Originally Posted by
Josh Bodmon
I respectfully disagree with those of you who feel the judges will not be helpful. I actually like Master Eddie's concept that if you don't win, you're both dq-ed and look forward to seeing it implemented in his tournament, but in this case where there is no tournament format, instead of having a tonne of draws I like the idea of judges to pick who wins. I'm interested to know what criteria they will use to judge. I only say this because these guys are the highest level black belts and so even with pressure, it will be tough to finish. There were some great finishes in the first event but half the fights were draws, primarily because one guy would be incredibly relaxed, doing little or nothing, with his opponent pushing the pace. Some can consider that the 'wear him out strategy' and that may be true, but if you are going to have a time limit and don't want to have dqs or draws, this can force for more action overall throughout the entire match. With the judges it will be incredibly subjective, but I think it will help promote the efforts to constantly push to finish. As we saw in the last event many of the guys pushing to finish either subbed their opponents (Im thinking of Kron and Lovato Jr) or clearly dominated (I'm thinking of Buchecha and Ribero). Ironically if you watched Roger vs Buchecha, and scored it with the IBJJF point system, Roger won...but it was pretty clear to practically everyone watching that Buchecha absolutely dominated that fight. I think it would be nice to reward fighters like Buchecha for going 100% after it in these single matchups. In a tournament, by all means, the idea that you're dq-ed if you dont sub is great, but we have to remember that these are the best black belts in the world who have succeeded at high levels, many under various rules sets (ie. IBJJF, GQ, ADCC, Rickson Challenge, and more), and to avoid people simply spending 20 mins trying to be a mouse in bjj cat and mouse playing to just hang on (pretty much seemed like Ryron's strategy for the most part), this idea could work to push action and force constant pressure or at least more pressure. Its different and new, why not see how it plays out :)