By Gerald Harris

I have judged around 350-400 fights in my relatively short career as an MMA official. And while my experience may still be relatively light, by some standards, I have also attended training anytime it has been made available, including a 4.5 hour seminar on judging professional boxing with the American Boxing Commissions lead Judge Duane Ford and uber-referee Jat Nadie that really helped to "normalize" the way that I score and give a little more structure to my method that should result in a greater level of consistency between all of the judges that attended the seminar.

I have recently discussed the possibility of coducting a training program for MMA judges here in Utah that would expose current and potential officials to the realities of the varied disciplines practiced in an MMA competition.In my opinion, Officials, like fighters, must always pursue training opportunities to continually hone and improve their skills. Mistakes happen, but through strong consistent training we can minimize the mistakes and guarantee the fighters are properly recognized for their efforts.

This article is divided into a few short sections that cover how and why MMA fights should be scored.