Henry Cejudo thinks it’s time open scoring is implemented in the UFC.
Cejudo’s comments come after Amir Albazi’s split decision win over Kai Kara-France in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 45 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Cejudo thought Kara-France was robbed.
Cejudo himself is coming off a split decision loss at UFC 288, where he was edged out by bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. He also pointed to Vasiliy Lomachenko’s close setback to Devin Haney as a recent example of a controversial loss.
“Let’s talk about judging,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “That’s right. I’m talking about all you bald-headed fat people who have never fought before who are actually judging fights. Guys, I’m not here just to talk about my fight. I’m talking about Vasiliy Lomachenko. I’m talking about Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi.”
Cejudo thinks open scoring would help solve the problem of close fights. While he has accepted his loss to Sterling, he’s particularly irked by judge Derek Cleary awarding Sterling Round 5 of their fight – a round he thinks was clearly his.
“All these fights happened in the last three weeks,” Cejudo continued. “Robbery upon robbery. Close fights, people giving a fifth round to somebody who I don’t know how it is he actually won it. Where are we going to hold these judges accountable? What are they watching? Could there be a curriculum where a lot of these judges could actually fight or do we make the actual referee into a judge and we make it even because he’s the closest person in there? Or should we have an open scorecard?
“I actually like that. I actually do believe that the UFC should actually change it into an (open) scorecard. We said, ‘Hey man, you lost. That was blue corners or that was red corners round.’ Where people actually know where is it and when is it that you have to put the pedal to the metal. It’s to the point where it’s getting confusing and the last thing we want to do is turn the sport of mixed martial arts into boxing where there’s complete robbery. Where you know that you can knock the guy down 10 out of the 12 rounds and still lose.”
Cejudo suggests a prerequisite for people to have martial arts backgrounds in order to be eligible to judge.
“Where is it that these people are going to be held accountable? Should there be a curriculum for these judges to be able to say, ‘Hey man, you at least to be a judge have to have a background and have to have amateur experience in boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or mixed martial arts,'” Cejudo said.
“But you need one of those traits in order for you to actually do it because I don’t feel like at times people really count the actual takedown. I don’t think at the time people really count the actual leg kicks or even to the body. This is becoming a problem, and we have to do our best to let the best man win because if not, guys, it’s becoming a sh*t show. It’s becoming a circus.”
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