Ufc - Henderson V Khabilov

**** was ridiculous, i switched my money to pearson after round 1, worst robbery of the decade, that was worse than pacquaio/bradley. apparently mean mugging someone while swinging at air scores better than getting dropped...

Sanchez v Pearson result was a joke, as was arlovski v schaub last night. I had a punt on Ovince St Preux to win by submission against Ryan Jimmo last night and calling that a tko was a sick joke. He broke his arm with a kimura and Jimmo verbally submitted. I know in fairness if I backed by tko I would have got payed on a loser. But it usually goes against the punters rather than for them. Has anyone got an opinion on whether ufc betting is fixed or just a bit embryonic in its position as a betting medium ? Or did anyone back St Preux tko/ko and want to laugh about it or give a silly explanation as to how you won. All in good taste, im not that bitter cos it goes with the territory in ufc betting. I did Andrade round 6 and Italy 3-1 as well last night so I feel odds against for todays bets.

hey yoda, first of all your bet on osp should stand, i remember a couple of people on a different forum who had the same bet, being pissed about the decision to rule it a tko, and it was later rectified to a submission. the result now stands as a sub on the ufc website. http://www.ufc.com/event/UFC174 the people that complained got their bet settled as a win, although it might vary depending on what book you used, so you should check the rules of your book before complaining. i'd imagine they should pay out though.

in regards to whether the betting is fixed, you have to realize the judges are COMPLETELY independent of the ufc(much to the ufc's disdain). they are provided from the athletic commission's of different states, and the ufc literally has no power over them. And as such a huge majority of the judges are not very well versed on the sport, and even fewer have trained in martial arts for a significant amount of time. there's been stories of judges that are actually good, being asked what is happening when the fighters are in a sub attempt by the judge next to them

this results in a lot of judges favoring the wrong facets of a fight, such as sanchez's swinging at air, his octagon control and aggression over pearson's knockdowns, continued pin point counter striking, and his complete lack of damage taken. still can't ****g believe those scores....
another facet where the judges are usually incompetent are when a fighter is losing (narrowly but clearly) for 80% of the round and then lands a takedown in the last minute and does nothing with the position, most of the time the guy that gets the takedown will win that round.

the most annoying area of scoring for me though is when a fighter dominates a round and scores a knockdown, and the round is still scored a 10-9. compared with a different round where maybe the other fighter narrowly wins it and no damage is done to either fighter and that is also a 10-9 the disparity between the 2 rounds infuriates me, and is a prime example of the ineptitude of the judges.

The problem doesn't end there though...
The entire mma scoring system is based on the boxing 10 point must system, rather than a scoring system specifically tailored for mma. There are a lot of other situations where judges make dubious scoring other than the ones i mentioned.
Factor that in with:
* the judges not even utilizing the flawed system correctly in the first place( such as not scoring a round 10-8 if there's a knockdown)
* the varied bias that might arise from judges having specific backgrounds in 1 aspect of martial arts  rather than be knowledgeable in all
  aspects of the sport.
* bad referee decisions that can drastically alter the course of a fight, whether it's a point deduction, a stand up that favors one fighter or  *whatever else, these can just add to the confusion in a judges mind
* Judges not having  tv monitor's to view the fight!! they have to watch the fight at cage-side, where in multiple occasions of the fight,
   they might not be able to properly view what is happening in a lot of grappling situations, and also striking ones too, due to the cage   
   fence/cage post/referee/or other fighter being in the way...
* smaller ufc shows often result in a smaller octagon cage that the fighters fight in. this can dramatically alter the outcome and a fighters
  gameplan and sometimes this is not reflected in the odds. for example an aggressive striker will find it easier to cut of the cage to his
  opponent and enable him to administer more strikes in a smaller cage. alternatively a fighter who likes to counter strike from outside his
  opponents range may find it easier to do so in a big cage.

and you begin to realize how much of a minefield this sport can be to bet on at times.

All of this has to be factored in when seriously betting on mma/ufc and yes there is still the possibility of corruption by the judges(just look at boxing). there have been rumors for a while of judges that are officiating a fight that's a clear 30-27  give 1 round to the other guy in a close-ish round, just so it wont be scored as a unanimous decision, which some bookmakers offer lines on. by doing that they would appear pretty inconspicuous to any inquiries into possible fixing.

Also there's the possibility that fighters could take a dive in a fight. I wouldn't rule this out or occurring before before, but would be pretty confident in saying it is exceedingly rare. The amount of dedication, training, self belief, respect, honor, tradition acquired from training for their whole lives fighters in the premier organisation in the world is extraordinary and the thought of taking a dive would be so alien to them that i just don't think it's a problem.
While i personally believe that there is definitely the potential for corruption in the sport, I think the overwhelming majority of the dubious decisions comes from the uneducated ignorance of the judges.

as you said it is pretty embryonic in it's position as a betting medium but when you have a clear idea of a lot of the risks and factors involved, you start to notice BIG discrepancies in some of the prices that the bookmakers simply are not aware of. this is what makes it such a good sport to bet on for me. and is by far my most successful sport to bet on. the window of opportunity on these prices is getting smaller these days, as more people are starting to become aware of the discrepancies.

sorry for the wall of text, hope it made sense as it's pretty late atm, and i cba to proof read all that

Nice post... you should be writing for MMAJunkie or Fighters Only !!

I felt sorry for Pearson as he needed that win to get him back in the right direction again.  That said , it was good to see Dana White pay him his win bonus for the fight so he saw the scandal in the same way everyone else did.

Conor Mcgregor fighting soon... will the hype be justified as he steps up in the Division ?

Have been following Jo Jo Calderwood for a while too, she is up soon in TUF, hope she goes well.