Randy:"Rampage beat Machida with superficial things"

[tn94z]

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Randy Couture: Quinton “Rampage” Jackson Beat Lyoto Machida with “Superficial Things”
Written by Tom Ngo
November 29th, 2010
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Much of the MMA world cried bloody murder when Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was awarded his controversial split decision victory over Lyoto Machida at UFC 123. Although their light heavyweight battle took place over a week ago, fans are still clamoring over the modern day mystery that is mixed martial arts officiating.

The latest to drop his infinite words of wisdom on the matter was UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture. The game’s most cherished athlete believes swapping judges between the two combat sports may be one the major issues surrounding MMA’s unpredictable scoring system.

“I think it’s a huge issue. It’s a lot different than judging boxing and unfortunately a lot of judges transferred over,” Couture told ESPNRadio1100 (Transcribed by Yahoo!). “They don’t understand a lot of the intricacies of our sport. Who’s controlling the tempo of the fight. Who’s actually technically scoring.”

In regards to the Octagon’s latest drama, “The Natural” claims Rampage used smoke and mirrors to escape The Motor City with the razor-thin decision victory. While B.A. Baracus may not have inflicted significantly more damage than his opponent, the perception was he was far more aggressive.

As the old adage goes, ‘Perception is reality’ and in this case, Couture claims reality bites.

“They see some superficial things, like Rampage moving forward the whole time in that fight, and they attribute that to him winning those rounds,” Couture expressed. “And technically that’s not what was happening. It sucks to be a fighter and have that happen to you.”

Veteran judges Cecil Peoples and Nelson “Doc” Hamilton have received quite a bit of flack for the dubious decisions they’ve rendered over the years. Coincidentally, both rewarded Machida with a favorable score in his UFC 104 unanimous decision win over Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in October 2009. Ironically, Shogun was the one pushing the pace for much of that title fight, but was forced to leave Downtown LA without the hardware nonetheless.

Peoples promptly told fans, “If you don’t like it, you can go to hell!”

Hamilton, on the other hand, admitted his line of vision wasn’t ideal and he, “couldn’t see the punches and whether they were landing.”

Couture claims being deaf, dumb and blind aren’t valid excuses. Especially as MMA continues to penetrate the mainstream market.

“Unfortunately guys like Peoples, and some of these guys have been around for a long time, (you’d) think they’d have figured it out by now,” Couture added. “I think there has to be some sort of education or certification program for these judges to get them up to speed on the criteria and what they’re looking at to the judge these fights.”

FYI – Peoples was not sitting cage-side for UFC 123, but Hamilton had Machida beating Rampage 29-28 on his official box score.

From what I have been reading, the consensus among most MMA people and fans is that Rampage lost that fight. IMO, it was close enough to go either way, but the larger number seems to think it was the wrong call.

[FUZO]

TweetWell mabey machida has to go after guys and until he does he will still lose

[tn94z]

TweetIt just seems different with every fight. Just like the article says, he beat Shogun and lost to Rampage and the fight was almost identical....with the exception of him dominating Rampage in the 3rd. That right there shows that there is no way they can be judging on the same criteria in both fights.

I agree with Randy in that they should have some kind of certification for MMA judging specifically.

[Strella]

TweetThe thing is, people are always going to complain about something. MMA isint as cut and dry as boxing, not even close. I am one who truly believes that pushing forward in a fight and engaging in a fight, be it boxing or MMA, deserves serious points. I really do like Machida, but I mean he cant go into every fight expecting the other guy to just continue to run after him, its absurd. If the other guy doesnt engage with Machida he just stands there half the time. Its easier to be defensive, everyone knows that, so the guy pushing forward, even if he gets caught some while pushing forward, it still is more impressive IMO.

[jipped genes]

Tweeti still think it could have gone either way but boxing judges in MMA are not good for the sport and never have been,

[tn94z]

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The thing is, people are always going to complain about something. MMA isint as cut and dry as boxing, not even close.

This is exactly why something should be done about it. I'm not arguing the decision because I felt it was so close, but comparing some of the fights Machida has won to some he has lost shows the judging is crazy. And it's not just Machida, is every fight. Machida is just easier to use as an example because his style never changes.

[brody13]

TweetThat fight sucked, they should have both lost