By: Stephen Hardy-Delaney
Somewhere over the rainbow an athletic commission will finally test the waters with open scoring in MMA.
After such unfortunate events at UFC 247 this past Saturday, the Kansas Athletic Commission will adopt open scoring for their upcoming Invicta FC event, Kansas boxing commissioner Adam Roorbach told ESPN on Monday. One of the few sports that doesn’t have open scoring will now allow fighters and fans to see where they’re at in the fight just as they would in American and international football, basketball, baseball, etc. After every round that ends after the five-minute mark, a score will be shown to everybody.
According to Marc Raimondi of ESPN, Roorbach said the use of real-time scoring is up to the promoter and the commission will be flexible to the promoter’s desires. It doesn’t have to be used at all; it can be used for some fights and not others, and the scoring information can be given only to select people in between rounds.
Invicta FC airs on UFC Fight Pass and will become the first promotion to use open scoring for their Kansas City card which takes place on March 6th.
“If we can help in some way to push the sport forward in a positive direction, that’s what we’re about — we’ll try,” Invicta promoter Shannon Knapp told ESPN.
“I come from outside of the combat sports world,” Roorbach said. “But I’ve been a sports fan my whole life. It always mystifies me why the fighters and fans don’t know what the score is until the end. No one has ever given me a good explanation as to why.”
Open scoring has been trying to make its way into the sport of MMA for some time now, most notably the biggest MMA promotion in the world the UFC. Just to name a few as of recent fighters including Dominick Reyes, former UFC Featherweight champ Max Holloway, and ESPN’s Ariel Helwani have been clamoring for it and as of this past Saturday the thought of having open scoring is becoming more relevant and rightfully so.
MMA judging came under heavy scrutiny in Houston, Texas after Jon Jones ‘ controversial light heavyweight title defense against Dominick Reyes. Many, including Reyes himself and UFC president Dana White, thought Reyes won the fight. Reyes told Ariel Helwani on his MMA show that he absolutely would have preferred to know the score of the fight in real time, rather than being surprised by the decision at the end. Reyes thought he had won the first three rounds with Jones winning the last two rounds due to his takedowns. Reyes became the first fighter to outland Jones in a fight and landed 116 significant strikes on Jones.
“I truly believe I won that fight. I’m the uncrowned king right now.” Reyes said after his fight.
“In all honesty, I would,” “Yeah. Just yes.” Reyes said to Helwani in reference to open scoring.
For Dominick Reyes’ full interview with Ariel Helwani click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpP3ObfQBD0&t=309s
“If you guys aren’t going to change the rules of the scoring — if we’re not going to do anything about that — at least tell me if I’m winning or losing, for god’s sake,” said James Krause who lost a controversial decision to Trevin Giles this past Saturday as well. Krause came in on one day’s notice to fight Giles who lost his original opponent, Antonio Arroyo, and Krause showed us absolute heart and grit by coming up a weight class from 170 lbs (welterweight) to 185 lbs (middleweight) and previously being a 155er (lightweight) to fight an actual Houston police officer in Giles.
“I felt I had won 1st and 3rd [rounds], yes absolutely. But I had seen some of the other decisions and the kids from Houston, he’s a Houston cop, in Houston. I didn’t feel good about it man,” said Krause.
When asked by Ariel Helwani if he likes the idea of open scoring Krause stated:
“Absolutely! In any other realm, how do you not know if you’re winning or losing? It’s like watching a basketball game from a hundred yards away and you’re not keeping score after two hours. You don’t know if you won or lost. Not to mention, we’re using a scoring system for another sport (boxing) that is not even our sport! I don’t know. It’s ridiculous.” said Krause.
“Why are we not doing open scoring? It’s so stupid. At least tell me if I’m winning or losing and I know why they don’t do it because they’re afraid in some of the fights that people will try to hold on for the last round,” Krause said. “But I’m telling you what; If I knew I was down 0-2 going into the third — I mean, I did it anyway, but I’m trying to knock that dude’s head into the fifth row, because I had it 1-1 going into the third. To give that guy the first round is criminal to me.”
“There’s no accountability on these [judges], either,” Krause said.
For James Krause’s full interview with Ariel Helwani click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mybXnp8Xg4
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