I feel like MMA judging is a topic that will never really die down, unlike other hot-button issues in MMA. Mostly because while fighter pay and whatever fighter is getting the short end of the stick is interesting, they pass, but judges deciding who has won or lost a fight and making the wrong call seems to be a weekly issue in MMA. It’s in part a product of there being so many UFC events and for the UFC airing every damned fight on every damned card, judges are bound to make a few mistakes. For now-retired fighter Forrest Griffin he doesn’t feel like there is any real viable solution to the judging problem in MMA, which is kind of refreshing to hear. Let’s be honest here, everyone has an opinion on how to fix MMA judging, so for a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion like Forrest Griffin to come out and say that there is no easy fix, it helps.
He was on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour on Monday and the topic of MMA judging and former MMA fighters serving as judges came up, his view was, well, enlightened, to say the least. [link]
“No, they shouldn’t, because they’re biased towards the way they fought. I’d be biased towards more active guys that maybe didn’t have a lot of power, because I never had a lot of power. You have those main biases that you cannot strip away. … I don’t care who you are. Me and Matt Hughes are not going to see eye-to-eye if a kickboxer fights a wrestler.
“I just got to know [a few judges] recently, and they watch tapes. They’ve seen every fight. They’ve seen as many fights as you, and more fights than me. So that’s how you learn. You learn just by watching. You don’t have to do it.”
That is actually a pretty good view of the situation and not really what I expected from Forrest Griffin.