With UFC 149 Behind Him Court McGee Believes It’s Hard to Find Good Judges

As the saying mixed martial arts goes, “Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.”

The judging in MMA is always subject for great scrutiny, and it’s well deserved.

With incompetent officiating, some fighters exit the Octagon holding their heads low because they left it in the judges hands.  And at UFC 149 against Nick Ring, Court McGee was another unfortunate fighter that was given a bad call.

All three judges Octagon side scored the fight 29-28 in favor of Nick Ring, but McGee wasn’t at all fazed by the decision. The TUF 11 winner knew that he left it all in the practice room and in the fight and harbors no resentment for the outcome.

“I’m not the judges and I’m not the counter punch guy,” McGee told MMAWeekly Radio.

“I don’t count every little punch, every kick and strike.  I’m just the guy who shows up to practice every day and comes out to fight and win.  I had an overwhelming amount of people who thought that I had won.  People like Dana and stuff had me winning the fight, but I’m just the guy who goes out and fights man.

“You know, it’s not up to me, it’s up to the judges to make that decision and sometimes they don’t make the best decisions.  Sometimes you don’t know what they’re watching.”

When judges are uneducated, it’s hard to fully understand what they’re looking for.  Many times, we don’t know if they’ll favor striking over grappling or grappling over striking because there’s very little oversight with little ramifications for poor calls.

McGee has witnessed this firsthand and not just in his own fight, but in a promotion in Colorado where amateur boxing judges were appointed to score an MMA organization.  And he believes firmly that MMA scoring tends to be based on the bias of judges with the only martial arts they know.

“There’s decisions that are bad, but I know in MMA it’s hard to find good judges. People aren’t experienced in the grappling and the wrestling, and the kickboxing and boxing.  I know for a fact a promotion in Colorado, like the last three judges they had for the past two or three shows were all boxing judges, amateur boxing.  A lot of their scores were more towards like amateur style point system punching, so when they went to they ground, they really didn’t know.”

At the end of the day saying we need to educate the judges in MMA is beating a dead horse.  The athletic governing bodies are going to use who they’re going to use, and McGee isn’t going to waste his time being upset by an outcome he can’t change.  McGee exits the cage knowing every time regardless, that he did his job.

Follow Andrew Gladstone at @gladstone1 on Twitter.
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