OKTAGON 51 Creates History With First Open Scoring Event; Alex Pereira’s Ex-UFC Opponent Andreas Michailidis Concludes Card Against Bojan Veličković

Have you thought about the idea of a fighter knowing exactly how they’re doing in a fight as it goes on? Traditionally, a set of judges sits by the side of the Octagon to score the fighters on their performances. Moves such as significant strikes and takedowns offer many scores but it’s never fully clear who’s winning. This leaves room for unexpected results and criticism.

Now, the European promotion Oktagon MMA has introduced what’s being termed as an open-scoring system. What does open scoring mean? It means that just about everyone has a chance of knowing exactly how the fighters are doing. How and why are they employing this? Let’s dive in.

Oktagon MMA to introduce open scoring

The Prague-based event was witnessed in the O2 Arena and noted the commencement of the open scoring system. The system has its own pros and cons to speak of. The pro of it is obviously that the fighters, their corners, and the audience get to see who’s winning and who’s not.

This also brings some transparency to the whole process of the fight. However, there is more to it than just that. Just because scores are always visible, doesn’t mean the room for criticism disappears. Judges could still face criticism for their choice except with this change, the audience will just have a much faster reaction.

Moreover, once a fighter knows they’re winning, they could play a bit more conservatively, keeping things safe. Hence, they may not resort to taking many risks. Why would an intelligent fighter take an unnecessary risk when they’re already aware of their good scores?

It just doesn’t make enough sense. This could take away from the entertainment half of the business. However, the transparency it offers is immaculate and not something we find often. In the U.S., Invicta FC is the only promotion to employ similar systems. Meanwhile, another interesting fact of the night was the fighters who headlined this event.

Former UFC fighters headlined Oktagon 51

Oktagon 51 saw a main event featuring Bojan Veličković and Andreas Michailidis who has previously faced the UFC’s current light heavyweight champ, Alex Pereira. The former is a Serbian Mixed Martial Artist who has previously fought for other big promotions like Bellator, the PFL, and of course, the UFC. Meanwhile, Michailidis has fought for Bellator and the UFC before. The fight went down with Veličković coming out on top.

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The win was secured by a brilliant rare naked choke in the third round of the bout. At 3:21 minutes, Veličković won the fight submitting his opponent in grand fashion. The system too was tested out and received much applause from spectators who could see how their favorite fighters were doing. The future for Oktagon looks bright. Are you looking forward to more fights from them? And is this a system more promotions should adopt? Let us know in the comments.

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