Max Holloway Shows Support For Open Scoring In MMA

Easily one of the most controversial topics in all of MMA, and combat sports in general, has to do with the scoring system. The current scoring system uses a ten point must rule set, with scoring based on such things as cage/ring control, damage, effective striking, effective grappling and so on.

This weekends Invicta FC Phoenix Series 3 event will use an open scoring system, which means that the scores for each round will get revealed in between said rounds. One of the supporters of the open scoring system is former UFC Featherweight Champion Max Holloway, who’ll be in attendance at Invicta FC Phoenix Series 3 to support the move.

The fighter posted the following on Instagram:

 

 

 

 

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Seems like every fight week we got issues with fights going to decisions. I’ve met many judges. Most of them are good people just trying to do the right thing. I’m sure there’s a bad guy here and there like any job but our problem is not the people judging… what about the system? Are we putting these judges in a position to do the best job possible? We can’t just keep bashing judges and I realize that now. Nobody good is going to want to do the job. ⁣ ⁣ I’ve been in the UFC for 8 years. I’ve won 5 title fights in the UFC, and I’ve never met a fighter or even a judge who thinks the scoring system in MMA is perfect. So what are we going to do? We at that point. If all of us agree it’s not perfect, what we going to do? What are we doing? What are we doing now? Are we just gonna keep tweeting at Dana every Saturday night like he don’t got other headaches? What are we doing? The first step is to test ideas. And that’s what I’m here for.⁣ ⁣ Open scoring has been tested in boxing. Cool. MMA isn’t boxing my friends. We don’t know for sure how it will work in MMA. And if it creates more problems than it fixes at least we finally have proof and can move on to the next idea. But maybe it works. Or maybe it creates new problems but we can fix those with new scoring and rules. I don’t know but nobody does. And that’s why we have to put down the bag of Cheetos now and do the work. ⁣ ⁣ Mahalo to Kansas Athletic Commission, @invictafc , and all the athletes competing with open scoring for the first time on March 6. This sport started with men and now we have women putting their bodies and careers on the line to test an idea to keep pushing our sport forward. How badass is that? For any other commissions and regional promotions testing new ideas to help our sport let me know. Open scoring is just one idea that’s easy to test. Many other ideas to test especially for how we score matches… I’m flying in to support and I’ll be handing out as much free merch as my team can bring from Hawaii —-

A post shared by Max Holloway (@blessedmma) on Mar 4, 2020 at 9:57am PST