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Stats for Rampage vs. Forrest
By Zach Arnold | July 7, 2008
Go to Fight Metric and CompuStrike right now to check out the numbers.
Topics: MMA, Media, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
“2) The Josh Thomson route — Keep the standup on the outside and use leg kicks and body kicks to keep Rampage out of punching range. Fire knees to the face when Rampage shoots in. I don’t think Griffin has the wrestling skills to pull off #2″
Well it pretty much went off like like #2. Good call Zach, though it didn’t seem like Griffin really needed wresting skills that night. I didn’t know that Griffin had the ability to be so crisp with his kicks. He reminded me a little of Shogun with the way he was throwing those punch, kick combinations
Were these stats taken by a ringside attendee? If not, then they are pointless.
Here’s the problem with judging. All judges look at fights differently.
some judges look at “who finished the round strong”
some judges look at “who controlled the round more”
some judge slook at “who did more damage”
looks like all the 3 judges who was judging Rampage Vs. Griffin are judges who score the rounds by “who controleld the round more.”
The stats are an interesting tool, but I don’t put much faith into it. I can’t help but wonder how many times they counted a blocked punch or a slipped punch as a successful strike.
I remember watching the fight live and seeing Forrest appear to get staggered by a combo a few times, but then on the replays it showed that maybe one punch landed and not very cleanly, Forrest was just off-balance.
I love Fight Metric. I totally buy the Griffin-Jackson analysis and it’s a great example of Rami’s work. He makes a compelling case for his scoring of each round. He also effectively points out the rounds (like Round 3 of Griffin-Jackson) that are hard to score because of a scoring dilemna. Rami lays out the conflicting approaches before expressing his preference.
http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2008/07/07/griffin-vs-jackson-the-numbers-that-matter/
The only potential flaw is in accuracy of observation, as has been pointed out above. The logic of the system is impeccable. As for accuracy: the closer the round, the more human error comes into play. But in fights where the score is drastically different, human error becomes negligible. In other words, mistaking a slipped/blocked punch here or there will not dramatically alter the results.