UFC 127 Analysis
There have been plenty of times where I’ve sat down to make my UFC betting break down analysis and had the judges on my mind. Frankly, I’m sick of it, and after BJ Penn and Jon Fitch’s battle on Saturday was deemed a majority draw I think it’s time that Dana White’s feet be held to the fire. Last time I checked, he was still running the show.
Which is why it’s almost comical to watch him flip out about the judges at times. White is well known for being a heavy presence on Twitter, and isn’t shy of dropping f-bombs when criticizing the judges.
To that end, has there been a UFC card where the judges haven’t come in to play? Isn’t White just as sick of watching the judges screw things up as we are?
I shouldn’t have had to watch the 15-minute fight between Penn and Fitch again for my UFC 127 betting break down, but I did just to see if there was something I missed. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything. The tipping point actually already came for me on Saturday night, while watching the fight with friends. A table full of girls leaned over to ours and asked us, “How was that fight a draw?”
I had no credible response aside from saying, “that happens sometimes”. The problem is that it happens all the time and it’s derailing the credibility of the sport as a whole. Eventually the refs in any game come in to play, and they’re free to make mistakes but they judges are getting it wrong in major matchups more times than they’re getting things right.
So again I ask: Who the hell’s responsible?
The judges have their criteria. That much we know for sure. They score fights based on what they see, noting take downs, punches landed, control on the ground, knock downs and the like. I get that. Still, time and again I’ve asked myself what the judges see that I didn’t.
There were times I’ve defended them like when Machida managed to retain his title the first time that he fought Rua. At the time I made the argument that Rua didn’t go after Machida in the third round, and as the challenger he should have. The fight between Rampage Jackson and Keith Jardine at UFC 96 also stands out as a robbery, but again you can make the point that Jackson’s final knock down punch in that fight tilted the scales in his favor.
The point is that there are occasions where the judges are defensible, even when they seem indefensible. But Saturday night? There’s simply no way that any UFC 127 betting break down could possibly weigh that fight as an even tilt. Fitch should have won the fight 29-27, and penalizing a guy for not finishing a fight is ridiculous, especially when you question what BJ Penn did to win the fight.
Penn was rightfully despondent in the post-fight interview, and even went as far to question what he would do with the rest of his career. It was great to see Penn react with class and character after a fight even he knows he should have lost. We can talk about who was more deserving of a win in that fight all we want, but the consensus has already been made at it should be Fitch in line to fight Georges St-Pierre or whomever the welterweight champion is in the future.
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