Dana White is not among those who is in favor of open scoring in
mixed martial arts.
The concept, which allows fighters and their teams to be made aware
of the judges’ scorecards in between rounds, has gained momentum
recently in the sport. Invicting Fighting Championships has been
utilizing open scoring on its cards held in Kansas City, Kansas,
since March 6. While the Kansas Athletic Commission was
in favor of the idea, commissions in Nevada and California have
not been receptive as of yet.
White discussed his aversion to open scoring during a Q&A with
Laura Sanko on ESPN+ Tuesday.
“If a guy knows that he’s up two rounds and you’re a professional
fighter, you can absolutely stay away from a guy for an entire
round and make the fight completely horrible,” the UFC president
said (transcription via
MMAjunkie.com). “If you already know you’ve got two rounds in
the bag, guarantee if you saw your score up there, all [you] have
to do is stay away from this guy for the next five minutes. That
makes for a lot of bad third rounds.”
In addition to making for potentially limited action in the final
stanza, White says open scoring subtracts from the suspense at the
end of a close fight.
“When we do the fights, I have an idea of who I think won or lost
or whatever, but when I’m standing there with the belt, I don’t
know what [ring announcer] Bruce Buffer is going to say,” White
said. “He doesn’t tell me anything. The judges tell him, the
commission do their thing, they tell him, and I’m standing there
waiting to hear too, so I’m just as blown away as the fans are. And
I agree with you: It completely takes away the anticipation of who
won the fight.”
Over the years, White hasn’t hesitated to be critical of judges’
scorecards in controversial decisions. That said, it doesn’t appear
as though the UFC boss wants to make any drastic changes in that
regard anytime soon.
“Its never going to be perfect,” White said. “There are always
going to be fights that absolutely drive you insane and piss you
off, blow your bets, there will always be all these other things
that go with the fight business. At the end of the day, watching
the fight and waiting for the results are fun.”