Hobbies (Thing #19)

Hobbies...other than reading you mean?  Well, then that would be mixed marital arts (MMA), specifically the sports' biggest organization, the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship).  I love it.  I watch it on TV and live, I read and watch the news stories all week long, I follow fighters and journalists on Twitter.  Basically, I just can't get enough.  If you follow me on Twitter, you probably already know this about me.  If you don't know that about me, it might come as a shock.  A librarian who loves to watch some of the most athletic guys in the world fight in the cage?  Yep. In my opinion, its the best sport for fans, hands down!

iJudge Fights


iJudge Fights is an app that lets the fans judge fights for themselves (round by round) as they are happening, and then compare your score to other users and experts.  It covers all of the major MMA organizations: UFC, Bellator,  Invicta, and more.

I tried this app for the first time more than a year ago, but it kept freezing up and not submitting my votes so I deleted it.  I decided last weekend's UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs. Henderson II was a good time to try it again!

Starting with the first fight on the fight card, all the way to the last.

Fights can be stopped a number of ways: a fighter is knocked out, goes unconscious due to a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu hold, taps out due to a BJJ hold, doctor stoppage, the ref steps in, etc.  If the fight goes the distance, the winner is determined by the judges' scores.

Following the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, bouts are typically three 5-minute rounds, with championship fights at five 5-minute rounds.  It is a 10 point must scoring system, with the winner of a round scoring 10 points, and the loser scoring 9 or less.  Rounds are scored based on: effective striking, grappling, agression, and cage control.  At the end of the fight, the judges submit their total scores for each fighter.

This was the fight card lineup for UFC Fight Night last week, with the main event listed at the top and going down from there.

This app allows fans to judge fights round by round, giving 10 points to the round's winner and 9 or less to the loser. You also can move the slider in the middle for grappling, striking, agression, and cage control.  In Round 1 below, my opinion was that Prazeres did all 4 better and completely, so I moved all the sliders 100% over to his side.

After you submit your opinion for each round, you can see how your judging stacked up against the iJudge Fights consensus, the experts, and your friends.  

If a fight doesn't go the distance (complete all 3 or 5 rounds), and gets stopped due to tapout or referee stoppage, you "report a stoppage" and then judge the timing of the stoppage and rate the finish from 1-10.  Judging the timing of the stoppage means, did the referee step in too early because the fighter could have recovered?  Did he step in too late because the fighter was clearly injured or knocked unconscious?  Did the ref step in at the right time?  And finish points really is a matter of opinion.  Was it a flashy KO?  Will we be talking about that submission a year from now?  I tend to be much stricter on my finish points than my husband.

At the end of the card, you supposedly can vote for Best of the Night (Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night, Knockout of the Night? or the new Performance of the Night?).  I couldn't get this part of the app to load?  I'll try it again next time.

All in all, this app gets two huge thumbs up from me!  We loved having this app out to play along throughout the fight card, get involved, and see how good we are at seeing what is happening in the fight.