New Jersey commission to experiment with putting judges in soundproof booths

MMA has had a long history with controversial judge’s decisions and the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board will be testing out a new system in an attempt to reduce judging errors.

Three MMA judges will be put in “soundproof isolated rooms” in addition to three cageside judges at the Cage Fury Fighting Championship 52 event on October 31^st in Atlantic City, according to MMA Junkie.

The isolated judges will get a muted video stream of the fights where both sets of judges will deliver their scorecards to the officials after each fight. Cageside judges get the ultimate say in the decision, but the new system could reveal the honest outcomes.

“This agency has been pleased with both the quality of judging and our judging roster in this state, but we recently have wondered about the effects of blocked views, limited angles, sight distance and to a small degree, crowd noise,” stated NJSACB commissioner Larry Hazzard and general counsel Nick Lembo in a press release, sent to MMAjunkie. “Technological advances and skilled camera technicians can now offer the viewing fan base a closer, clearer and more precise visual of the action at hand as compared to what the judges see cageside.

“It is noteworthy that promotional executives and event broadcasters sitting cageside frequently view a table monitor as much or more than they view the live action itself.”

“This is really going to be interesting whether the scoring remains the same or differs in any way,” CFFC CEO Robert Haydak commented in the release. Haydak has also worked with the commission in the past year to use instant replay.

Do you think this new system of judging will be a good thing for MMA? What other systems do you think could be implemented to help with judging the sport of Mixed Martial Arts?