*face palm
*face palm

Guy Mezger, if you are out there listen up! This past Saturday, while Fast Eddie and Matt DLR were out living it up with Luke Rockhold, I was sitting in my dank apartment watching Sengoku 11th battle. It wasn’t that bad; I drank about five Red Bulls and went to bed at 6:30 a.m. even though I had class less than three hours later.

However, let’s put my ability to live without sleep aside for a second. Something needs to be done about the Sengoku judging system, and someone needs to explain to Mezger what the judging system actually is.

Unlike the way Pride FC did and Dream does score fights, Sengoku DOES use the 10-point-must system. I was going to count the number of times Mezger said they did not, but that would mean I would actually have to listen to the commentary.

Unlike the 10-point-must system in the United States, Sengoku judges are much more likely to score rounds 10-10. Therefore, they use the most ridiculous and illogical deciding factor of all time “the must decision.”

This means that even though there are many more fights that end up as draws on the scorecards, someone is named the winner. For example, at Sengoku ninth battle Michihiro Omigawa was given the decision over Marlon Sandro in what was the biggest robbery of the year before the Chase Beebe debacle.

Two of the three judges scored the bout 30-30, and the third judge scored it 30-29 for Sandro. In the United States this would have been a majority draw, however Sengoku judges give a “must decide.” A judge’s “must decide” is whoever they think won the fight overall. In the case of Omigawa-Sandro, both of the judges with the 30-30 cards gave it to Omigawa.

This needs to stop immediately. The idea of the score card is to score a winner! If the scorecard says it is a draw, then how can there be a winner? Sengoku judges either have to give a lot less draw rounds, or the must decisions need to go away entirely.

There is not nearly enough outrage in the MMA world over this ridiculous system of judging. A large reason for that is the HDNet broadcasting crew. On the last card, Guy Mezger did not even know what the Sengoku judging system is. In fact, he kept saying stuff like they use Japanese style judging, when in fact all Japanese promotions use some variation of the 10-point-must besides Dream and ZST.

Not only do the commentators not know what the judging system is, they also do not translate the judges’ scorecards. Could you imagine watching a UFC and not hearing the scores announced? They have a translator right there with them! The Voice needs to stop saying things like “he is getting mounted more times than Jenna Haze” and let the translator tell the fans the scores.

Leave a Reply