UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier is fed up with the current judging criteria after watching Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320.
UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili successfully defended his title with another dominant performance at UFC 320 earlier this month against Cory Sandhagen. Dvalishvili landed an astonishing 20 takedowns in his unanimous decision victory and nearly knocked out Sandhagen midway through the fight.
UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier was impressed by Dvalishvili’s performance in the Octagon. Dvalishvili’s relentless wrestling-heavy style is similar to Cormier’s, albeit with different elements.
MMA judging/scoring continues to be a hot topic as the sport continues to grow. Several controversial moments in the UFC this year were centered around questionable scoring, and Cormier believes Dvalishvili’s performance points to a significant issue with how takedowns are valued.
Daniel Cormier goes off on takedown scoring after watching Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 320
In a recent episode of Good Guy/Bad Guy, Cormier railed against how takedowns are considered in MMA’s current scoring system after watching UFC 320.
“I have long had a problem with how they score Mixed Martial Arts takedowns,” Cormier said.
“The MMA takedown is a problem, the way that they score MMA takedowns is the problem. A takedown should be when you go to the mat, a takedown should not be when you get back up and the guy picks you up and puts you back down.
“They should get us in a room, let us tell them what a takedown is and then those numbers won’t seem so big. Merab didn’t get 20 takedowns, Merab probably got five or six takedowns and he got 14 mat returns.” (h/t Bloody Elbow)
Cormier referenced several grappling ‘resets’ during Dvalishvili’s fight with Sandhagen. In Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington’s welterweight title rematch, Cormier went off on Covington’s mid-fight takedown attempt not being ‘scored’ in the official stats.