hours trying to join a fight and when I finally did, the server lag was so bad that it was like watching my fighter (Machida in this case) move as if he were fighting underwater before the game froze and kicked me from the room. I run my game on a T1 connection, this shouldn't happen.
Presentation and Graphics: This is the best and the worst area of UFC Undisputed 2010. As soon as you log into the game you find yourself emersed in the look and feel of the UFC. Your fighter speaks about an opponent as if he really knows him, the anouncers discuss not only the current action but they talk about your previous fights, the cage, crowd, mats, ring girls, and ref are every bit as realistic as your fighter. Everything is there to make you feel like you are plugged into the UFCs latest PPV and are controlling your favorite fighter. Then you realize that alot of the discussions grow repetative. THQ could have corrected this with just a handful of voice clips from Goldie and Rogan, making the rotation of comments a little more varied. Then you realize that listening to your corner is the worst thing you could do as they talk about how you need to watch your opponents takedowns...despite the fact he is Antoni Hardonk and hasn't shot in his last ten fights. If the boys at THQ can make Mike and Joe keep up with several fights then there should be no trouble making the corner give advice that is somewhat helpful instead of just the next thing in a rotation of generic comments. The last part of the presentation comes in the form of career mode. Your "coach" is useless, the lack of a tutorial is almost unforgivable, and the six srceens of various spreadsheet style stats, sponsers, training options, camps, and schedules are in desperate need of streamlining and explination. It is a complete distraction from the wonderful job THQ did simulating the progress of your fighter clawing his way to the top of the WFA food chain to become a UFC fighter.
Overall, UFC Undisputed 2010 is not only an improvement on the already spectacular 2009, but is a truly inovative combat sports game all on its own. THQ has developed a nearly flawless fight simulator that makes you feel like you can do anything your favorite fighters do on TV. They built a create a fighter system that allows you to create a truly unique fighter, not simply make adjustments to a previously designed template. They developed an AI for the comentators as opposed a rotating battery of voice clips. The only thing stopping this game from attaining perfection are a few errors that unfortunately appear to be cost cutting or worse, laziness. Why not keep Rogan in the booth for a handful more comments? Why no tutorials so new players can find their fighters ass with a flashlight in career mode? Why not adjust the computers AI to behave more like the fighter you are actually facing instead of allowing Daimen Maia to fight like Mirko CroCop? And PLEASE THQ I beg you, fix the online servers so I can beat up my friends in other states. Hopefully THQ will listen to the players and fix these errors in 2011. If they do, not even the game Nazis at IGN will be able to deny the games perfection.
5/28/10
5/13/10
UFC 113: Machida Shogun 2 GBU
Now that my computer is back up and running, I've got alot of work cut out for me. Strikeforce: Heavy Hitters is just three days away, I still have to do part 2 of my piece on judging, and UFC 113 needs to be covered. Better get started. Montreal, Quebec, Canada played host to the second meeting between Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and light-heavyweight champ Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida after their controversial first bout at UFC 104 and the card did not disappoint. A card that was stacked with strong draws and UFC stalwarts delievered a night of fast paced fights and a few suprises to boot. In the end we are, as always, left with guys who come out looking good, guys who come out looking bad, and guys who come out looking down right ugly.
The Good:
Mauricio Rua: "Shogun" came into this fight looking to prove that he deserved to win the controversial decision against Lyoto Machida back in October. He did just that. By luck or design, an overhand right from Rua caught Lyoto off balance and toppled him to the mat. Thats where the arguements of a lucky punch stop. Rua pounced on Machida like a ravenous wolf and established mount before showing the killer instincts that are synonymous with his old camp at Chute Box. Though the initial knock down was caused more by the champ being off balance than the punch landing with power, "Shogun's" ability to seize the opportunity and gain mount resulted in a brutal KO stoppage. Ladies and gentlemen, your new champion: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
Alan Belcher: Belcher was given an opportunity to face a very solid middleweight fresh off a two year long lay off in Patrick Cote and he capitalized. In the first round, "The Talent" controled the action with crisp stand up and good movement against a noticably rust Cote before the Canadian took him to the mat and secured a kimura from the half gaurd. Cote made a mistake by splitting his legs to far and Belcher used his own kimura to sweep him...Alan Belcher was never threatened again. He ended the round with elbows then came out in the second to counter a sloppy double leg with a WWEesque facebuster before taking Cote's back and securing a rear naked choke for the win. Belcher showed a dangerous mix of technical striking, solid grappling, and brute strength and used the display to justify calling out Anderson Silva. Even if you think he doesn't have a chance against Silva, he certainly made a case for himself with tis bout.
Sam Stout and Jeremy Stephens: Despite the lack of a finish, in fact the seeming lack of a desire to finish, Stout and Stephens fought a stand-up war that earned them both a 65k fight of the night bonus. The two came out swinging with every round being divided amongst the judges. In the end, Stephens walked with a decision that, though not everyone agrees with, was close enough to avoid controversy. This was more than likely due to him landing the only two takedowns in the bout and a slight edge in powerful strikes landed. A fight like this really has no loser as both men left the ring looking good in the eyes of the fans and the UFC brass.
The Bad:
Lyoto Machida: Machida walked into the octagon with the light-heavyweight belt, a perfect record, and the very validity of his style (at least in the eyes of the uneducated) riding on his shoulders. He lost all of it. It took less than five minutes following his KO loss to Mauricio Rua for journalists and knuckle headed TUF fans to begin snickering about karate aparently not making a comeback and about how it should've ended this way the first time. While I have no doubt "The Dragon" will come back strong and eventually take back his belt, his air of invincibility and the mysterious dominance of his style have been completely shattered.
Matt Mitrione: Matt Mitrione showed that he had the ability to utilize patience and a solid gameplan to achieve his goals in his second round TKO of Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. He also displayed a fanboy, saw-it-on-TV level of submission skills and a gas tank that equates to a dragsters one gallon fuel cell. Matt started the fight with a pair of high kicks, the later of which was caught and ended with him on his back. He followed with a sloppy triangle choke that got him slammed hard twice. Luckily for him that was it for "Kimbo's" stamina. He spent the rest of the fight battering "Kimbo" with leg kicks and first month student level submission attempts before mounting the street brawler half-way through the second round and securing a ground n pound win...using the term "pound" very loosely. Mitrione won but proved a skilled fighter who can last more than two minutes has nothing to fear from him.
Patrick Cote: Cote came back from a two year injury lay off to showcase his talent in front of a sold out hometown crowd. Unfortunately, he showed spots of ringrust in all the wrong areas. His footwork and set ups were strong on the feet, but he couldn't land the shots he needed to stop Belcher's well placed kicks. He set up his submissions with precision and moved fluidly through top positions, only to make glaring positional errors while locking in a kimura that resulted in a sweep. Cote will come back stronger than most from such a serious injury, but Belcher was on point and far to sharp to allow Cote the mistakes he made.
The Ugly:
Josh Koscheck: "Kos" showed an intellegence that few thought could override his arrogance in his decision win over Paul Daley. He took the dangerous fighter down repeatedly in route to an incrediblely boring lay n pray victory and secured a rematch with welterweight kingpin George St.Pierre and a coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter in the process. So why is he listed in The Ugly? First reason: bad acting. In the first, during a scramble, Daley threw and illegal knee to the head while Koscheck was on the ground that clearly missed and Josh decided to go for an emmy for best actor in a faked injury role by clutching his head and crumpling against the cage, provoking a chourus of boos from the Canadian crowd that could be heard on the gulf coast. Second reason: He spent the final 20 seconds of the fight insulting Daley's mother...on the day before Mother's Day. Third reason: He insulted, and cursed at, the entire sold out crowd in Montreal. Any good he did with the win was erased by his bad acting and his insults more than likely will result in GSP seriously injuring him.
Paul Daley: If everything went right for "Shogun" Saturday night, everything went wrong for "Semtex". He was soundly dominated in what was the only boring fight of his career, insulted schoolyard bully style by "Kos", and booted from the UFC for his frustrations. After almost losing a point for an illgeal knee due to Koscheck's shameless display he spent the rest of the bout more or less in a headlock getting nuggied and it was all capped off with Koscheck insulting his mother from his half gaurd. Frustrated to the point of stupidity, Daley expotentially compounds his problems by tapping Koscheck on the shoulder and sucker punching him a full ten seconds after the final bell. The result was Daley's lucky star turning into a catastrophic meteor impact causing a career extinction event. He showed that a strong wreslter can completely shut him down and got booted from the UFC all in one fell swoop.
Kevin Ferguson: "Kimbo Slice" proved Dana White and every other serious MMA fan right. His work ethic is strong but he never has been nor ever will be anything more than a curiosity in MMA. His skill set isn't even at a journeyman level as Matt Mitrione proved by using very basic kickboxing and sub-gatekeeper level wrestling to completely shut down the brawler whose wind ran out after only a few short minutes. Kimbo will probably be featured in several fights against washed up celebrities, fighters from several generations ago, and aged cross over athletes but he will not be in the UFC any longer. Kimbo looked utterky lost in the second round and you could almost see the realization that he would never see UFC glory dawn in his eyes and he flailed under a fighter with only two professional bouts to his name.
The Good:
Mauricio Rua: "Shogun" came into this fight looking to prove that he deserved to win the controversial decision against Lyoto Machida back in October. He did just that. By luck or design, an overhand right from Rua caught Lyoto off balance and toppled him to the mat. Thats where the arguements of a lucky punch stop. Rua pounced on Machida like a ravenous wolf and established mount before showing the killer instincts that are synonymous with his old camp at Chute Box. Though the initial knock down was caused more by the champ being off balance than the punch landing with power, "Shogun's" ability to seize the opportunity and gain mount resulted in a brutal KO stoppage. Ladies and gentlemen, your new champion: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua.
Alan Belcher: Belcher was given an opportunity to face a very solid middleweight fresh off a two year long lay off in Patrick Cote and he capitalized. In the first round, "The Talent" controled the action with crisp stand up and good movement against a noticably rust Cote before the Canadian took him to the mat and secured a kimura from the half gaurd. Cote made a mistake by splitting his legs to far and Belcher used his own kimura to sweep him...Alan Belcher was never threatened again. He ended the round with elbows then came out in the second to counter a sloppy double leg with a WWEesque facebuster before taking Cote's back and securing a rear naked choke for the win. Belcher showed a dangerous mix of technical striking, solid grappling, and brute strength and used the display to justify calling out Anderson Silva. Even if you think he doesn't have a chance against Silva, he certainly made a case for himself with tis bout.
Sam Stout and Jeremy Stephens: Despite the lack of a finish, in fact the seeming lack of a desire to finish, Stout and Stephens fought a stand-up war that earned them both a 65k fight of the night bonus. The two came out swinging with every round being divided amongst the judges. In the end, Stephens walked with a decision that, though not everyone agrees with, was close enough to avoid controversy. This was more than likely due to him landing the only two takedowns in the bout and a slight edge in powerful strikes landed. A fight like this really has no loser as both men left the ring looking good in the eyes of the fans and the UFC brass.
The Bad:
Lyoto Machida: Machida walked into the octagon with the light-heavyweight belt, a perfect record, and the very validity of his style (at least in the eyes of the uneducated) riding on his shoulders. He lost all of it. It took less than five minutes following his KO loss to Mauricio Rua for journalists and knuckle headed TUF fans to begin snickering about karate aparently not making a comeback and about how it should've ended this way the first time. While I have no doubt "The Dragon" will come back strong and eventually take back his belt, his air of invincibility and the mysterious dominance of his style have been completely shattered.
Matt Mitrione: Matt Mitrione showed that he had the ability to utilize patience and a solid gameplan to achieve his goals in his second round TKO of Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson. He also displayed a fanboy, saw-it-on-TV level of submission skills and a gas tank that equates to a dragsters one gallon fuel cell. Matt started the fight with a pair of high kicks, the later of which was caught and ended with him on his back. He followed with a sloppy triangle choke that got him slammed hard twice. Luckily for him that was it for "Kimbo's" stamina. He spent the rest of the fight battering "Kimbo" with leg kicks and first month student level submission attempts before mounting the street brawler half-way through the second round and securing a ground n pound win...using the term "pound" very loosely. Mitrione won but proved a skilled fighter who can last more than two minutes has nothing to fear from him.
Patrick Cote: Cote came back from a two year injury lay off to showcase his talent in front of a sold out hometown crowd. Unfortunately, he showed spots of ringrust in all the wrong areas. His footwork and set ups were strong on the feet, but he couldn't land the shots he needed to stop Belcher's well placed kicks. He set up his submissions with precision and moved fluidly through top positions, only to make glaring positional errors while locking in a kimura that resulted in a sweep. Cote will come back stronger than most from such a serious injury, but Belcher was on point and far to sharp to allow Cote the mistakes he made.
The Ugly:
Josh Koscheck: "Kos" showed an intellegence that few thought could override his arrogance in his decision win over Paul Daley. He took the dangerous fighter down repeatedly in route to an incrediblely boring lay n pray victory and secured a rematch with welterweight kingpin George St.Pierre and a coaching stint on The Ultimate Fighter in the process. So why is he listed in The Ugly? First reason: bad acting. In the first, during a scramble, Daley threw and illegal knee to the head while Koscheck was on the ground that clearly missed and Josh decided to go for an emmy for best actor in a faked injury role by clutching his head and crumpling against the cage, provoking a chourus of boos from the Canadian crowd that could be heard on the gulf coast. Second reason: He spent the final 20 seconds of the fight insulting Daley's mother...on the day before Mother's Day. Third reason: He insulted, and cursed at, the entire sold out crowd in Montreal. Any good he did with the win was erased by his bad acting and his insults more than likely will result in GSP seriously injuring him.
Paul Daley: If everything went right for "Shogun" Saturday night, everything went wrong for "Semtex". He was soundly dominated in what was the only boring fight of his career, insulted schoolyard bully style by "Kos", and booted from the UFC for his frustrations. After almost losing a point for an illgeal knee due to Koscheck's shameless display he spent the rest of the bout more or less in a headlock getting nuggied and it was all capped off with Koscheck insulting his mother from his half gaurd. Frustrated to the point of stupidity, Daley expotentially compounds his problems by tapping Koscheck on the shoulder and sucker punching him a full ten seconds after the final bell. The result was Daley's lucky star turning into a catastrophic meteor impact causing a career extinction event. He showed that a strong wreslter can completely shut him down and got booted from the UFC all in one fell swoop.
Kevin Ferguson: "Kimbo Slice" proved Dana White and every other serious MMA fan right. His work ethic is strong but he never has been nor ever will be anything more than a curiosity in MMA. His skill set isn't even at a journeyman level as Matt Mitrione proved by using very basic kickboxing and sub-gatekeeper level wrestling to completely shut down the brawler whose wind ran out after only a few short minutes. Kimbo will probably be featured in several fights against washed up celebrities, fighters from several generations ago, and aged cross over athletes but he will not be in the UFC any longer. Kimbo looked utterky lost in the second round and you could almost see the realization that he would never see UFC glory dawn in his eyes and he flailed under a fighter with only two professional bouts to his name.
4/27/10
And Now For Something Completely Different
First things first, let me address the turd in the MMA punch bowl. Three days after one of the most entertaining fights of the year, we have already allowed ourselves to be distracted from the sport we all love by something that has little or no effect on it. I am, of course, referring to the MMA media's current obsession with the Tito Ortiz domestic abuse scandal. While I personally have never liked Tito and jump at every chance to bash him, I find myself put off by MMA journalists' willingness to focus their attentions on a tabloidesque (it was originally reported by TMZ for Christ's sake!) story that is not only none of anyone else's business, but also has no real effect on MMA as a whole. This is why I have decided to focus on something far more relevant to our sport in this post, the absolutely appalling state of MMA judging. While complaints about judging are outnumbered only by the number of blog and forum posts detailing how to fix it, I find that recently this has become far more of an issue. I don't believe that judging can really be covered in brief, so this particular article will be made in two posts: the history of and problems with MMA judging, then the many ways of how to fix it.
In the early 90's, MMA was a contest with very few rules and no time limit. The fighters were going into the cage with the knowledge that they HAD to finish the fight. There was one slight issue though. While it insured the purest form of non-lethal combat, with both fighters always looking to finish his opponent, it was a nightmare for promoters, live broadcasts, and sometimes even fans. A bout between two skilled fighters could last half an hour or more with no resolution, leaving promoters unable to submit accurate time tables to PPV carriers. A wrestler could pin a jiu-jitsu man and the result would be a boring spectacle that lasted 45min as the wrestler's base and positioning prevents the submission but his inability to deal real damage results in a permanent deadlock. The answer, a time limit! While this solved the problem of getting all the fights to fit in a specific time frame, it created an entirely different issue. How is a winner determined? What happened when one fighter clearly dominated but was unable to finish his opponent in the allotted time? To solve this problem they brought in judges who were to determine who had the best chance of winning the bout had there been no time limit. The initial MMA judging system was a crude system in which a judge simply held up a card with either a fighter's name or draw. This initial system was based on that one criteria "who would have won the bout had it continued." The issue was that it lacked a structure that could be easily understood by fans and fighters alike, also, with the introduction of rounds it failed to address the fact that one man could dominate the first round then be dominated in the second, making it difficult to say if his opponent truly turned the tables or if is was the break in the action that allowed him to seize control. This caused judging's second major over haul, resulting in two major forms of judging: Ippon and 10 point must.
The first of these two systems is the Ippon system developed in Japan. Ippon means "one point" denoting that the judge gives one point to the winner, none to the loser, or none to either in the rare case of a draw. This system's is very similar to the old system in that the fight is judged as a whole, ignoring rounds as a break in the action. The principle difference between the Ippon and the old system is that the Ippon system has a very structured set of criteria used to determine the winner. Rather than simply select the athlete that he believes would have been the eventual winner, a judge follows a guideline of which actions are more important in determining the outcome. Consideration is given in the following order:
Cons: The drawbacks of the 10 Point Must system are the basis for the majority of complaints with the MMA judging situation. First, the system scores the fights round by round, meaning that a fighter can do 90% of the damage in one round of the fight, only to lose to an opponent that wins the other two rounds by the skin of their teeth. The second major issue is the scoring criteria itself. With no concideration given to damage or effort to finish as seperate categories, it creates an enviorment more friendly toward fighters who gear their style more toward controlling the pace as opposed to defeating the opponent. A third problem, and in my opinion one of the worst, is that successful takedowns are listed as effective grappling while defending take downs is relegated to ring/cage control. This means that a fighter is awarded more concideration for taking an opponent down than for stopping an opponent from taking them down. A final major issue is the fact that striking holds a place over submission attempts and take downs hold equal value. In effective striking, good footwork sets up a damaging combination, in effective grappling, a take down or positional improvement sets up a submission or ground and pound. To equate a take down to a submission attempt is equivelent to judging footwork as effective as a head kick.
Judging has and always will have the human element of sujectivity. There will always be mistakes. However, so long as MMA judging continues to use fundamentally flawed judging criteria, the fans and the fighters are the ones who will have to suffer. In my next post I will address the meathods I belive should be used and how I think we can fix the MMA judging structure to leave the human element as the only flaw in the system.
In the early 90's, MMA was a contest with very few rules and no time limit. The fighters were going into the cage with the knowledge that they HAD to finish the fight. There was one slight issue though. While it insured the purest form of non-lethal combat, with both fighters always looking to finish his opponent, it was a nightmare for promoters, live broadcasts, and sometimes even fans. A bout between two skilled fighters could last half an hour or more with no resolution, leaving promoters unable to submit accurate time tables to PPV carriers. A wrestler could pin a jiu-jitsu man and the result would be a boring spectacle that lasted 45min as the wrestler's base and positioning prevents the submission but his inability to deal real damage results in a permanent deadlock. The answer, a time limit! While this solved the problem of getting all the fights to fit in a specific time frame, it created an entirely different issue. How is a winner determined? What happened when one fighter clearly dominated but was unable to finish his opponent in the allotted time? To solve this problem they brought in judges who were to determine who had the best chance of winning the bout had there been no time limit. The initial MMA judging system was a crude system in which a judge simply held up a card with either a fighter's name or draw. This initial system was based on that one criteria "who would have won the bout had it continued." The issue was that it lacked a structure that could be easily understood by fans and fighters alike, also, with the introduction of rounds it failed to address the fact that one man could dominate the first round then be dominated in the second, making it difficult to say if his opponent truly turned the tables or if is was the break in the action that allowed him to seize control. This caused judging's second major over haul, resulting in two major forms of judging: Ippon and 10 point must.
The first of these two systems is the Ippon system developed in Japan. Ippon means "one point" denoting that the judge gives one point to the winner, none to the loser, or none to either in the rare case of a draw. This system's is very similar to the old system in that the fight is judged as a whole, ignoring rounds as a break in the action. The principle difference between the Ippon and the old system is that the Ippon system has a very structured set of criteria used to determine the winner. Rather than simply select the athlete that he believes would have been the eventual winner, a judge follows a guideline of which actions are more important in determining the outcome. Consideration is given in the following order:
- Effort made to finish the fight by KO/TKO/Submission
- Damage inflicted on opponent
- Standing combinations and ground control
- Take downs and take down defense
- Aggressiveness
- Weight (only in special bouts where fighters have a difference 22 lbs or more)
Pros: The Ippon system held true to the idea of viewing MMA bouts as a fight and not as a competition. Fighters cannot "score points" by repeatedly taking an opponent down and not seeking to do any significant damage or set up a submission. It also helps to prevent a judge with a bias toward one style of fighting from eschewing his scored by placing an emphasis on seeking to finish the fight and damage done, making a wrestler who simply pins his opponent the loser against a fighter who hurts him coming in for take downs or who threatens submissions from the bottom or preventing a fighter with a "safe" striking game (i.e. jab your way to a decision) that is designed to control distance rather than KO an opponent from beating a man who is actively looking for the GnP TKO on his few successful shoots. It also prevents the rare 10-9,10-9,8-10 draw were a fighter gets outclassed totally for one round but clearly wins the rest of the fight.
Cons: The Ippon system isn't without it's fundamental flaws. It allows a fighter to be completely out classed, yet still win the fight with a few well timed or lucky blows that cause significant damage or simply drop his opponent to the mat. It also doesn't allow for the deduction of points for fouls and other potentially fight altering rules violations. Finally, aggressiveness is ranked last as a scoring criteria, allowing a fighter to avoid contact with his opponent with no real loss on the cards provided he does some damage at one point or another.
The second system is the 10 Point Must system. This system, developed in the USA for use in MMA, is scored round by round with the winner of the round recieving 10 points and the loser 9 or less. At the end of the bout, the judge tallys the scores on his card to determine the winner. It directly addresses the issue of a fighter controlling the fight only to have that control taken not by his opponents skill, but by the bell. This system basically makes the bout a two of three competition. Like the Ippon system, judging follows a structured list of criteria. Consideration is given in the following order:
- Clean Strikes
- Effective Grappling
- Ring/Cage control
- Aggressiveness
Cons: The drawbacks of the 10 Point Must system are the basis for the majority of complaints with the MMA judging situation. First, the system scores the fights round by round, meaning that a fighter can do 90% of the damage in one round of the fight, only to lose to an opponent that wins the other two rounds by the skin of their teeth. The second major issue is the scoring criteria itself. With no concideration given to damage or effort to finish as seperate categories, it creates an enviorment more friendly toward fighters who gear their style more toward controlling the pace as opposed to defeating the opponent. A third problem, and in my opinion one of the worst, is that successful takedowns are listed as effective grappling while defending take downs is relegated to ring/cage control. This means that a fighter is awarded more concideration for taking an opponent down than for stopping an opponent from taking them down. A final major issue is the fact that striking holds a place over submission attempts and take downs hold equal value. In effective striking, good footwork sets up a damaging combination, in effective grappling, a take down or positional improvement sets up a submission or ground and pound. To equate a take down to a submission attempt is equivelent to judging footwork as effective as a head kick.
Judging has and always will have the human element of sujectivity. There will always be mistakes. However, so long as MMA judging continues to use fundamentally flawed judging criteria, the fans and the fighters are the ones who will have to suffer. In my next post I will address the meathods I belive should be used and how I think we can fix the MMA judging structure to leave the human element as the only flaw in the system.
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