UFC President Dana White agrees MMA judging needs vast improvement
This past Saturday brought out a great fight as Forrest Griffi
n took a split decision victory over opponent Tito Ortiz at UFC 106. While Ortiz fans believe he won the fight, there is just no logical way to score the bout in his favor. Griffin evaded damage with Ortiz in his guard and was the better man on the feet for 15 minutes.
While Griffin’s victory was no surprise after witnessing three rounds of the two giving it their all, a split decision with such opposing scores was indeed a shock. Fans have been increasing in uproar over “controversial” decisions and the need for better judging has never been more evident. UFC President Dana White elaborated on this to the press…
“When you watch a fight like [Ortiz vs. Griffin 2] and you hear a 30-27 score, I don’t even know, I’m so exhausted by this whole thing. It’s tiring. It’s terrible. These athletic commissions need to start looking at this and figure out what they’re going to do. It has nothing to do with me. You should see the emails I get, ‘You scumbag, you’re just like Don King.’ That’s what people think. People think that we pick who’s going to win or lose and tell the commission to do it. Talk to (Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission) Keith Kizer. He’s the guy you want to ask questions to. Call Keith Kizer and ask him, what can we do to fix the judging and scoring?”
Tags: dana white, forrest griffin, keith kizer, mma judging, state athletic commission, tito ortiz, ufc 106 decision
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You gotta love these split decisions! Ortiz may have had the first round, granted. But somewhere in the midst of round 2, it just seems like he was beginning to gas out. And by the third round, Ortiz wasn’t putting up much of any fight until the last minute. How there could be any doubt that Griffin won the fight is beyond me. I didn’t really get that split decision. I’m not sure that any split decision makes much sense. But it goes to show that judging is completely subjective. As long as that is the case, I’m not sure that much can be done to improve the system. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that Ortiz, along with his fans, feel he should have won the fight. He mentioned on Twitter page that he was “robbed”? Can he really be that deluded? Ok, I’m done fussing.
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