MMA Scoring Explained: Why a Point Deduction Did Not Matter

Zachary Reese lost a point for an eye poke in the first round at UFC Vegas 123 on 31 October, and still won all three scorecards, 29-27 across the board. If that sounds wrong, it is because most fans do the maths backwards. Under the 10-point must system, a deduction only matters when the fight was close, and this one was not.

Reese won every round against Mickey Gall on every card, which is 30-27. The referee's deduction took one point off his total, and that left 29-27. A deduction only changes a result when the rounds were close, and these were not. The deduction turned out to be a rounding error.

What the judges are actually doing

Under the 10-point must system, the winner of each round gets 10 points and the loser gets nine or fewer. The judges score each round on its own, with nothing carried over, and a truly even round can be 10-10, though almost none ever are. At the end the three cards are added up. All three judges pick the same fighter and it is unanimous. Two pick one fighter and the third picks the other, and it is split. Two for one fighter and a draw on the third card makes it a majority decision.

The part most people get wrong is what a judge looks at first. Under the Association of Boxing Commissions' scoring clarification, effective striking and grappling come first, and they are weighed equally. Damage counts first, then dominance, then how long a fighter kept it up. Aggression and cage control only come into play when the striking and grappling cannot separate the two, and defence is not scored at all.

So walking forward for five minutes and landing little can lose a round to the fighter who backs up and lands the cleaner shots. And lying on top of someone without doing damage earns very little, which is why a wrestler can win every exchange on the stat sheet and still lose a round that felt like his.

Where the arguments start

Most scorecard rows start with a 10-8 round. A 10-8 needs significant damage that could have finished the fight, or heavy domination with some damage while the other fighter offers almost nothing back. Position without damage is not enough. A 10-7 is rarer still, for a round where one fighter overwhelms the other from start to finish.

The margins matter more than they look. One 10-8 on a single card can turn a fight that went 2-1 in rounds against a fighter into a draw on that judge's card. When the cards come back and you cannot see how, check the 10-8s first. Then check your own card, which is usually the one that is off.

Deductions follow the same logic. They come from the referee, and the judges simply take the point off the round where the foul happened. Reese's eye poke came in round one, which works out to a 9-9 first round on every card, then two 10-9 rounds for the win. Add it up and you get 29-27. The eye poke cost Reese a point, but it never cost him the result.

The same deduction in a close fight is a different story. Take a fighter who wins two rounds to one, which is 29-28. Take a point off and it is 28-28, a draw on that card, and a fight that felt like a win ends with a shrug. That is the only time a foul really decides anything.

Score one yourself

The quickest way to learn it is to score a live fight round by round, with a notepad next to the screen, before the cards are read. Buzzer has livestreamed Balkan MMA cards like SFC 5 in Sarajevo, where the co-main event went to the judges, and BFC 4 in Tuzla. Live combat sports sit on Buzzer Arena TV, so you can compare your card with the judges' and see how far apart you land.