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Max Holloway didn’t deserve to lose his rematch against Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 251. A fight in which Holloway dropped the champion twice and still came out on the losing end baffled everyone from fighters to Dana White.
Jose Aldo and Marlon Moraes’s fight at UFC 245 was the same in the sense that judges awarded the win to Moraes when many believed Aldo had done enough to win. Dominick Reyes found himself in a similar place with much furor over his loss to Jon Jones at UFC 247.
High-profile judging mistakes can set back a fighter in terms of his/her overall UFC career arc, and that is now likely the case for ‘Blessed’.
Even basketball superstar Damian Lillard believed Max had done enough to defeat Volkanovski.
Jose Aldo didn’t suffer because of that loss and got a title bout in his next fight against Petr Yan, but few are as lucky as The King of Rio. Holloway’s loss leaves him in a strange place, as he will have to get victories under his belts to get another match against Volkanovski.
While such decisions hurt every fighter, those at the bottom and the ones just starting their UFC career are the ones most hurt by it. UFC offers its new fighters 10k to show up and 10k to win, and with judges screwing up on decisions, it halves their earning potential.
Such circumstances beg the question: Does the UFC need to improve its quality of judging by hiring former fighters?
Jose Aldo said UFC hiring former fighters as judges could cut into this recurring problem in the UFC 251 countdown show. Max Holloway had something similar on his mind when he came on the JRE podcast.
While judges in boxing can be corrupt, MMA judges get it wrong because of how little knowledge they have of the sport. Judges usually provided by the state athletic commissions are from the sport of boxing, and they are not likely to understand what unfolds when a fight goes to the ground.
A former fighter acting as a judge will be much more authentic and capable to gauge the winners and losers of a close contest. Former experienced pros spend thousand of hours in the gym and will have better judgement when acting as judges.
The 10 points must system taken from boxing isn’t compatible with the grappling aspects of MMA with judges left confused when a fight’s taken to the ground. Volkanovski got the win at UFC 251 because of two takedowns at the end of the last round, which colored the judges’ opinion.
A former fighter will understand the contrast between a significant takedown and the ones’ executed by Volkanovski. Holloway did not endure any damage and was back up on his feet in seconds, barring the fifth-round.
Holloway was instead the one dishing out damage as he managed to knockdown Volkanovski with a head kick and an uppercut in the first two rounds. A former fighter with judging credentials could do the same thing for UFC as them trying to give their fighters commentary or analyst jobs; that is making them better.
With former fighters acting as judges, we could see a huge downturn in the trend of UFC fights being wrongly judged. Terrible decisions have become a part of the UFC in recent times and Dana White should look at potential solutions to what is a horrifying problem; for fighters, fans, and everyone in the MMA community.
