Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. It’s a phrase that’s been repeated so often as to become cliche in the MMA world. In a sport with few rules and many, many options for generating offense, traditional scoring methods have a way of feeling even more subjective than they do in other combat sports. Even what seem to be clear decision wins have a way of getting confused and becoming split decision losses.
The latest point of controversy to darken the UFC’s Octagon came last Saturday, October 22nd in Abu Dhabi, when top-ranked bantamweight contender Petr Yan took on rising star Sean O’Malley.