Leister Bowling’s TUF 16 Coach Blog Week 7 – The Judges Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Even Watch MMA

Team Nelson is back in control and nobody has a clue where that will take us for the next fight. When we originally made our ”perfect match ups,” Matt Secor vs. Michael Hill was one of them. We decided to keep it for last because we knew that if Michael Hill got his choice, he would pick Secor making one of our picks happen anyway. We were wrong about some of our picks, but we were right about that.

Matt Secor is a character. Love him or hate him, he is definitely entertaining. During our meeting with him after the fight picks, he told us that he was here to learn and to get the most out of this experience.

He was very happy to be on Team Carwin. He told me he wanted to work on his takedowns and his striking, but that he planned on taking everyone down and submitting them. He was very confident in his ground game.

“Mouthy” Matt Secor vs. Michael “No Shirt” Hill

Matt told us from day one that he was going to be mouthing off to the other team. He wanted them to hate him. His reasoning was that if they all hated him, they would pick him and he would get to fight sooner.

Like I said last week, the trash talking back and forth is getting old to me. However, Secor always has a way of making me laugh when he’s doing it. He is that calm guy that smiles and talks trash and is able to make you lose all control. His strategy worked well with Julian and Hill.

Michael picking this fight was perfect for us. We knew that Michael could hit hard, but that he was really lacking on the ground. Secor’s stand-up needed work, but he really does have good BJJ and a good wrestling pace that we felt would be the difference in the fight.

In the first punch landed, Secor broke his hand. This makes for a much more difficult fight. Even with a broken hand, some people felt he won the first round, including Dana White. Being that it was very close and Hill was on top for a lot of the round (even though he didn’t threaten anything or land any strikes) I will give the 1st round to him. The 2nd and 3rd rounds were clearly won by Secor.

When Michael Hill was announced as the winner, we were all in disbelief. Even the other team couldn’t believe it. Dana was livid.

We went back to the locker room and Bristol Marunde brought up that they had to have written the wrong guy down. That actually made sense, so we went back to check the scorecards. This wouldn’t have been the first time that a judge made an honest mistake and accidentally scored a round for the wrong guy, giving the other fighter the win.

This wasn’t the case. All of Team Carwin coaches went to Keith Kizer and made him show us the scorecards. The judges scattered quickly, as they didn’t want to catch flack on this one.

Keith said that the last couple punches that Hill landed (when Secor head butted his punch on purpose) was probably the deciding factor in the round. What??? You mean having someone’s back in a body triangle for nine minutes of a fight doesn’t count for more than some desperation punches?

Don’t get me wrong, Secor probably could have done more to finish the fight, even with his broken hand, but come on!!! At some point these judges have to be held accountable for screwing up peoples’ lives. This isn’t some contest that doesn’t matter. These guys’ livelihoods are on the line here. They are trying to make a better life for themselves and their family.

“Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.” That is a crazy saying! Sure it makes it a lot easier to finish fights, but when they go to a decision, we should all be confident enough to say hey, these are qualified, competent judges who get paid to do this, and they know what they are doing.

That obviously isn’t the case.

I have no clue what these judges were watching. Any judge that scored that fight for Hill should be banned from judging a mixed martial arts fight ever again. As a matter of fact, they shouldn’t be allowed to even watch the sport!

After watching this episode, we know that the judging can always get worse. So let’s just hope it gets better, not only for this show, but for the sport in general!

Until next time…

Leister Bowling: Wrestling/MMA Coach at Grudge Training Center and Easton BJJ. You can follow Leister on Twitter @LeisterBowling or Email Leister3B@gmail.com for training tips/seminar information.

(Photo courtesy of Leister Bowling)