judgment in determining what does and does not qualify for a 10-8 round. That is at best dangerous and at worst downright negligent. I get the sense we are leaving far too much for error in the hands of only the partially competent for the sake of not tampering with “what works.” But clearly something is rotten in Denmark and at the very least, an initiative to determine if a reasonable set of criteria can be collected that offer some assistance or guidelines in defining what does and does not make a 10-8 round seems justified. One need only watch the first round of Brian Gassaway vs. Forrest Petz to realize what happens when functionally MMA-literate judges are asked to score pivotal, action packed rounds. We are right to be cautious about any rules adjustment, but we do the sport and its fighters a disservice if we are cautious to the point of disregard.

Kelly – Unfortunately our sport falls into the same category as ice dancing when it comes to scoring. Everything is subjective and what looks square to one judge is perpendicular to the other. I don’t think you can develop criteria for a 10-8 round without establishing criteria for a 10-9 round as well. That means a complete changeover to a point–based system so there’s no doubt who wins a fight.  As it is now, aggression and octagon control are two of the judging criteria for an MMA fight, but both of them are outdated. We’ve all seen fights where a grappler works submissions from the bottom of his guard and controls the tempo of the fight. That’s his style, but no matter how effective he is or how many submissions he almost gets, he’s not on top and therefore will be behind on the scorecards. I believe a clear point system is a good idea, but it opens up a whole new set of challenges, not just for the judges, but for the fighters as well. With a point system fighters would change their strategies completely and look to score instead of finish the bout. And of course there’s the issue of weighting the criteria properly, which means determining what’s more important-takedowns, strikes, or submission attempts. No one would ever agree to a common answer to that question, but at least we’d be on the right path to reforming the current system that is definitely broken.