I believe a good majority of fights these days are judged correctly, but there's always a few going against the grain. The current set up can't stop it from happening. Not if I was sitting in the judge's seat, not even if you put fighters or refs in their place. I think the judges should not watch the actual fight in front of them at all but instead, a multiple-screen or window view of what the three or four cameramen filming the fights live are viewing.
I know some jurisdictions allow a monitor cageside for judges. A monitor I'd suggest for this is either an array of nice HD tablets, all touch screens when touched in a fight signals a larger monitor to view, or a bad ass big touch screen monitor. Something big, crisp and clear.
There is capitol costs and paying people good at running the stuff but you hear people complain about judging so much, the people who have been running the biggest promotions in this sport since, the beginning I guess. If things got changed that way it would be nice a investment to have something for your event approved commission certified for judging if a commission itself didn't rent their own equipment out to promotions on their own.
I wouldn't require the judges to sit cageside either but whatever location in the arena which accommodates the ideal setting to view the fight, whether a commissioner or public witness or whoever needs to be there with them, whatever.
To take it even further I'd say allow each individual judge the ability to pause, rewind and slow motion play, for an established amount of time, all screens or windows of the fight, never one individually. It would not be a lot of extra time to view the fight either. The judges could finish watching a fight no more then a few minutes late if it was one of the very good, or bad, close fights demanding a better look.
A big part of the reason why I think the ability to control time would be beneficial is because how the heck is anyone supposed to watch Jon Dodson live and see everything the guy is doing? Fully live viewing still has the judges on trial more than if they can quickly go back to get a better look at something, sudden or quick, hell, even a sneeze on their won part, anything they might of missed during a significant moment in the fight.
The judges could at all times, quickly and easily focus their eyes on the perspective they feel gives them the best view of the fight at a given stretch of time. For me that is what drives my theory this has the potential to improve judging, even just a little.
Reform, it's the problem I see with this. It's tough to implement change and this might be too fundamental a change in the method which MMA contests are judged. It could be the kind of purists who think it's cool that umpires in baseball all have varying individual strike zones or some kind of commission or legal battle BS about bs. I think the technology exists to facilitate improvement, but not the leadership to make something happen any time soon. Perhaps that is something for a different discussion.
I want to see every effective amenity possible utilized to make the job of judging a fight easier. Three judges sitting cageside watching the fights live from three different perspectives have the potential to see three very different fights unfold, especially in closely contested fights. I think if fostered correctly, this proposal is one judges could take advantage of and score fights with a greater level of confidence in their decision.
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