EFC 74: The Officiating Riddle

Judging is still impacting negatively on athletes and their careers! Yet again we have a situation where the basics of the 10-point Must System have been disregarded. According to this System, judges should evaluate mixed martial arts techniques, such as effective striking, effective grappling, control of the cage, effective aggression and defense. I do not think that Vlismas outperformed Wojcik in this regard! Bad Call…. and now it seems she gets a title shot! There is too much controversy around this result, at least give Wojcik a rematch off a full fight camp and then start throwing titles around….

Both Main-Event fights did not live up to any of the hype and were – in this writers opinion – two of the dullest main fights I have had the privileged of witnessing at EFC.

– Seabi vs Mertens would have been Absolutely Impossible to call from a judging point-of-view (but I would not put it past the SA officials to have concocted some bizarre decision) and its only saving grace was the eventual TKO – which as it turned out was almost all the action of the entire fight. Add to that, I am still bemused as to where Mertens got his blood nose rom, he should really pay more attention to his cornermen as I think they were beating him up!

– The Title fight between Kabesa and Murrie could have been so much more and I suppose that the broken arm, suffered by Murrie, had much to do with it in the latter stages, as well as the interesting strategy adopted by Kabesa of not showcasing his fabled wrestling prowess. That said, Kabesa showed that he has a decent stand-up game, one can only wonder how much different the fight would have been had Murrie had all his weapons for the entire fight?

The overall quality of debutants needs RADICAL improvement, as yet again, debutants failed to deliver stand-out performances – the jury is still out on Gorimbo as a tougher opponent may have this writer penning something altogether different. The only way this will improve is if amateur fighters get over their “ego-trips” and build their cage experience and not knee-jerk into turning professional the minute they win an amateur title.

Add to this, where is MMASA on this matter?

The last official AGM (back in 2016) we attended, they introduced a 15/10 fight rule and then back-tracked on that, stating that it was to be used as a guideline. This is part of the problem! If MMASA would only grow a pair and enforce that top athletes – wanting to turn PRO – compete as part of the SA national team at global IMMAF events, then not only would these athletes get a sense of where their skill sets really sit but you would also see an administration body actually working to build the sport as well as looking after the very athletes that ensure their very existence.

I suppose that is “pie-in-the-sky” because how can they be at the pulse of where it all happens when the MMASA President hardly attends Amateur events and of late, is NEVER in attendance at EFC!