Matt Hughes Wants To Become A Judge, Possibly Open A Judging Academy

“When I’m a judge, I can only help the fighters that are right in front of me,” Hughes explained. “I would rather have a piece of a school, or help these judges figure out the best way to judge. Of course, I wouldn’t be the lead person. I wouldn’t want any financial interest in it whatsoever. But by gosh, these judges need to have some knowledge. They can’t go from a boxing atmosphere and think that [MMA] is going to be the same way. You just can’t.”

“I’ve judged a lot of matches and I’ve reffed a lot of matches, and so I think I could help out in figuring out what the best criteria is. My number one criteria when it comes to judging a mixed martial arts fight is damage. Whoever does the most damage probably ought to win the round. If you’re on bottom, if you’re on top, if you’re on your feet, whoever does the cumulative most damage in a round, is probably going to win. And some of these judges think that because one guy was on top the whole five minutes, just because he was on top, they think he should have won the round. The bottom guy could have been throwing great elbows, creating a huge amount of damage, but they just don’t see that.”

During yesterday’s session with “The MMA Hour” Matt Hughes discussed his departure from active competition and what he plans to do to stay active in Mixed Martial Arts.

Judging reform is a great calling, is it not?