UFC 139 Results: Does a 10-7 Round Actually Exist?

UFC 139 was a card stacked to be an exciting night of fights. From top to bottom, including the prelims, there were great matchups with many of the sport's big names.

The main event, Dan Henderson vs. Shogun Rua, turned out to be one of the greatest fights of the year and possibly of all time. A five-round battle between two legends ended in a unanimous decision that could have easily gone a different direction. 

The scorecards from the judges showed identical markings from the three officials with Hendo winning the first three rounds and Shogun winning the last two. For each round, it was a 10-9 scoring, leaving the result 48-47 in favor of the American.

What the MMA world and UFC President Dana White have expressed is that the fifth and final round should have been scored a 10-8 round. This is a topic of debate, but when looking at the extent of dominance Shogun had, it makes you wonder what else would be needed to give it a 10-8, let alone a 10-7. 

Ultimately, the judges gave Shogun a 10-9, but the round was completely dominated by the Brazilian. In official Nevada State Athletic Commission documents, it reads: “The fighter who dominates a round is given a score of 10-8 (a score of 10-7 is possible for a dominant round)."

Shogun had a dominant position on Hendo practically the entire round, mounting him and striking him. Hendo had very little answer for his predicament, but still managed to survive to the end of the fight. 

This initially was a round many people probably thought was a 10-8 right after the 10-second clap happened, but was announced that it was given a 10-9. Did it have anything to do with the physical damage Shogun had and Hendo didn’t? Did the fatigue of Shogun work against his dominant position? 

The other cases to bring up are both Edgar vs. Maynard II, and Edgar vs. Maynard III. In back-to-back fights, a seemingly déjà vu event took place in the first rounds, where Edgar was being beaten and overwhelmed by “The Bully.” Teetering both times on the brink of defeat and losing his belt, he came back in impressive fashion both times. 

However, those first rounds were not just some round of Edgar being tagged here and there. Maynard swarmed on an injured Edgar and bombarded the champ with strikes, attempting to get a stoppage. Edgar, bloodied and dazed, barely made it out of those first five minutes. 

In their second meeting at UFC 125, after a round of being punched, knocked down and cut, many felt that a 10-7 round would be justified in this case. 10-8’s were given across the board. 

In their third meeting at UFC 136, Edgar was presented with an all-too-familiar beating in the first, but to many, this time was much worse. At several points during their fights, the referee could have called a stop to the fight, and fans probably would not have contested it. However, this time the first round was given 10-9 by two judges and the third gave it a 10-8.

This leaves people wondering where the criteria starts and stops with judges. MMA judges have notoriously been criticized for their scoring and many are looking to other systems and training for the judges themselves. 

But with these examples of fights we have been presented with, where is the consistency? The judging system seems to be as unpredictable as the UFC’s cut system, but seems to frustrate more people on a consistent basis. The three aforementioned fights are all illustrations of rounds being dominated by one fighter. So where does the 10-7 come into play? 

Henderson and Edgar, especially Edgar, were being knocked down, overwhelmed, and their opponents were in dominant positions. Had any extra damage or battering occurred, one can almost guarantee the referee could have called a stop to the fight and awarded a TKO.

It almost seems that for Maynard to have gotten a 10-7 in his first rounds with Edgar, he would have had to knock him out or submit him, and somehow the referee would have had to let them continue.

UFC.com lists the rules of judging as follows: 

"

J: III - a round is to be scored as a 10-8 round when a contestant overwhelmingly dominates by striking or grappling in a round.

J: IV - a round is to be scored as a 10-7 round when a contestant totally dominates by striking or grappling in a round. 

"

The margin between “overwhelmingly” and “totally” seems to be an enigma and leaves fans with more ambiguity than before. If Gray Maynard was only “overwhelmingly” beating Frankie Edgar in their fights, what else would he have had to do to “totally” dominate him? 

Those rules also state: 

"

J: II - a round is to be scored as a 10-9 round when a contestant wins by a close margin, landing the greater number of effective legal strikes, grappling and other maneuvers. 

"

A 10-9 was awarded to Shogun for his final round with Hendo, indicating by these standards that it was a close margin. To put this in perspective, the recent Ben Henderson vs. Clay Guida fight consisted of all three rounds being scored 10-9. Many would agree the two fights went just a little bit different. 

These rules, of course, are UFC’s definition of the judging system, and the Athletic Commissions are the ones that employ these officials. They are not trained by, nor employed by the UFC. Regardless, the inconsistency is at a very confusing point these days, and these are the Unified Rules and Regulations of MMA. 

Will a new system come into play in the near future? Possibly, but as a growing sport, some tinkering is still going on. When and if we all see the next 10-7 round, you can rest assured the MMA universe will be exploding with highlights and discussion. Does a 10-7 round exist? At least in theory it does.

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