The Five Biggest Things Wrong in MMA

I'm a huge NFL fan. Football isn't perfect. There are a lot of rules, strategies, and league policies I hope will change. Most of them probably won't, but some of them will. I'm also a big MMA fan. In this sport, though, I have less confidence that what needs to change will do so.

Organized professional football has been around for about 90 years. Over that time, the game has changed dramatically. Not just with regard to strategy and skill, but to the rules, which are dramatically different than they were in the sport's infancy. In fact, the rules are still changing today; almost every season, there's an important new rule or "point of emphasis."

Go back 20 years in the NFL, and we had six divisions instead of eight, 10 teams in the playoffs rather than 12, no such thing as illegal contact, far less stringent unnecessary roughness regulations, wedges permitted on kickoffs, the current replay and challenge system wasn't in place, so on and so on. The NFL recognizes that problems arise even in a healthy, popular sport, and when those problems arise the league takes action to address them. MMA needs to start doing the same thing.

The five biggest things wrong in MMA:

1) Sub-standard judging.
2) Out-of-date rules, particularly those adapted from boxing.
3) Boring fights with little obvious action.
4) Poor officiating.
5) Match-making handcuffed by reluctance to cross-promote.

Sub-Standard Judging

There are three reasons we see immediate rematches in MMA: (1) freak stoppages due to injury, (2) upset of an outstanding champion, (3) bizarre decision by judges or referee. Last weekend at UFC 123, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson won a controversial split decision victory over Lyoto Machida. Rampage was visibly surprised by the verdict, and admitted in a post-fight interview that Machida probably deserved an immediate rematch. UFC commentator Joe Rogan enthusiastically agreed, as did the partisan Detroit crowd, which had supported Jackson throughout the evening.

Earlier on the card, Nik Lentz won a stunning decision over Tyson Griffin. I didn't see the fight, but I haven't seen anyone defend the decision, either. Nothing — nothing — will destroy a sport faster than lack of legitimacy.* If you want fans to care about your product, they have to believe in a level playing field, that the competitor who wins deserves to. Major League Baseball realized this almost a century ago, enacting a zero-tolerance policy (including lifetime bans) for those who arranged unfair results for the benefit of gamblers. Other sports leagues have experienced similar crises on a lesser level.

*Unless War Machine fights Junie Browning. That would destroy it, too. Heaven help us all.

Mixed martial arts is not obviously threatened by gambling or fix attempts, but it nonetheless faces a legitimacy crisis whenever a fight goes to decision. The judges are less educated, less qualified to assess the bout, than many of the fans in the arenas and sitting at home. It is, or should be, completely unacceptable to have anyone but the most qualified observers deciding fights that go the distance. If MMA is to become a mainstream sport, or even a stable fringe sport, correcting this inadequacy is absolutely critical. We need judges who are nothing less than experts. Judges also should have better access to video and instant replay, so fights don't hinge on partially blocked views.

Anticipatory rebuttal: Don't tell me fighters need to finish. Don't re-hash any of this "never leave it in the hands of the judges" stuff. Yes, the only guaranteed way to win a fight is with a finish, and I'm all for encouraging fighters to be aggressive. But if decisions are going to be part of the sport, they need to be fair. There's no reason for fans or fighters to settle for anything less. Accepting something unfair is stupid, and I believe most MMA fans are smarter than they're often given credit for. Judging needs to be improved, and there are obvious ways to do it: better judges, and a system of accountability for those who are unqualified.

For you die-hards out there — and by "die-hards", I mean Bellator fans — Zoila Frausto is Bellator's new champion in the women's 115-pound division, despite having lost both of her last two fights in the eight-woman tournament. Frausto was outclassed by both Jessica Aguilar and Megumi Fujii, but was awarded startling decisions over both, dealing Fujii her first-ever loss and getting a wholly undeserved belt around her waist. If you care about the sport, or about fairness in general, this is an outrage. Subpar judging is the single most problematic issue in mixed martial arts today, and addressing it should be the top priority of anyone serious about growing or promoting the sport.

Out-of-Date Rules and Boring Fights

Baseball stats guru Bill James has written eloquently about MLB's failure to adapt its rules and address problems that arise in the sport. He describes the view of baseball as a sort of "perfect machine" which never requires maintenance. Similarly, mixed martial arts has issues that need to be addressed, and neither the promotional organizations nor the U.S. state athletic commissions seem interested in doing anything about them. This attitude assumes nothing can change: "Well, this sucks, but I guess it's part of the sport." In many cases, it doesn't have to be.

I despise the 10-point must system in MMA. I guess it works okay in boxing, but in a three-round fight with so many facets, it's simply not effective. Almost every round is scored 10-9, so there's effectively no difference between a dominant round and a toss-up round that is basically even. Instead of judging round-by-round, we should just look at the entire fight. In the main event of UFC 123, Jackson may have edged out the first two rounds, both of which were very close, before decisively losing the third. Judging the fight as a whole, it would be obvious who deserved to win: Lyoto Machida. But the round-by-round scoring allows a fighter who overall was on the losing side of things to nonetheless pull out disappointing decision victories.

We also need a more consistent policy on point deductions. Too often, a ref will stand there and repeatedly yell at a contestant to stop doing something illegal, or even threaten to take a point, without ever following up on it. Grabbing the fence to prevent a takedown can be the difference in a fight. If it's a foul, there should be a penalty. Why not have a firm policy of one warning, then a point?

Another issue that needs to be addressed is prolonged inactivity, the sort of thing that gets fans in the arena booing and fans at home changing the channel or vowing not to shell out for the next pay-per-view. Every sport has rules against stalling. Delay of game penalties, the shot clock in basketball, and so on. MMA desperately requires something to prevent, or at least limit, stalling tactics in the cage. There are provisions in place for referees to re-start the fight in a standing position, and end a fight or penalize a participant when he refuses to engage. I forget which referee it was who threatened to declare a no-contest amidst the endless circling of Rob McCullough and Marcus Hicks at WEC 39, but that guy is my hero. Or, at least he was that night. I'm afraid it might have been Dan Miragliotta, who definitely is not my hero.

The problem is that these referee powers are exercised infrequently and inconsistently. Many refs, especially those with less experience, are actually trigger-happy, standing up fights they have no business interfering with. There need to be clear and explicit rules in place to help referees determine when and how to step in, and those rules need to be aggressive about encouraging action. Mixed martial arts is fundamentally an entertainment business:

* Fighters compete because sponsors and promoters pay them.
* Those sponsors and promoters make money because people watch the sport.
* People watch because it's entertaining.
* Too many boring fights, and people stop watching.

That means no more money coming in, and failing to address this problem could quite literally kill the sport. On the other hand, resolving this issue and making the sport more exciting could help it grow. A network television deal for the UFC would benefit everyone. Fans who are used to paying for the privilege of watching fights would no longer have to do so. Sponsors would reach a far larger audience. The sport itself would reach a larger audience and inevitably grow, translating to bigger paydays for both the fighters and the promoter. MMA is not a perfect machine. Tweak the rules to get a little more action, a little less inaction, and an explicit ban on deliberate stalling, known variously as lay-and-pray, wall-and-stall, and their stand-up cousin, endless circling.

Anticipatory rebuttal: "If you don't want to be held down for 15 minutes and lose a decision, stop the takedown." There are skills fighters can develop to discourage lay-and-pray, particularly takedown defense and a terrifying offensive guard. But when a fighter who lacks those tools ends up against someone like Jake Shields or Chad Mendes or Cole Konrad, it's the fans who really lose. I'm not saying we stand up fighters who are active on the ground, improving position and throwing strikes and attempting submissions. All MMA needs is the same rule every other sport has: a prohibition against deliberate stalling. If you gain a position from which your opponent cannot escape, but you do nothing with it, you are deliberately wasting time in the fight. That means wasting fans' time. It's bad for fans, and it's bad for the sport.

I'm not saying we cut all the boring fighters or stand up a fight if the guy on top can't get an arm triangle right away. I'm just saying we prevent deliberate stalling. There's nothing sporting about it, so it shouldn't be part of the sport. This is a no-brainer.

Poor Officiating

Referees make mistakes in every sport. In mixed martial arts, though, there are a huge number of questionable decisions, including early stoppages, late stoppages, premature stand-ups, and more. In Aaron Simpson's fight with Mark Muñoz this weekend, at one point Simpson got the fight to the ground and appeared to gain a position resembling mount at the exact moment referee Marc Fennell stood the fight up. Fight fans shudder when they see a ref they don't know — the early stand-up is just a matter of time.

I've seen fights re-started when one contestant had a dominant position, was actively improving position, and even in the middle of a submission attempt. Boxing refs are not qualified to officiate mixed martial arts. It's a different sport, and if you don't understand grappling and submissions, you're going to screw it up. There is no excuse for unqualified refs. The promotional organizations and athletic commissions need to make sure all refs are knowledgeable, and training courses should be required.

Josh Rosenthal is an experienced referee, but earlier this month, he let Urijah Faber choke Takeya Mizugaki for a long time after Mizugaki was already unconscious. Some fans were initially afraid Faber might have killed him. This is not Faber's fault. I'm not even sure it's Rosenthal's fault; the angle was really tough for him to see, and no good ref wants to stop a fight too early. Most sports have more than one referee. So should MMA. I don't propose adding a fourth person to the cage, but a couple refs working outside could help prevent situations like Mizugaki's, as well as help identify illegal strikes and better enforce rules against holding the cage or grabbing your opponent's shorts.

Anticipatory rebuttal: It's nothing personal, Mr. Mazzagatti.

Reluctance to Cross-Promote

A century ago, boxing was the most popular sport in the world, and the heavyweight champion was the most famous athlete in the world. Numerous factors have contributed to boxing's decline, but the most obvious is that the best fighters often do not face each other. Look at Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Mayweather. That's never going to happen. Fans lose interest when the best guys outclass all their opponents. There's no drama, and no clear champion. You're watching a mere athletic competition with none of the thrill of actual sport. One of the ways in which MMA is superior to boxing is that the fights that need to happen usually do. Occasionally, however, they're hamstrung by cross-promotional barriers.

If you don't want to see people like Alistair Overeem, Nick Diaz, and Eddie Alvarez compete against the best the UFC has to offer, I don't want to be your friend. But those fights will never happen. The UFC has nothing to gain by making those fights, and Strikeforce has little incentive to cooperate with Bellator, who in turn has no reason to raise the profile of yet-smaller organizations. This is unlikely to change, and there's no obvious solution, but it is a problem.

Honestly, I can live with this one. It's frustrating, certainly, but if this were the biggest problem in MMA, that would mean a lot of progress had been made on more important issues.

Anticipatory rebuttal: Yes, those guys are every bit as good as the guys you see in the UFC. Don't tell me Fëdor Emelianenko hasn't fought anybody; he's beaten five former UFC champions. Overeem is a monster. Diaz won five fights in the UFC, and he's only improved since then. Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez might be the best lightweights in the world. There's only way to find out. If the UFC was really superior, guaranteed of winning, it would set the fights up and prove itself, blow the competition out of the water once and for all. There are plenty of champions in other organizations who probably couldn't compete with top-tier UFC fighters, but there are also some who almost certainly could. It would be nice to know for sure, and it might save us from some of the endless rematches Zuffa seems to be pursuing these days.

November 2010 UFC Rankings

The rankings below are exclusively for the UFC, so you won't see names like Fëdor Emelianenko or Hector Lombard on these lists.

Heavyweight (206-265 lbs)

1. Cain Velasquez
2. Junior Dos Santos
3. Brock Lesnar
4. Shane Carwin
5. Roy Nelson
6. Frank Mir
7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
8. Ben Rothwell
9. Brendan Schaub
10. Cheick Kongo

Make it Happen: Lesnar vs. Nelson

Nelson is a great test for Lesnar. He has knockout power, top-notch grappling, and a mighty chin. Lesnar is the superior athlete, but Nelson has the size and skills to compete with him, to force Lesnar into a fight where he can prove himself to fans who doubt him after the loss to Velasquez.

Thank You, UFC, For: Backpedaling on Lesnar/Mir III

*yawn*

Light Heavyweight (186-205)

1. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua
2. Lyoto Machida
3. Rashad Evans
4. Jon Jones
5. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
6. Ryan Bader
7. Thiago Silva
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
9. Forrest Griffin
10. Rich Franklin

Make it Happen: Rampage/Machida II

It was a close decision that could have gone either way; the fighters and fans deserve a more decisive result. Failing that, 'Page should face the winner of Jones/Bader or Griffin/Franklin, with a title shot on the line. Jackson vs. Griffin II, leading to a rematch with Shogun, would be intriguing. In the meantime: Machida vs. Jones. Styles make fights.

Thank You, UFC, For: Griffin vs. Franklin

Two big names who are probably a little past their primes, but still relevant in the division. This fight is not official yet, but it's expected for UFC 126.

Middleweight (171-185)

1. Anderson Silva
2. Chael Sonnen
3. Yushin Okami
4. Vitor Belfort
5. Demian Maia
6. Nate Marquardt
7. Alan Belcher
8. Wanderlei Silva
9. Michael Bisping
10. Chris Leben

Make it Happen: Wanderlei Silva vs. Marquardt

Two ferocious strikers trying to prove they're not done. This has Fight of the Night or Knockout of the Night written all over it.

Thank You, UFC, For: Okami's Title Shot

Brother has earned it. Don't renege, UFC.

Welterweight (156-170)

1. Georges St-Pierre
2. Jon Fitch
3. Jake Shields
4. Thiago Alves
5. Josh Koscheck
6. B.J. Penn
7. Martin Kampmann
8. Carlos Condit
9. Matt Hughes
10. Dong Hyun Kim

Make it Happen: Kampmann vs. winner of Kim/Nate Diaz

Kim is 4-0-1 in the UFC. Diaz is 2-0 at welterweight and looks better than ever. The winner of this bout is a contender at 170, and deserves a fight with a top-10 opponent.

Thank You, UFC, For: Condit vs. Chris Lytle

A pair of exciting, well-rounded fighters on impressive win streaks. Honestly, there's a lot to be excited about in this division. I swear 170 is the UFC's deepest weight class right now.

Lightweight (146-155)

1. Frankie Edgar
2. Gray Maynard
3. Kenny Florian
4. George Sotiropoulos
5. Ben Henderson
6. Evan Dunham
7. Sean Sherk
8. Takanori Gomi
9. Jim Miller
10. Joe Stevenson

Make it Happen: Sherk vs. loser of Edgar/Maynard

Sherk's win over Dunham was one of those questionable judging decisions, but Sherk looked good. He's been in MMA for over a decade, and he's only lost to Matt Hughes, Georges St-Pierre, B.J. Penn, and Frankie Edgar. If Sotiropoulos or Dunham get de-railed on their paths to the title, the winner of this fight can step in to fill the void.

Thank You, UFC, For: Winner of Edgar/Maynard vs. Winner of Henderson/Anthony Pettis

The UFC/WEC lightweight unification bout. Fans have been wondering for a while now how the top lightweights in the WEC would fare against their UFC counterparts. We're about to find out.

Lighter Weight Classes

I won't rank the new 135- and 145-pound divisions until they've actually been contested in the UFC, but I'm excited for Jose Aldo vs. Josh Grispi. If you've never seen Aldo, he's a wrecking machine, maybe the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Grispi was pulled from a previously arranged bout with Erik Koch so he could face Aldo for the title, and it was the right move. Grispi is on a 10-fight win streak, including victories over Mark Hominick and Jens Pulver.

At 135, Urijah Faber has to face the winner of the title fight between Dominick Cruz and Scott Jorgensen. Faber is a legend in the sport, a huge draw for the new weight divisions, and probably a slight favorite against either fighter.

UFC 123

I scored the main event 29-28 for Machida. The first two rounds were very close, so I had it 19-19 going into the third, which Machida obviously won. Any scoring system that awards a victory to a fighter who was outclassed overall needs to be corrected, but let's not pretend Rampage dominated those first two rounds. They could have gone either way. Jackson certainly had the edge in cage control, but he landed almost nothing apart from a few knees on the cage, and he never had Machida in trouble. The only time either fighter was in danger or close to finishing was the third round. I understand people scoring the first two rounds for 'Page, but I was surprised by the decision.

There was no ambiguity in Penn's victory over Hughes, a KO just 21 seconds in. Penn's next fight reportedly will be against Jon Fitch, headlining the UFC's return to Australia. That's a great matchup, a test for both fighters. I think people are too quick to throw dirt on Hughes, though. He got caught, it can happen to anybody. It happened to George St-Pierre a couple years ago, and it didn't mean GSP was no longer a great fighter. Plus, this loss was to B.J. Penn, who — in case you missed it — is pretty good. Yeah, it was a decisive loss. Hughes is coming off a decisive win over Ricardo Almeida, who is no joke.

Meanwhile, George Sotiropoulos continues to roll at 155, with a submission finish over Joe Lauzon. The native Australian will next face Dennis Siver at UFC 127 in Sydney, a mismatch on paper, and Sotiropoulos should be drawing very close to a title shot at lightweight. The other match that merits mention was the staring contest between Maiquel Falcao and Gerald Harris. The crowd showered Auburn Hills with boos after a fight that saw no action for fully half of the first 15 minutes. The first-round feeling-out process took three minutes. Falcao didn't throw a strike until about 2:45 in, and Harris didn't land anything. The second round was a one-sided beating, but the third round was devoid of action until about the last 15 seconds.

It obviously won't happen, but I wish the UFC would cut Falcao to send a message to fighters and fans that the UFC cares about fans and that the fighters have a responsibility to perform. Falcao didn't earn a paycheck on Saturday night, he just collected one anyway. This was Anderson Silva-esque. Kimbo Slice and Houston Alexander think there was too much pointless circling in this fight. Kalib Starnes thinks these guys were too reluctant to engage. Jake Shields thought the fight was boring.

Strikeforce held a Challengers event on Friday night, but — no joke — I fell asleep during the event. I was awake for the schooling Strikeforce rules director Cory Schafer laid on Mauro Ranallo, but I dozed through most of the event. Wake me when Diaz fights Mayhem Miller or Overeem and Fëdor come back.