Study of MMA Contests Show That Judges Prefer Vigor Over Skill

A new study suggests that judges tend to award victory to fighters who fight with more vigor rather than the skill they use to fight.

Animal behavior experts from the School of Biological and Marine Sciences at the University of Plymouth in England studied close to 550 mixed martial arts (MMA) competitions, both for men and women. The study covers fights between February 2019 and March 2020 for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) - an American MMA promotion company.

Vigor vs Skill in the Octagon

The data reviewed in the study include the percentage of "significant strikes" that connected to the target as a measure of skill and the rate of attack attempts per second as a measure of vigor. Researchers also considered the outcome of the fight - whether it was by a knockout or through the judges' decision.

Researchers discovered that in all fights in the study, winners generally fought more vigorously compared to the latter. More importantly, this distinction appeared to be more significant in fights resolved via judges' decision as compared to fights concluded by knockouts and technical knockouts.

To clarify, researchers noted that skill, or connecting more hits to their opponents, does increase the odds of victory. Skilled fighters even emerge as the more vigorous fighters, affecting success. However, the analysis of fight data suggests that the vigor, or rate of attacks, was more consistent in determining the winner in fights that concluded with the judges' decision.

"MMA is a fast paced sport and one of the suggestions from our research would be that judges may find vigour easier to assess than skill," explains Dr. Sarah Lane, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow, in an article from the University. This preference leads judges to overvalue vigor in arriving at a decision, especially for longer bouts where one fighter has less stamina than the other - making the difference in their attacking frequency apparent. Lane adds that although technological advancements, such as high-speed cameras and instant replays, could resolve this bias, the preference for vigor over skill will remain until these techs are employed more regularly.

A Study on Animal Behavior

This latest research, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, is a part of an ongoing study in the role of skill in animal contests. Details of the study are published in the journal Biology Letters.

The University of Plymouth researchers have previously worked on understanding the behavior of hermit crabs. Hermit crabs have adapted over the ages, allowing them to scavenge and occupy other empty shells - at times competing with their fellow hermits for the ownership of the new home. Researchers believe that the conflict behavior, as seen in fighting humans, could also have implications in better understanding animal behavior.

"Human combat sports provide a unique scenario in which to explore how performance traits such as skill and vigor are perceived, both by participants and observers," explained Mark Briffa, a co-author in the study and an animal behavior professor. He cited the language barrier as the main deterrent in understanding how animals assess their competitors.

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