Cory Sandhagen is a fan of the open scoring system in MMA and would like to utilize it going forward.
There is a saying in fighting, that the fighters should never leave it in the judge’s hands. The thing is that many times in combat sports the fight does go the distance and the judge’s cards are the determining factor. Historically, those scores are kept secret until the end of the fight; however, some states are looking to change that.
Most recently Colorado has opted to move to an open scoring style of judging. What this means, in a nutshell, is that the scores of each round are available for everyone to see in real-time. The fighters, the fans, and the coaches will know exactly who is winning at any time.
This could be a benefit or a detriment to fighters depending on how they feel about the situation. It could change game plans going in and during the fight. One fighter who would gladly welcome this scoring is Cory Sandhagen. Sandhagen spoke about open scoring on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani.
“I think open scoring would be good,” Sandhagen said. “I know I would’ve really loved open scoring in the last fight. I was kinda on the fence about it before, too. But I don’t see really what it would hurt. What would that hurt? In every other sport, you get to know the score at the end of the quarter. What would it hurt to do open scoring? I don’t see any damage that it would do. If anything, that would, I think, make for more exciting fights because round 3 and round 5, if the guy knows that he’s down, that could be a really huge advantage. And I think that it would be very fair.”
The Colorado native could get his wish if he gets the chance to fight at home. As of now, this scoring is not part of the MMA Unified Rules, but each state can make these scoring changes if wanted. The last time the UFC held an event in Colorado was back in Nov. of 2018 in Denver for UFC Fight Night 139.
Sandhagen may have to wait a while if he wants open scoring, but he won’t have to wait very long for his next chance at a UFC win. He steps back in the cage when he takes on Petr Yan for the interim UFC bantamweight title at UFC 267n on Oct. 30.
Do you like the idea of open scoring in MMA fights?
