Scouring the Scoring: UFC, MMA and boxing judging controversies

Combat sports are subjective. Unless someone has been knocked out cold or had their arm snapped in two, there’s a good chance some people will disagree with the official outcome. When a fight goes to the judges, whether it be in boxing or MMA, anything can happen.

Over the years we have seen bizarre scores handed down for fights in the ring and cage. Most of the times this happens in a close fight that could have gone either way. However, we’ve seen plenty of occasions where the outcome seemed obvious to everyone except one of the individuals sitting cage side.

When things like this happen, it’s a perfect time to ‘scour the scoring’ and take a deeper look at the fights in question.

This regular feature on Bloody Elbow does just that. Anytime there’s a judging controversy, we’ll hop in and see if we can figure out whether the fight was too close to call or whether a judge has done something egregious.