Dan Hardy Suggests There’s Too Much Wrestling in MMA

Added on Sep 07, 2010 by Bill Jackson in

UFC & MMA

Former UFC title challenger Dan Hardy wrote a new column for This Is Nottingham stating basically that there is too much wrestling in MMA. The source of his frustration is obvious as him and a number of his training partners have all lost decisions to wrestlers that were content to hold their man down and grind out a decision win. In his column, Hardy suggests rule changes such as deducting points from fighters not trying to finish their opponent and just stalling.

While his solutions don’t seem anywhere near realistic, I do sympathize with many of his points. Primarily, his references to the recent fight between Nick Lentz and Andre Winner. In that fight, Lentz did little more than hold Winner against the cage and basically try to eliminate any offense from either fighter. Winner was able to land a handful of powerful strikes in the first and second round and even though Lentz did nothing in the form of damaging his opponent or attempting to finish the fight, he was given a unanimous decision.

I strongly felt the few strikes from Winner were worth more than simply being held against the cage and gave the first two rounds to Winner, especially the first. While I don’t think any rules should be changed to correct this, I do think the judging needs to be tweaked. Judges should not be awarding points to a fighter simply because he is keeping his opponent from inflicting much damage. This is not a wrestling match, it is a fight.

If a fighter lands five hard punches in the first minute of the fight, but is held against the cage with absolutely no offense taking place between either fighter for the remaining four minutes, he should not lose the round. He was the only one that scored. If a boxer just runs around the cage and avoids all punches for the entire fight, you don’t give him the round because he was the one doing what he wanted. It is the same for wrestlers. If a wrestler holds you down and never throws a punch, he should not be awarded for “doing what he wants to do” as Joe Rogan put it.

Wrestling is a huge part of the sport and it should not be discouraged, but the judges should be instructed to score meaningful offense over a game plan devoid of it.