UFC 202 Diaz/McGregor

[Warlord]

Jon's pretty much on the point with his assessment of the scoring, especially with how subjective it can be for judges who don't know what they are watching.

Most of the judges score ignorantly because they don't know what they are watching. They'll award a wrestler an entire round because he got a takedown. Now, ideally, if you are able to attack from the guard, go for subs, and/or reverse and get back to your feet, those actions could potentially negate each other.

But they hardly ever do with judges, because they don't know any better.

I've literally seen dudes like Diego Sanchez win fights for doing nothing more than chasing his opponent around the ring and mean-mug him while catching punches with his face. All the judges see is forward movement, never the counter punches.

Pride scoring was so much better. They scored the fight as a whole, not round by round. And attempting to finish your opponent was scored infinitely higher than trying to wall-and-stall or lay-and-pray your way to a victory, as so often seen in the UFC. They also had yellow cards, which the ref would give a fighter if he was stalling or not pressing the action. (Yellow cards means he lost 10% of his purse.)

It's why Pride produced so many brutal ground-and-pounders like Fedor, Mark Coleman, Kerr, Randleman, and Rampage Jackson. They knew they had to hurt guys and finish them on the ground, or they'd get soccer kicked into oblivion and lose 10-20% of their purse to boot.

The UFC has really got to change their scoring system. It's been a big bone of contention for fans for many years now.