UFC 131 was perhaps the best pay-per-view event we’ve seen this year. The main event between Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin will get the majority of the publicity, but there were other great fights on the card, too, including Mark Munoz defeating Demian Maia by unanimous decision.
The stylistic clash between the former NCAA Division I National Champion, Munoz, and a second-degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, Maia, was expected to be a battle between the two techniques. It didn’t disappoint.
We saw some heavily improved standup skills from Maia, who cracked Munoz numerous times in the first round. One left hand behind the ear even looked like it might be good enough to spell the beginning of the end of the fight. But Munoz escaped and made it out of the round.
After the fight, Munoz admitted that he was surprised by Maia’s vastly improved standup skills. The Filipino Wrecking Machine hadn’t been in many fights where he was being picked apart on the feet, and he certainly wasn’t expecting it from a Jiu-Jitsu expert.
But things turned around in the second round when Munoz fired back with his own standup skills, landing numerous combinations and backing Maia up before taking him to the ground. Once the fight was there, Munoz implemented his ground-and-pound to control the fight while neutralizing Maia’s submissions.
The third round was very close with Maia scoring two takedowns, but Maia threatened from the crucifix position. As we watched the fight, it was hard to tell exactly how it would be scored. But if the earlier fights in the night taught us anything, we should have known that there would be at least one judge who made us say, “What?”
All three judges scored the bout for Munoz in a unanimous decision. Two scored it 29-28, but one confused everyone in attendance by giving it to him by a score of 30-37. This means that even the first round, which nearly saw Maia end the fight by knockout, was scored for Munoz.
Wow.
But it was each of the second and third rounds which have to be most concerning for jiu-jitsu practitioners. Though Maia should have been scoring points off of his back based on the rules, as well as nearly taking the Filipino’s back, all three judges scored both the second and third rounds for Munoz and his wrestling over Maia and his Jiu-Jitsu.
And this wasn’t the first time it has happened this year. In fact, the main event at The Ultimate Fighter 13 Finale earlier this month saw perhaps an even worse example of the anti-jiu-jitsu agenda from judges. Clay Guida used his wrestling and top positioning on the ground to essentially lay on Pettis for three rounds while Anthony Pettis worked his butt off on his back, attempting submissions and even landing strikes.
It’s unfortunate because there are some fighters who are perfectly fine with being on their backs. Their defense keeps them from taking much damage, even against some of the best ground-and-pound fighters in the world.
As we saw at the end of the Maia vs. Munoz fight, Maia hadn’t really taken much damage despite being on his back for the better part of two rounds. Meanwhile, he landed big shots of his own early in the fight and had Munoz nearly in a crucifix. But he still lost a unanimous decision.
Jiu-Jitsu still has its place in fights, as we saw when Anderson Silva submitted Chael Sonnen after being beaten down for four-and-a-half rounds last year.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen that judges just don’t care about fighters who work from their back, attempt submissions and land strikes… And what’s even worse is that more fights seem to be going to decisions than ever before.
Either the judges need to be taught about Jiu-Jitsu—and good luck with that—or fighters need to come to the realization that they’re not going to win judges’ decisions off their back.
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