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If the current MMA climate was a battle between fans in one corner and the ten-point must system in the other corner, even Dalby Shirley would have to score a 10-8 round for the critical thrashing the judging system has been taking lately. Irate fans bashed the decision in the Matt Hamill-Michael Bisping fight and called out judges for some questionable scoring in several fights at UFC 76. Even the UFC’s broadcast team has piled on, leveling withering criticisms of the system during several of their recent events.
Defenders of the system say that if judges were better educated and were more willing to call 10-8 (or 10-10 rounds) then the system would work just fine, nevermind the uptick in draws. What supporters fail to take into account is that they are defending a system with an inherent conceptual flaw: The ten-point must system takes one perfectly good fight and turns it into three fights for no good reason.
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