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[Dan0]

CBS Sports Questions UFC Credibility
Oct 21, 2007
By Gregg Doyel
CBSSports.com National Columnist



CINCINNATI -- I'm going to put this to potty-mouthed UFC president Dana White in terms he can understand: Your sport has a major f---ing problem.

It's the scoring. At best it's a joke. At worst it's corrupt. Those are the choices, and they are the only choices, as we were reminded again Saturday at UFC 77: Hostile Territory.


We have a question for Dana White: WTF? (US Presswire)
Maybe you don't know what I'm talking about. The latest outrage -- the latest absolute joke -- happened before the UFC 77 card went live on pay-per-view television. It was the first fight, between lightweights Matt Grice and Jason Black, and Grice dominated. He destroyed Black for most of 15 minutes, winning the first and third rounds and controlling most of the second until Black mounted his only offensive late in the round. At worst, Grice won two rounds to one, which on the UFC's 10-point scoring system would be a 29-28 decision. And an argument could be made that it was 30-27.

The fight was announced as a draw. One judge had Grice winning. One had Black winning. The third had it even.

The crowd went nuts. Grice was stunned. Black was embarrassed. The crowd booed for more than a minute, even as UFC announcer Joe Rogan was interviewing Grice over the public-address system (and saying he thought Grice had won). Grice was in the middle of explaining his shock when the frazzled director of the Ohio Athletic Commission, Bernie Profato, lumbered into the octagon and whispered something into Rogan's ear.

This is where a bad situation got ridiculous. Profato was whispering to Rogan that a mistake had been made. Rogan was relaying the information to the crowd. Grice was celebrating. Black was nodding. The crowd was cheering.

Me, I'm steaming.

Because this was bad. This was really bad. Understand what happened, and don't gloss over it. Don't excuse it, as White did afterward.

Here's what happened: After two minutes of outrage, an official scoring decision was reversed right before everyone's eyes. Given UFC judges' history of baffling scoring decisions, it's reasonable to believe the judges honestly called the fight a draw. And that White reacted to the crowd's outrage or his own personal shock and sent word to the judges that their decision was wrong, that one of them needed to change his card so the official outcome could reflect what had actually happened in the octagon.

That's a scary proposition, the UFC manipulating the result of a fight, but the only other alternative is just as frightening:

UFC judges can't add small numbers.

White blamed it on the math.

"They added it up too fast," he said, addressing the issue without one of his signature f-bombs. "They looked at the wrong columns. At least they figured it out. At least they got it straight."

Yes, but only after the crowd went nuts and Grice nearly had a heart attack and Black didn't know what the hell to think. Only after all that, only after several minutes, was the mistake caught.


Sad to say, this problem isn't exclusive to Saturday night. At UFC 63 in September 2006, Jorge Gurgel dominated Danny Abaddi and then literally jerked his head in disbelief when the first judge's card was announced as 29-28 for Abaddi. The UFC later amended that decision, saying the judge meant to score the fight for Gurgel.

Meant to. But didn't. Scary.

This has been going on for years. After his UFC debut in 1999, Jens Pulver had his hand raised in victory. Moments later Pulver's glee became gloom when it was announced that a mistake had been made, that his UFC 22 fight with Alfonso Alcarez had actually been scored a draw. Oops.

Now there's the Grice-Black debacle, which wasn't even the only scoring embarrassment from Saturday night. Here were some others from UFC 77:

• Josh Burkman's victory against Forrest Petz was announced as a majority decision, then changed to reflect that it was actually a split decision. As an added bonus, all three judges originally thought Petz's last name was "Perez." On their cards, "Perez" has been crossed out and replaced by "Petz."

• Stephan Bonnar beat Eric Schafer by technical knockout, but the official ballot originally listed Schafer as the winner. Somehow that mistake -- unlike those involving Grice-Black and Burkman-Petz -- was caught before being announced to the crowd.

• Two official ballots listed the wrong referee. Two had a judge wrong. And one judge thought victorious middleweight Yushin Okami's name was Okami Yushin.

Taken individually, each of those smaller mistakes is a humorous footnote. But taken as a whole? On a night when Matt Grice's demolition of Jason Black was originally announced as a draw? This isn't funny.

This is a problem.

It's a big problem, Dana White. Fix your f---ing sport.

http://www.graciefighter.com/?page=news

Gregg Doyle can be contacted at:http://cbs.sportsline.com/columns/writers/doyel

[BigBanda]

I really think the scoring system will change eventually. Much has been voiced about it and I recall Rogan last voiceing his opinion in a recent interview that something needed to be done as well.

[thumper]

If what he's saying is true he's dead right. but he's speculating. There's no basis to accuse them of changing the cards because of the booing. that's fucking stupid.

Typical though, reporting doesn't require accuracy or honesty.

But the UFC should be embarassed for being that sloppy if the rest is true

[Weirdharold]

Originally Posted by thumper

Typical though, reporting doesn't require accuracy or honesty.

Particularly the case with CBS of late ...

[jlruthven84]

CBS is ahead of the pack. They've figured out that labeling UFC as a bloodsport and human cockfighting is falling on deaf ears now, so they're grasping at straws for a legit reason to lambast the organization and sport as a whole.

There are a couple of good points there (nothing that hasn't been discussed to death on every MMA forum from here to New Guinea), but the animosity is so prevalent. Does CBS really think every reader is that transparent?

[norremo]

The judges don't work for Dana... so to think that Dana has any type of power over the judges is completely wrong.

Please don't try to blame Dana for this... just chalk this up as another Dana flaming article.

I do agree that they should train the judges better so that scoring becomes more standard across the judges.

[Krazikarl]

Yeah, if Dana was really trying to fix things like that, hed be a hell of a lot more clever about it. I mean, this would be an absolutely retarded way of fixing fights, and Dana isnt retarded.

Plus they dont even mention that the athletic commissions oversee this stuff (including judges), meaning that any kind of scoring manipulation would have an official goverment agency all over you.

[Bullock]

This is a rubbish article IMO.

[AJL416AZ]

for sure

American judges suck dick and dont know anything about whats happening


MMA fans have to realize that they can try to become judges. you dont need to be born into a family that specifically works for an SAC.

if Yves Lavigne could go from CPA to referee, an MMA fan can become one of the first fucking educated American judges.

[Ramma]

Attacking the Bisping/Hamill fight would have been a more productive negative article...