5 Close Fights That Could’ve Benefitted From Open Scoring

This past weekend at UFC Fight Night 55, controversy over scoring once again took over as the main talking point, as Ketlen Vieira got the nod over Holly Holm in the disputable main event. Combate Global and Invicta are two promotions that currently use open scoring to weed out close controversial decisions, is this something we may see the top promotions implement soon? Let’s look back at 5 recent UFC fights that were that close, that they could’ve benefitted from live, open scoring.

5. Petr Yan vs Aljamain Sterling 2 – UFC 273

As is the norm nowadays in MMA, this was a result that caused a lot of disagreement in the MMA community. After the first meeting between the two ended in unlikely and disappointing fashion, the rematch became one of the most anticipated grudge matches in UFC history. In the closely contested bout, Aljamain Sterling controlled on the ground in rounds 2 and 3, controlling the back of the former champion, Petr Yan, for a considerable amount of those rounds.

If open scoring was involved in this fight, Yan would’ve known that going into rounds 3 and 4, on 2 scorecards, he was going to lose the fight unless he could’ve got the finish. We may have seen Yan come out more aggressive in those final 2 rounds and push for the finish, as in actuality, he thought he was winning the fight. He said in the post fight press conference: “I think I won this fight. I think I won three rounds out of five. I want rematch.”. Not only did the Russian think he’d became undisputed champ, but UFC President, Dana White, also scored the fight in favour of the 29-year-old. “I thought the judges blew that one. I had it 3-2 for Yan. I don’t know how you guys scored it.”

4. Matheus Nicolau vs Manel Kape – UFC Vegas 21

Again, a fight that was extremely closely contested, and one in which you wouldn’t want to be one of the three judges scoring it.

Nicolau took round 1 through his ability to get the fight to the ground, nullifying Kape’s elite striking. In round 2, Kape started to find his rhythm and he started to let his hands fly with more conviction. A beautifully timed Kape left hook stunned Nicolau, and in round 2, there was no doubt Kape did more of the damage, making it 1-1 going into the third.

Although this wasn’t a robbery against Kape, it was that closely contested that the fighters being made aware that it was 1-1 going into round 3 could’ve eradicated any calls of it being a robbery.

3. Maycee Barber vs Miranda Maverick – UFC Vegas 32

Well, what is there to say about this fight? It’s fair to say it wasn’t a barnburner. But it was one in which once again, the scoring/judging was under extremely fair scrutiny. As a fighter, you’re told ‘not to leave it to the scorecards’, if you have that chance. And in Miranda Maverick’s case, she might not have thought that this would be the case.

Barber started off that slowly that coach Faber had to tell her to actually ‘try and hit her’, that put the first round in favour of Maverick, and it can definitely be argued that the 24-year-old took the second round too. Despite Maverick throwing a higher volume of strikes in round 2, and securing a takedown, the second round went to Barber on two of the scorecards. This put it at 1-1 going into the third. In a fight where Maverick may have thought she was 2 up, as did the majority of others, open scoring would’ve made her aware that in fact, it was all to play for in the third.

2. Andrei Arlovski vs Jake Collier – UFC Vegas 53

Arlovski had the chance to jump to 23 UFC wins with a win over Collier, a win that would’ve taken him joint top in wins in the promotion.

Collier started out the hotter of the 2 being the more active fighter. In the first round, he managed to make his damage show as he cut Arlovski with a slicing elbow, taking round 1 on all 3 scorecards.

Although round 2 was tougher to call, this is why this fight may have benefitted from open scoring, as 2 of the judges had it in Arlovski’s favour, whereas Michael Bell had the round in favour of Collier.

Round 3 was again a closely contested round, however again, it can be argued Collier did the more damage, and also managed to score himself a takedown towards the end of the round. The round 3 numbers depict an extremely close round and one that could be seen either way, as they both landed 32 significant strikes in the final 5 minutes.

The issue in this fight is that 1 judge had a completely different view point to the others, scoring the fight 30-27 in favour of Collier, whereas the other 2 judges scored it 29-28 in favour of the winner Arlovski. Again, in such a closely contested fight, open scoring won’t solve the issue of poor judging, however, it offers a fighter the chance to try and sway the poor judging.

1. Jon Jones vs Dominick Reyes – UFC 247

Throwing it back to 2020, and outside of Alexander Gustafsson, Jon Jones’ toughest test. Despite it being a unanimous decision victory in favour of the former champion, Jones, it was far closer than the scorecards suggested.

During their five round title fight two of the judges gave the challenger, Reyes, 2 rounds, but one judge gave Jones 4 of the 5 rounds, which I believe to be harsh.

I think it’s fair to say, Reyes took the first round undoubtably. Something that all 3 judges agreed upon. However, the opinion began being split in round 2. Chris Lee, being the only judge out of the 3 that scored the second for the challenger. Reyes’ forward pressure became a key feature in round 2, and in fact, the consensus in the community is that he did more of the damage inside 2 rounds.

Marcos Rosales was then the only judge to score round 3 in favour of Reyes, in which the majority of the community also agreed with. Reyes stuffed the champions takedown attempts, and also landed some damaging shots of his own, especially a beautiful high kick and slip uppercut midway through the round.

Despite the majority of fans thinking Reyes was going into round 5, 3 rounds up, he was actually going into it 2-2 on 2 of the scorecards, but on Joe Solis’ card, he was going into it down 3-1.

Open scoring may have motivated Reyes on, knowing that if he won the final round, he would have been crowned the new Light Heavyweight champion.

There’s no doubt that in these closely contested fights, open scoring doesn’t completely solve the issue, it is merely a way for fighters and coaches to be able to alter their game plans depending on how the fight is going. I do believe open scoring allows for fighters to be able to change the destiny of what in a lot of cases, is just bad judging.