Judge Doug Crosby responds to criticism of recent scorecards including Paddy Pimblett vs. Jared Gordon

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Doug Crosby has come under fire in recent weeks for the scorecards he has rendered while judging fights in both Bellator and the UFC, but he has now responded for the first time.

The veteran official, who was the dissenting judge in the split decision between Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello at Bellator 289, says he can’t directly address the scorecards handed in for a particular fight. Crosby says athletic commissions have rules in place when it comes to judging and he won’t defy those rules to defend or explain any scorecard, including the 50-45 decision he gave Sabatello.

The same goes for Crosbys’ scorecard for the controversial decision between Paddy Pimblett and Jared Gordon at UFC 282, although he was joined by two other judges that night, Ron McCarthy and Chris Lee, who also returned the same decision 29-28, although the three officials differed. in rounds given to each fighter.

There is a system and protocols in place for officials to comment on fights they have judged and I respect that, Crosby said on the Chael Sonnens Youre Welcome podcast. There is a process in place for any fighter interested in information on how their fight was judged. This information is based on officials using the scoring criteria and any fight, not just last weekend, or any fighter is encouraged to contact the administrators and ask them questions about this process.

As for my comments on particular fights right now or maybe never, that’s at the discretion of the admins. It’s not me trying to avoid answering tough questions about judging fights, but there is a process and I respect the process.

The Crosbys 50-45 scorecard for Sabatello was the first time in the history of the scoring database where a losing fighter swept all of a judge’s rounds.

In the Pimblett vs. Gordon fight, Crosby gave both rounds 1 and 2 to the Liverpool native with only round 3 for his opponent which also matched the scorecard passed on by McCarthy.

While he couldn’t address anything in particular with either fight, Crosby detailed how the scoring criteria in mixed martial arts has evolved. The last set of rule changes came in 2017 where the effective hitting or grabbing offense trumps anything going on.

Over the last 15 years when you talk about fighters the overall comment and I’m not going to call it a complaint I’ll call it a comment or a concern is that effective grappling doesn’t carry enough weight in the criteria scoring, Crosby said. Recently, I don’t know how long ago, but the scoring criteria was changed and updated so that effective striking and effective grappling are considered equal.

If effective grappling is considered equal to effective striking, and then you look at one of my scores through this newly grounded mental lens, the scores may become easier to understand. But it has to do with reaching and understanding the criteria and I don’t know who does that and who doesn’t.

Crosby admitted that judges are asked to return a score between rounds with very little time to contemplate what just happened, especially in a sport like MMA where there are so many different techniques both for striking and To fight.

You have to assign a numerical value to what you just saw, and you have an average of about 15 seconds to return that score, Crosby said. If you set aside about five of those seconds for the time it takes to write it, that leaves you with about 10 seconds to decide who won a round and who lost a round, in the most sophisticated and dynamic sport with the best athletes. in the world.

As a judge, that’s what you do. I do everything I can to take advantage of the knowledge and insights I can get from fighters, first and foremost from fighters.

Crosby was also asked to respond to the recent change made by California Athletic Commission Executive Director Andy Foster after he established a new rule in his state that would prevent any judge from working an event one night and then potentially flying to across the country to work another event. the following night.

That’s exactly what happened with Crosby after working the Bellator 289 card on Friday and then flying to Las Vegas to serve as a judge for UFC 282 just 24 hours later. Under Fosters’ new rule, judges can only work consecutive nights in California if they travel no further than a neighboring state like Nevada.

I can’t comment on any resolution or decision by any director because I don’t know anything about it at the moment, Crosby said. Anyone who criticizes people for their work, you can probably look at the data of people who criticize workers and find commonalities. One of the commonalities you will likely find is that the people making these criticisms are not members of the working class. Anyone involved in MMA who would criticize or complain about this, doing what working-class people do, probably hasn’t been in the hotel lobby in a second-tier city after the event at 2:45 am after the restaurant closed and since it’s a second tier town there are no other restaurants. They’re sitting in the lobby of this hotel eating an energy bar or a Slim Jim or whatever they find in their backpack to eat, knowing they have to catch a shuttle at 5 a.m. to the airport. I know how it feels because I’m also in this hall.

I travel on these shuttles and sit in these coach seats for fighters and for sports. You should ask yourself, before accepting that as a valid review, I would label the source of this review and say is it a working class person making this review or is it a fabulously wealthy person making this review? You should assign a value to the review based on who is reviewing.

While judging is often criticized in combat sports, Crosby argues that officials have an incredibly difficult job and being constantly bombarded with criticism will only make problems worse.

That’s why he says he largely ignores responses to his dashboards while letting his overall resume speak for itself.

If you want good judges and good judgment, they can’t fear the shadow of millionaire experts when it comes to the decisions they make, Crosby said. They cannot fear the looming shadow of members of the media and I have great respect for genuine members of the MMA media. They think I’m a hostile boogeyman but weren’t supposed to talk to the press and any reporter who comes up to me on a show and just wants to talk about the philosophy of judging or any of the things that people should take into account, anyone [can come talk to me].

A lot of people in the MMA media already have a preconceived idea and they will only take back what you tell them to confirm that bias. This is called confirmation bias. It’s an old trick and it works too often.

It’s unclear who Crosby was addressing when he mentioned millionaire pundits, but it was a fluent one in his retort while offering to speak to anyone privately about his approach to judging fights.

Any member of the MMA media can come talk to me, Crosby said. I have a lot of respect for a lot of these guys, those who do the work and have their boots on the ground can ask me anything at any time.

Millionaires who guess everyone and shoot from their mansions, not so much. But that’s the world we live in.

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