I’ve seen people throwing this around, but it’s funny that no one has said that rd 2, when khamzat got rocked and pulled guard twice should be a 10-8…
Also, those are not the rules in NJ.
N.J.A.C. 13:46-24A.13 states the factors for a judge to consider when scoring a mixed martial arts event.
(j) The following objective scoring criteria shall be utilized by the judges when scoring a round:
A round is to be scored as a 10-10 round when both contestants appear to be fighting evenly and neither contestant shows clear dominance in a round;
A round is to be scored as a 10-9 round when a contestant wins by a close margin, landing the greater number of effective legal strikes, grappling and other maneuvers;
A round is to be scored as a 10-8 round when a contestant overwhelmingly dominates by striking or grappling in a round; or
A round is to be scored as a 10-7 round when a contestant totally dominates by striking or grappling in a round.
Nah. He didn’t dominate. He got one takedown, Sean gave his back and hand fought the whole round. There’s a reason Khamzat was more tired in the second round.
That was not dominance in grappling, zero legit submission attempts and no striking damage.
I’m a big fan of 10-8s and on commentary people have heard me say 1000 times they should be given more often. I’ve even directly spoken to AC guys trying to get them to give them more liberally. But that wasn’t one.
I know sometimes when I’m talking about fighting I come off as a dick. I do see your perspective and understand why you think it, I just don’t think it’s correct.
Words like dominate are very abstract. But taken in the context of the corpus of high level fights and considering the specific technical exchanges, that round wasn’t dominant.
Chimaev’s intention was to take him down, smash his face in then choke him. What he did was take him down, do no damage with strikes, twice tried and completely failed to secure a RNC then finished the round more drained than Stickland.
