Falcao Clock Controversy, and General Mishaps

A lot of people said the fight clock was screwed up in the Falcao-Lullo fight. In the round that ends with Falcao going for a RNC (I think the first), people said it ended early, which would obviously be a tough break for someone trying to finish a RNC. Review of the round has a current consensus that the bell rang about 7 seconds before it should have. How does something like this happen?

First of all, let me say that we should primarily blame the commission, who is in charge of the clock, not the UFC. That being said, what can be done about this type of bonehead move? With the rapid expansion of the UFC to new states and countries, it's only going to get worse before it gets better, since there will regularly be governing bodies making decisions as newcomers. Does the UFC have to hire a ton of people just to watch all of the commission workers? In other words, is the only way to stop this kind of thing to have a UFC employee stand next to the clock guy and say "No, I know it's a big red button, but you have to wait until it says 5:00. No, that's 4:53. Stop touching that." Then expand that to all the other jobs that the commission is responsible for, and you get way higher costs, which means higher ticket prices, PPV prices, etc.

Can someone explain to me why the UFC can not be allowed to hire and train people in jobs like this? Why can't they train, or at least brief, the judges on what is expected? Why can't they vito a ref, or the decision to ever use Cecil Peoples? Basically, why do commissions cut off their ability to control the consistency and effectiveness of key, decision-making staff?

Those are some good questions. I've always wondered why the UFC removes the clock graphic when there is less than 10 sec left in a round. My guess is that the UFC clock and the athletic commissions don't use the same clock. This is not a huge deal when it comes to striking because a strike only takes a split second but in this case where a fighter was caught in a submission attempt, seven seconds is a huge amount of time. Having a discrepancy between the clock that is displayed and the "official" clock can only lead to controversy.

Another weird thing I noticed was there was one fight where the 10-second warning (clap) happened at 4:56, then about four or five seconds later the horn sounded for the end of the round. The timer was not having a good day.

I really think, even though it stinks, that the UFC has to just hire overseers to treat the commission people like the unprofessional retards that most of them are. As for judges, Peoples has to die eventually

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AcesRacked

Can someone explain to me why the UFC can not be allowed to hire and train people in jobs like this? Why can't they train, or at least brief, the judges on what is expected? Why can't they vito a ref, or the decision to ever use Cecil Peoples? Basically, why do commissions cut off their ability to control the consistency and effectiveness of key, decision-making staff?

---

There would be an inherent conflict of interest.

Because of the athletic commission's distance to the UFC issues like this are prevented from delving into the, "Dana fixed the fight" type arguments.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by AcesRacked

I really think, even though it stinks, that the UFC has to just hire overseers to treat the commission people like the unprofessional retards that most of them are. As for judges, Peoples has to die eventually

---

Deal with some of the commission people, then try that. Alot of them are very, very confused as to thier purpose. The only thing Dana can do to a commission is to threaten to not come back to the state if they dont get their acts together (which can work, since the UFC makes them a bundle when its there) but that is about it, most commissions are FULL of people who have zero experience in combat sports and basically became officials due to being grandfathered in from boxing (or just attending the 8 hour class, and since MMA is alot more common at the regional level, and alot more profitable, they dove into it headfirst) and a whole lot of them really think they know everything.

I heard a judge say, with my own ears one day, he never realized how different it was to be mounted vs being on bottom with a full guard on a guy. This he finally finds out after being a judge for almost 2 years..........

If only Falcao would have won in the first with the RNC then I wouldnt had to have watched 2 boring rounds.