Cory Sandhagen believes a universal commission needs to be instituted in order to end the controversial scoring that has plagued mixed martial arts and boxing for years.
Sandhagen’s comments come fresh off the heels of his victory over Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at UFC San Antonio on Saturday night. While ‘The Sandman’ walked out with the victory, it wasn’t without a brief moment of tension as one judge scored the bout in favor of Vera despite Sandhagen scoring the victory on virtually every other scorecard turned in by fans, fighters, and the other two presiding judges.
During his appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Cory Sandhagen called for a universal commission to be established, believing that is the only way there will be consistency across the board no matter where an athlete is fighting or what promotion it is for.
“You have to make a universal commission. You have to have a bunch of people who are all on board with the same rules if we’re going to make this an international thing. The football players don’t go to Cincinnati and start playing on an 80-yard field. There absolutely has to be a universal commission.
“I see how that could definitely pose some issues, but you’d have to trust them. Probably trust them a little bit more than you would trust the state governments to choose their boxing commission which I would probably trust the UFC to do a lot more than the states would. You absolutely have to start there where you’re creating a universal commission and then from there, you can start building rules and regulations or criteria. Adding two judges that aren’t cageside in another completely different room. That right there would make some pretty interesting things happen. Or open scoring. It 100% has to be a universal commission.”
Thus far, only two states have instituted open scoring in combat sports; Kansas and Colorado.
Cory Sandhagen believes there should be a Universal commission.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/JOH3cVnvzU
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) March 27, 2023
Poor Scoring Strikes Again at UFC San Antonio
Cory Sandhagen’s split decision victory was far from the evening’s biggest botch. Maycee Barber escaped the Lonestar State with a win over Andrea ‘KGB’ Lee despite being controlled for much of their main card contest. Throughout the three-round matchup, Barber landed nine more significant strikes than her opponent while Lee scored five takedowns for a total control time of nearly five and a half minutes. Despite the disparity in the stats, Barber was awarded a split decision victory with longtime MMA referee Dan Miragliotta taking heat for submitting a 30-27 scorecard in favor of Barber.
Anymore, it feels like every mixed martial arts event is marred by controversy at the judge’s table. In December, fans flocked to social media after fan-favorite Paddy Pimblett was awarded a unanimous decision victory over Jared Gordon at UFC 282. Gordon was widely considered to be the rightful winner in what was quickly dubbed the worst decision in MMA history.
Do you believe a universal commission is an answer to solving the epidemic of poor judging in MMA?
