UFC 150: Edgar vs. Henderson Controversy Exposes MMA Scoring Flaw

Frankie Edgar clearly did not lose to Benson Henderson at UFC 150. So why is he not the new UFC lightweight champion?

The fight was an epic clash of the two best lightweights currently fighting in MMA. But while the fight succeeded in exciting the world, it fell short of delivering a final that everyone, anyone, was able to accept.

Don’t blame Benson Henderson. He fought and scratched his way to a standstill with the former champ. In the end, the narrowest of margins separated these two great athletes.

But what was it that was the deciding factor?

Human judgment and the 10-point must system enforced by the UFC are the flawed concepts in this case.

Edgar’s control of the octagon as the rounds moved on was evident to everyone but the two judges who scored the fight 48-47 in favor of Henderson. The third judge ruled in favor of Edgar, with a vastly different perception of the fight. He scored it 49-46 in Edgar’s favor.

There is no way to justify the performance the world saw, which the stats support, that results in a 48-47 score based on the 10-point must system.

The stats and the action don’t lie. Henderson did not win more rounds than Edgar. So, how did the judges come to that result?

Conflicting information arose after the end of the fight. FightMetric scored the fight a draw with the slight performance edge to Edgar because of a higher amount of punches, takedowns and submission attempts.

But the information the judges were working with at the end of the fight that was displayed to the pay-per-view audience did not match those FightMetric’s numbers.

If the judges were basing their decisions on false information, there is something to be concerned about for future decisions like this.

There will always be controversy, though, as long as human judgment is involved in separating

One possible solution: Extend the fights. If a champion cannot distinguish himself in five rounds, add another. Add a round until there is a clearly-defined winner—a winner decided by the two fighters, not the scorecard of a couple UFC officials.

Follow me on Twitter @BigHoagowski