"Wouldn't that be valuable?" - Ariel Helwani reiterates how UFC needs to have NBA-style pool reporting to hold officials accountable 

Ariel Helwani believes the UFC could take lessons from the NBA in officiating transparency. According to Helwani, the UFC could introduce pool-style officiating like the NBA to ensure judges, referees, and commissioners become accountable to a certain extent. Providing an example of a potential scenario, the veteran MMA journalist said during an episode of On the Nose:

"It'll just be one guy and then the answers get disseminated to all the media sources. I would love something like that. Okay, 'At UFC 276 the pool reporter is going to be Mike Bohn from MMA Junkie and he's gonna go to the back and he's going to talk to these three judges or this referee or this commissioner and then we'll get at least get some sort of insight into why they did what they did. Why they scored the fights the way in which they did.' All that stuff, wouldn't that be valuable?!"

Watch the latest episode of On the Nose below:

In an NBA pool report, one reporter goes up to the officials with all relevant questions and disseminates all the information to the rest of the media. The concerned officials watch videos of the play before answering questions so they can provide transparent answers.

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Ariel Helwani suggests open scoring as a 'quickish fix' to MMA judging

Judging MMA fights is perhaps the most complex amongst all combat sports. Instances of a fighter being 'robbed' of a decision or a fight being stopped too quickly continue to plague the sport.

Ariel Helwani has been an advocate of open scoring, which he believes will make judging more transparent. The Canadian also acknowledges the fact that there is a general need for better judges in the sport. However, he believes open scoring is a 'quickish fix' to bridge the gap to improved judging. The 39-year-old said during an episode of The MMA Hour:

“I feel, at the very least, that the fighters should know where they stand. If they’re gonna get screwed, if they’re gonna get misjudged, at least let them know. What’s one way that we can bridge the gap to improvement? One quickish fix is just make it all out in the open. Just let the world know what’s going on in real time, and let the fighters know if they’re about to be screwed. Let them have a say in the matter and let them be able to change their fate.”

Watch Ariel Helwani speak about it in the video below: