The Jon Jones championship controversy (SPOILERS)
If you are the type of person that waits to stream a fight after it has already happened you should TURN BACK NOW because there are complete fight spoilers just below this next image.
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So the controversy sounds pretty familiar because there is always a chance of this happening (some would say it is likely) any time that a belt is decided by the scorecards in the hands of the judges instead of a submission or KO.
Jones ended up retaining the belt on the scorecards but when it was announced a lot of the crowd was booing the decision and a lot of Tweets started happening accusing the judges of being biased and that the fight was rigged.
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While it can definitely be stated that one of the judges definitely had his head up his ass when he awarded all of the rounds but one to Jones, I feel as though there is no denying that Jones did NOT deserve to have his belt taken away even though Reyes did very well in this fight.
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The reason being that although Jones did get hit with some powerful shots especially in the first 2.5 rounds, aside from one exchange that Reyes failed to capitalize on that Reyes never had control of the fight. The constant back-peddling on the part of the challenger didn't really make it feel as though he deserved to have the belt.
It is important to remember that "octagon control" is one of the factors used to determine a winner and Jones had 90% of that, even in the rounds that could be said that he lost.
Although it isn't an official rule, I believe that any champion goes into a match with an advantage simply by being the champ. You have to defeat them convincingly for the belt to change hands by this method.... and I just don't think there was anything terribly "convincing" about the Reyes performance.
Jones is likely held to a different standard because he is usually so dominant in his fights and that really isn't what happened today. Dominick Reyes was an extremely worthy opponent.
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When the decision was read aloud, Reyes was obviously disappointed but I truly believe it was the correct decision on all the judges parts other than the one judge who awarded 49-46 to Jones.
There is no controversy here. The challenger simply didn't control enough of the fight to get the gold, and that's that. Joe Rogan had accused one judge of not even watching an earlier fight between Lauren Murphy and Andrea Lee. I wonder if that was the same judge who ruled it 49-46.
Well I can't agree with the 4-1 from the judges to be honest. I think the first 2 rounds were clearly the ones of Reyes and the 3 was a closed decision.
Jones played it very smart in my eyes and it was very visible that he was the guy with a lot more experience on the 5 round fights.
Anyway, I've enjoyed watching it and think Reyes has a great future ahead. Lot's of talent!
Reyes handled the loss with class and I think he could be a real contender for the top spot, he just needs to be a bit more aggressive and capitalize on the moments when he had Jones rattled.
What a great fight... Reyes has the fight but gassed out in the 4th and 5th. Jones won in my eyes... rematch perhaps 😀
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I don't really follow UFC or MMA. I was in a group voice chat with two friends who do pop a spicy boner for fighting. They brought up some issues like that none of the three judges have any previous experience judging for MMA, as they only have experience with boxing matches. And, apparently there are photos going around of one of the judges
watching a cam girl do magic tricks by squirting gallons into the camerabrowsing on his phone while the fight was happening. So, they were pretty angry and tweaking their nipples over the decision.So, in conclusion, I believe that the slapping competition hosted in Russia is a far superior sport and this MMA shit is for virgins and Twitch chat moderators.
the butt slapping one? That one is the future, i watched many of them for research purposes.
I'm tweaking my nipples rn. You've ruined me
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I dunno, I disagree - UFC scoring is not on the fight as a whole, but round by round. Saying that Jon had octagon control for 90% of the time even in the rounds he lost is totally pointless. I thought he lost the first three rounds, pretty convincingly. It would be hard to make a valid argument that he won any of the first three rounds - not just that Jon got outstruck in all three of those rounds (which he did by count of strikes in each of the first three rounds), but that Reyes had by far the most impactful strikes in each of those rounds as well. Probably the best thing Jon had going for him was his rock solid chin - he didn't even react to strikes that on replay you could see landed totally flush. Some of the judges might not have even thought some of Reyes strikes landed cleanly just based on how little Jon reacted.
Jon won the last two rounds but IMO that should have been 3 rounds to 2 for Reyes.
Do the judges get a playback/slow motion view of the fight before scoring? or do they just work with their eyes?
no it is one of the stupid things about the UFC, judges don't get to use any of the tech available to viewers and commenters.
I agree with your statement.
Octagon control is a deciding factor on who wins a round but its not THE deciding factor. If a round is close then I would tend to give it to the fighter who had octagon control. The first three rounds, while competitive were clear rounds for Reyes. One shouldn't be able to win a fight while getting outstruck/knocked down and getting hit with the harder shots just because they pushed forward.
I follow the same logic for the you got to beat the champ to win the belt statement. Sure if the rounds are close, give them to the champion but the rounds were not close.
Exactly. And actually even in terms of octagon control, in each of the first three rounds Reyes made Jon turn and run from powerful shots... like literally turn his back and run, and Jon still got chased down and had to turtle up in defensive shell to avoid the onslaught. I wouldn't even give Jon the edge in octagon control in the first three rounds. Yes Reyes was back pedaling and moving side to side, but he wasn't turning and running, and he clearly mounted the most significant offense.
Well considering I'm not exactly a fan of MMA and only have interest in the sport because of that fat guy, I don't mind spoilers. Going through the comments, I noticed there's some issues with the scoring and I have to ask, do the judges get playback monitors in front of them or do they just judge with what their eyes see?
Octagon control is great to have but it shouldn't win you a fight. Jones lost the first three rounds. Reyes outstruck and outlanded him plus was landing the cleaner, harder shots. Octagon control is the only thing Reyes lost at.
I believe this is a false narative that gets pushed because it has been used in boxing so many times. A champianship fight is like any other, if it goes the distance winning 3/5 rounds should get you the victory unless your oppenent scored some 10/8 rounds.
Deciding who won each fight is easy. Look at each round seperatly and decide who won each round. The fighter with the most round won is the winner. In a nutshell that is how MMA is scored. Reyes won at least 3 rounds and should of been declaired the winner.
and this, in a shell is the argument that the people have. I'm not saying you are wrong, i'm just saying that you embody what the detractors say. I don't think that Reyes won the 3rd round well enough to justify giving him the belt.
Reyes should have attacked more... he ran away the entire bout.
Reyes attacked the whole fight, being acitive and constantly moving isn't the same as running. I feel as Jones should of attacked more and that Jones didn't look his usual self, I think Jones will look much better when they eventualy rematch.
Sure Jones had control of the Octagon but what did he do with that control aside from losing the stand up war and get hit with the much harder shots more frequently then he was firing his own?
Here's a poll on a popular MMA forum.
Poll: Who’d you score Jones vs Reyes for?
Almost 80% voted Rayes, those are some convincing numbers.
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/poll-who%E2%80%99d-you-score-jones-vs-reyes-for.4078565/
Jones is a much bigger draw and money maker for UFC than Rayes is and Dana publicly saying he thought Jones lost (Everyone who follows MMA knows how much Dana shills his money making stars).
Here is another site that is pretty cool that lets you submit your own round by round scorecard - almost 1300 votes in so far and 78% saying Reyes won, as well as similar % of sportswriters scoring for Jones. And NONE of the sportswriters had Jones winning four rounds - that judge who scored it four rounds for Jones had his head in his ass.
http://mmadecisions.com/decision/10877/Jon-Jones-vs-Dominick-Reyes
well i guess it just goes to show that you should never leave it in the hands of the judges. This isn't the first time that a champ kept a belt when it was really close. I remember when Hendrix lost to GSP after bashing him for 5 rounds.
I don't think Reyes looked convincing enough but it's ok that we disagree about that :)
Funny enough, I had GSP winning vs. Hendrix but its a fight I want to rewatch.
Different opinions is what makes discussing MMA fun.
A contender has to earn the title and landing some good shots doesn't necessarily means he gets awarded the fight. I watched a fight the other day where the contender didn't even advance but was on the retreat the whole fight yet he still won on points. The intent wasn't there for my liking and in my book shouldn't be awarded the fight as you need to take the title away. Most judges have an agenda these days and possibly in the promoters pockets.
another aspect about this fight was if you were to ask anyone that was watching and say "if this fight had no time limit and you had to pick a winner based on what we've seen so far, who do you think would eventually get a KO or a submission?" I don't think anyone would choose Reyes.
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In sports such as boxing and mixed martial arts where there is a long history of fighters, officials, and judges being on the take, it is still surprising that you see such glaring inconsistencies in the judging. I always hated it when you saw a fight that definitely went one way, but the judges declared a different victor. It was always a bit beyond comprehension to me.