Pushing the Pace: Are Judges Overlooking Aggression and Octagon Control?

Too many times I will see a fighter pushing the pace and being aggressive, yet losing the round despite not being noticeably out-struck.Why is this? Are aggression and octagon control not part of the judging criteria?What makes things even more flabber…

Too many times I will see a fighter pushing the pace and being aggressive, yet losing the round despite not being noticeably out-struck.

Why is this? Are aggression and octagon control not part of the judging criteria?

What makes things even more flabbergasting is that if no fighter clearly wins the round, a score of 10-10 is still perfectly reasonable.

Top examples that come to mind of fighter’s being awarded rounds despite moving backwards and not out-striking their opponents include:

—Jay Hieron over Rick Hawn

—Lyoto Machida over Mauricio Rua 1

—Chris Cope over Shamar Bailey (Ultimate Fighter)

And those three examples are really just the tip of the iceberg. If one fighter is constantly backing up, and not phasing his opponent, why does the fighter not pressing the pace win the round?

We do not want to see two fighters circling each other for 15 minutes or more without throwing a punch.

As great as self-defense is, offense is still part of the equation in fighting.

Having a style that revolves around counter-punching and counter-attacking is fine, but if you are not damaging your opponent with frequency, your lack of aggression needs to acknowledged.

I am not sure about you guys, but I am not as interested in Ultimate Feinting as I am in Ultimate Fighting.


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