OPINION: 15 elements of MMA that ought to be changed for the benefit of the sport – week 8

There are certain aspects of mixed martial arts that simply make no sense.

And when my lovable colleague Pat McCarry took a look at the 15 ways that rugby could be improved, it struck a chord with me and made me think that, as physical as rugby is, MMA is far more dangerous and needs some improvement in pretty much all areas. There are elements of the sport that are still counter-intuitive when it comes to fighter safety, fan enjoyment and the overall legitimisation of the sport. I would like to make it clear that this is very much an opinion piece and I've decided to drip feed my ideas for rule changes over 15 weeks and, while some of them are a little bit out there, I think that they just make sense to switch up. - In Week 1 we looked at how to deal with fighters missing weight - In Week 2 we supposed that concussive brain trauma would go down if fighters fought without gloves - In Week 3 we suggested a new initiative as to how the weight cut could be made safer for fighters - In week 4 we toyed with the idea of getting rid of the cage - In week 5 we reckoned more weight classes should be introduced - In week 6 we wanted all MMA judges to have some element of MMA experience - In week 7 we looked at what would happen if stand-ups were eliminated

Week 8 - Scoring system

Probably the most necessary amendment for mixed martial arts is a serious upheaval of the mindboggingly outdated scoring system. The 10-point must system that's currently in place is nothing short of ridiculous when you consider the amount of different variables that occur throughout the course of each bout. Fights are now evaluated on "effective striking, effective grappling, control of the ring/fighting area, effective aggressiveness and defense." But nobody knows how significant each of those elements are to be considered in the context of the others. How many punches is a takedown equal to? What happens if, on the ground, the fighter on the bottom is landing more punches to the top opponent? What I would suggest is that there should be something more like a 50-point system where, in each round, the effectiveness of striking is awarded 10 points, grappling 10 points, control 10 points. aggression 10 points and, significantly, damage caused 10 points. So, let's say that in a three round fight a wrestler is taking on a kickboxer and the wrestler completes three undefended takedowns in each round but that the striker is clearly dominant in the striking stakes. The wrestler finishes the fight with 30 points under the grappling column while his opponent might be awarded 27 or lower (9 in each round) in that realm while the kickboxer gets a similar scorecard for striking. If clarity cannot be reached as to which elements of mixed martial arts are equal to others then each element should be separated and judged disparately on the scorecards. It will mean that each fight is better scrutinised and will also lead to more accurate decisions. The introduction of this system will also go some way to separate MMA from boxing, which is where they got their current system, and legitimise itself as an autonomous sport.