Thanks for posting. Very interesting and frankly stunning read. In the second fight, the dissenting judge seems to show disregard for the actual rules which say that only effective striking and effective grappling (damage and submission threats) count in the first instance. Only when there is no difference in that regard, stuff like ring control can even be taken into consideration.

But this guy goes deep with his alternative interpretation: "Lara had some great leg kicks in the first round and was bruising the inside of the leg. Diana kept coming forward, so I gave (Diana) the first round. [Maybe he left out some stuff because that round seems to have clearly been Diana’s but according to this observation, it should have been Lara’s round!] The second round, (Lara) was landing those kicks. Now Diana wasn’t coming forward, so subjectively I thought she had diminished energy. She wasn’t active coming forward, and Lara kept coming forward and was hurting her with the leg kicks. But I really thought she had some right power punches that were more effective the second round and incurred a good bit of damage. That’s why I gave it to her. I thought her striking was more effective – maybe not more efficient, but more effective.”

He seems to decide correctly in the end but it feels very strange to me that someone who is being paid to judge professionally will even talk about this “coming forward” and even the vague diminished energy kind of stuff (if it is not from actively being tired out by having your opponent doing the backpack or sth like that) because those simply should not matter according to the rules.

Anyway, great to hear from judges but that really did not convince me that the decisions are in safe hands.