Source: bloodyelbow.com

Scoring controversies are nothing new to MMA. With such a vague scoring system there is always going to be something to argue about, and one of the major things is the great 10-9 vs. 10-8 debate. The second round of the UFC 147 main event between Wanderlei Silva vs. Rich Franklin was the most recent example. A lot of people scored it 10-8, and Dana White thinks it should have been a 10-8 as well. He spoke about it after the fight (transcribed by MMA Mania):


"I'm happy with the main event. Wanderlei and Rich are both warriors and have been around a long time. Rich came back from an unbelievable beating and near finish to win the fight. I think Mario Yamasaki did a great job in not stopping the fight. Obviously, Rich was able to continue. I gotta go back to judging again. In the earlier fight, they had a 10-8 round in a fight that was a draw -- and they don't make the Wanderlei-Rich round a 10-8 round for Wanderlei? So inconsistent. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I want to see more fighters get involved in judging and reffing. It's gonna be a problem for a little while here, until the athletic commissions start focusing on it."

How'd you score it? Personally I gave Silva a 10-8 for that 2nd rd, and had it 48-46 Franklin with rd 1 being mighty close.

[randyspankstito]

I would say that's a 10-8 round.

I don't really score fights though, if anything I go by the old Pride method of simply "who won the fight".

[bail3yz]

I scored it 10-9 Silva
10-8s need to be more dominate than that imo.. Silva almost had the finish, but he didnt dominate the entire round.. iirc he was losing that round until he got the near finish at the end. if he was clearly winning the round and then had that ending I would have scored it 10-8.

The earlier fight that DW mentions that had a 10-8 was just fuckin stupid.. thats probably one of the worst 10-8 rounds ever scored. I'm not sure how we didnt see much more dumb shit from the judges after that tbh.

[Brad.Taschuk]

Yeah, one judge gave Vieira a 10-8 in the first round... just a terrible call considering he never had Arantes in trouble.

I agree with Bail. The last 30 seconds by Wandy don't outweigh what Franklin had done previously so heavily to warrant a 10-8.

[e-thug]

Originally Posted by bail3yz

I scored it 10-9 Silva
10-8s need to be more dominate than that imo.. Silva almost had the finish, but he didnt dominate the entire round.. iirc he was losing that round until he got the near finish at the end. if he was clearly winning the round and then had that ending I would have scored it 10-8.

This seem's to be the 2nd part of the argument.

I personally look at the round as a whole, sure Franklin was winning the first 3 ish minutes of the round but there wasn't anything overly significant that he did.

Silva dropped Franklin and almost had the fight stopped several times in the process, while Silva wasn't winning the entire round the amount of damage he did weighs very heavily for me and warranted a 10-8.

[mls]

not even a borderline 10-8 imo

[screenamesuck]

I scored it 10-9. He caught Franklin at the very end of the round. If he had done it early in round and kept punishing him with no offense from Franklin for most of the round then I'd score it 10-8. It was close before Franklin got caught. 10-8's are scored differently by everyone, but I only give that score if it pure dominance from one fighter for more than half the round.

[Keegman]

If that was a 10-8 then Shogun 5th round with Hendo was a 10-7. Its one of thoughs rounds where I would be alright if one judge scored it 10-9 and another scored it 10-8. Tough call. I say 10-9.

[Mervin]

DW believes Franklin/Silva rd 2 was 10-8

In the earlier fight, they had a 10-8 round in a fight that was a draw -- and they don't make the Wanderlei-Rich round a 10-8 round for Wanderlei? So inconsistent.

That's not how I understand it.

[vikingpride]

Yeah thats a 10-9. Wandy scored the big KD, near finish and damage, but that wasn't until late. It was more than enough for him to steal the round, but not enough to warrant a 10-8.

If Wandy was the one picking apart Rich prior to that late onslaught than i could see a potential 10-8, but it simply wasn't the case.