News Alex Volkanovski in favor of open scoring because he’s sick of excuses and fans crying robbery

[HeffDoesWant]

I can see how it might alter the ensuing clusterfuck. After the first two rounds the open scorecards would have obviously shown six 10-9 Holloways. Then Round 3 ends and up goes three 10-9 scorecards for Volk. So you probably hear some grumbling -- potentially a fair bit of it because it that was a closely-contested round, but there's no riots in the streets or anything over just one round that was by any account very close and many people (not all) agreeing that Alex edged it. So then Round 4 happens, Alex brings in his wrestling and turns up his output, makes adjustments etc. Round clearly goes to him. Three scorecards to him. No one should have an issue with that. Then Round 5, which one judge somehow saw for Max but really was a similar story to Round 4.

The blow in this case would have been softened... theoretically. I've always felt like a big part of why there was so much outrage about the decision in the rematch is because it doesn't "feel" right that Max had the biggest moments in the fight, dropping Volk in the first two rounds yet Volk won the fight by edging out the third and winning the championship rounds by a slightly bigger margin yet. It doesn't appeal to their Pride-style sensibilities. Open scoring would have at the very least allowed them to direct their outrage to a very specific more fitting outlet, i.e. "I feel Holloway should have won that third round" or "How do those last three rounds get scored the same as the first two? We need a new scoring system?"

Is that better than people blindly calling it a blatant robbery? I don't really know. Hell, maybe the entire fight would have gone differently if Max had seen the scores too. Who knows? This is why my personal recommendation is a transition to both open scoring and a half-point scoring system to cover as many bases as possible. And before anyone accuses me, I'm not just saying this because I'm some salty Max fanboy (respect the hell out of Holloway, but I'm not a hardcore fan of his and feel Volk won both fights).

You touch on a good point.

Almost without exception every cry of robbery focuses on the whole fight as opposed to any particular round.

 

[StonedLemur]

Alexander Volkanovski is no stranger to competing in a closely fought battle. In his near-perfect 25-fight career, there’s only been one that stands out and it was his last encounter with former titlist, Max Holloway, in July 2020. “The Great” defeated “Blessed” via a split decision nod that many in the community believed should have gone to Holloway.

There have been plenty of questionable decisions since then and the discussion surrounding open scoring has amplified intensely in recent months, mostly following Holly Holm’s loss to Ketlen Vieira in the UFC Vegas 55 main event last month. Ahead of Volkanovski’s trilogy bout with Holloway this Saturday night at UFC 276, he expressed his thoughts on the concept.

“I don’t mind the open scoring thing,” Volkanovski told FREESTYLEBENDER. “I don’t think it’s that bad because ... you wanna know if you’re up or if you’re not or something like that.


“You should have a good enough corner to know that if you ain’t definitely taking the round, don’t sit there thinking, ‘Ah, we’re two up,’ you gotta have the right corner. I’m lucky enough to have a corner that even if we’re pretty comfortable we’re up, if there’s rounds that are still competitive, we’re still like, ‘We want these last rounds.’”

Volkanovski and Holloway have each secured two tremendous victories since last facing each other. The four combined fights weren’t nearly as competitive as the pair’s rematch and that alone has the start of the upcoming 11th round leaving MMA fans’ mouths salivating.

Unfortunately, as great and proven as Volkanovski has become in between these Holloway bouts, the Australian likely still needs a clear victory to keep the community off his back and avoid a reaction similar to the one he received after the rematch.

“To have that open scoring, to let everyone know, then you ain’t gonna have people crying about decisions and all that,” Volkanovski said. “It’s like, ‘Hey, you knew you were behind and you couldn’t do nothing about it.’ Because I’m sick of people using it as excuses. At the end of the day, open scoring will help with that but it shouldn’t have to because you should have a good enough team and corner behind you that ain’t gonna put you in that position anyway.”

https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/6/...ng-sick-excuses-people-crying-about-decisions

He should just shut up and fight.
If he could actually finish someone he wouldn't need to worry about it.

This dude is constantly bitchin about something.

 

[ayaandirtyboy]

No need for that shit. Volk via vicious TKO.

Holloway? Tko???
You dont watch much mma dont you?
Holloway has a legendary chin and Volk is a decision machine.
I think He Had one finish in His Last 5 Fights

 

[ayaandirtyboy]

Beating him for the third time and effectively ending his FW championship ambitions would do it I'd imagine if it bothered him at all. Reckon Max would be happy to be living rent free as you put it and down 0-3?

We all know max won the second one. So it would still be 2:1 which is still deceicive.

 

[MT5]

Curious how much gambling has an effect on open scoring. Not nearly as much in-play betting when the scores are open.

This is the most thought provoking post I've ever read on this subject.

(Gambling aside, I personally much prefer open scoring.)

 

[Street Bishop]

Holloway? Tko???
You dont watch much mma dont you?
Holloway has a legendary chin and Volk is a decision machine.
I think He Had one finish in His Last 5 Fights

So did Chuck Liddell. Every chin has an expiration date. Max is approaching his soon with all the damage he's accumulated.

 

[mraa1]

"Every other sport does it" is more of an argument for not implementing open scoring. This is not football or tennis or baseball, it's a combat sport.

If you really want to fix bad decisions then get rid of decisions altogether. Go back fo Vale Tudo style. You eithet get the finish or it's a draw. Also 1 round if 15 or 30 minutes. Of course this is just a dream. The ball sport fans will continue to trickle in and neuter what's left.

 

[LetThemBleed]

We all know max won the second one. So it would still be 2:1 which is still deceicive.

Disagree. Also did you did you try and amalgamate decide and decisive, or maybe deceive?

 

[WOLVERINEKILLS]

I’m in favor of open scoring so that the fans in the audience can give the judges hell whenever they aren’t scoring it correctly.

 

[TankAbbott4Eva]

I suspect anybody against open scoring is just not very bright.

The only argument I can see is that a fighter might coast if they have a lead. But then again the other fighter would push the pace so maybe it doesn't stop it being exciting anyways.

Another thing I just thought of is that it takes the suspense over the end of a fight before they read the decision. Not compelling enough to not do it of course, just another thought.

 

[stacrafty]

Fighter A is confident he won Round 1. Finds out before Round 2 that the judges gave the nod to Fighter B. Fighter A is pissed off. He goes into Round 2 thinking about how bad the judging is. During the couple of seconds he's thinking about that, he gets knocked the fuck out.

It's up to the corners to tell the fighters the truth. It was a close round. Maybe you won it, maybe not.

Why is anything more than that an improvement?

lmao u wot m8?

of all the things a fighter has to filter out you think they would let the scoring slip in, in the middle of a fight and throw them off?

from experience, when you're in there, you barely have the resources to focus on anything.

 

[ayaandirtyboy]

Disagree. Also did you did you try and amalgamate decide and decisive, or maybe deceive?

Autocorrect dude dont be spell teacher

 

[DirtyBadger]

...or we're boxing fans who've seen it fail in practice every time that it's been tried.


The most famous example of a fight with open scoring was when Canelo fought Austin Trout in 2013. The corrupt judge who was biased in favor of Canelo had no qualms about giving him every single round, even rounds that he clearly lost, despite the scores being read out in real time. It also screwed up Trout's gameplan because he started trying to fight aggressively to search for a KO, which wasn't his style, and ending up performing worse in the late rounds.

For that fight the scores were only revealed after the 4th and 8th round. After the 8th, the scores were 80-71, 78-73, and 76-75, all in favor of Canelo Alvarez. The scoring after the 8th revealed the reality of the situation. Namely, as long as Canelo remained standing his hand was going to be raised, and even if he got knocked down once it would be a draw.

If you were fighting which scenario is preferable
1) Going into the 9th knowing nothing, outbox your opponent, stick to your game plan, win the last four rounds, and lose on the cards
2) Enter the 9th knowing your only avenue to win is a knockout or win every round and score multiple knockouts. With this additional information decide if you want to alter you game plan for the last 4 rounds.

Judges are gonna judge. The subjective nature of scoring a fight will always result in disagreements, whether their is open scoring or conventional scoring. In this fight, Trout knowing the judging was questionable at least gave him a fighting chance to alter the outcome.

 

[filthynumber1]

Never gonna happen

 

[wolfss]

In open scoring he would’ve lost.

 

[StonedLemur]

This is the most thought provoking post I've ever read on this subject.

(Gambling aside, I personally much prefer open scoring.)

Open scoring doesn't fix shitty judges.

 

[MT5]

Open scoring doesn't fix shitty judges.

I'm not quite sure how that relates to my post. But I agree it doesn't fix bad judges. But if the judges are bad don't you doubly want open scoring, especially from a fighters perspective? I mean if the judges suck I'd rather know after round 1 than after it was all over.

 

[HHJ]

Open scoring BLOWS

Makes it way less exciting to watch and gives the excuse to coast.

Less incentive for the dominant fighter to finish.

 

[AmbassadorFright]

A way this could backfire is in a close round where both guys think they could have won, someone could start protesting that they won the round and want to talk to the judges mid fight.

 

[Tevfik1907]

A way this could backfire is in a close round where both guys think they could have won, someone could start protesting that they won the round and want to talk to the judges mid fight.

Or that their confidence can be shaken when they hear that they lost a round which they think they won. And the other guy who think lost a round, can get a confidence boost all of a sudden, which can effect the fight directly.

It's a bad idea.