{"id":221075,"date":"2025-10-17T20:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221075\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T20:52:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:52:07","slug":"daniel-cormier-calls-for-significant-scoring-changes-after-merab-dvalishvilis-ufc-320-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/221075\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Cormier calls for significant scoring changes after Merab Dvalishvili&#8217;s UFC 320 win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier is fed up with the current judging criteria after watching Merab Dvalishvili vs. Cory Sandhagen at UFC 320.<\/p>\n<p>UFC bantamweight champion Merab Dvalishvili successfully defended his title with another dominant performance at UFC 320 earlier this month against Cory Sandhagen. Dvalishvili landed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/merab-dvalishvili\/pros-react-after-merab-dvalishvili-defeats-cory-sandhagen-at-ufc-320\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">an astonishing 20 takedowns in his unanimous decision victory<\/a> and nearly knocked out Sandhagen midway through the fight.<\/p>\n<p>UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier was impressed by Dvalishvili\u2019s performance in the Octagon. Dvalishvili\u2019s relentless wrestling-heavy style is similar to Cormier\u2019s, albeit with different elements.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019s performance points to a significant issue with how takedowns are valued.<\/p>\n<p>Daniel Cormier goes off on takedown scoring after watching Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 320<\/p>\n<p>In a recent episode of <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/aEylp_iJKVI?si=2NFF8WMGaWwtMz4I\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Good Guy\/Bad Guy<\/a>, Cormier railed against how takedowns are considered in MMA\u2019s current scoring system after watching UFC 320.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have long had a problem with how they score Mixed Martial Arts takedowns,\u201d Cormier said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey should get us in a room, let us tell them what a takedown is and then those numbers won\u2019t seem so big. Merab didn\u2019t get 20 takedowns, Merab probably got five or six takedowns and he got 14 mat returns.\u201d (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/bloodyelbow.com\/2025\/10\/17\/daniel-cormier-suggests-change-to-ufc-scoring-system-as-he-discredits-merab-dvalishvilis-wrestling-style\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Bloody Elbow<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>Cormier referenced several grappling \u2018resets\u2019 during Dvalishvili\u2019s fight with Sandhagen. In Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bjpenn.com\/mma-news\/kamaru-usman\/kamaru-usman-reflects-on-rivalry-with-great-dance-partner-colby-covington-he-challenged-me-so-much\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">welterweight title rematch<\/a>, Cormier went off on Covington\u2019s mid-fight takedown attempt not being \u2018scored\u2019 in the official stats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC Hall of Famer Daniel Cormier is fed up with the current judging criteria after watching Merab Dvalishvili&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,25362,797,786,25363,785,85,787,60152],"class_list":{"0":"post-221075","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cory-sandhagen","11":"tag-daniel-cormier","12":"tag-fighting","13":"tag-merab-dvalishvili","14":"tag-mma","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-ufc","17":"tag-ufc-320"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}