As a jumping off point, I suggest everyone revisits the ABC's unified rules framework as a reminder of how the modern judging system is designed to be implemented. I could be very much mistaken, but it seems to me that many people approach the judging question with fundamental misconceptions of the unified rules, resulting in more noise than discourse.

A round of MMA, under the unified rules, is much more like a balance than a scoreboard. No technique "scores points", rather, rounds are to be awarded based on the relative effectiveness of the two competitors. The judge's role is to be knowledgeable and attentive enough to adjudicate which of the competitors was more effective.

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Shooto Revolutionary Exchanges 1 results are in, thanks to Tony Loiseleur's twitter.

Ueda def. Dantas, 30-28, 29-28 x2, Loiseleur notes that Dantas lost a point due to grabbing the ropes

Formiga def. Kojima, 30-27 x2, 30-28, an actual title fight should now be in the works

Takeuchi def. Sato, 29-28 unanimous

Sugawara def. Akagi, round 1 KO, though Loiseleur notes that it was a quick stoppage

Tamura def. Sasaki 20-18 unanimous, apparently thanks in part to punches from the bottom

Tsuchiya def. Ito 20-17 x2, 20-16, apparently this was a beatdown

Kimura def. Oki, round 2 KO

Kin def. Kuga 19-18 unanimous

Harada def. Nishioka, majority decision

Onojima def. Inagaki, majority decision

Make sure to visit Loiseleur's twitter for pictures and additional commentary, and I'm sure there will be a Sherdog article forthcoming as well--UPDATE: Here it is.  I'm really looking foward to seeing these fights, when the videos start showing up I'll be sure to post links to them.

(Updated with link to round-by-round fight descriptions.)

This Sunday's Shooto card is missing a few elements that the other big upcoming Japanese cards have, most notably weight classes over 155lbs and a TV deal with HDNet.  I put it to you that Shooto--Revolutionary Exchanges 1: Undefeated makes up for these deficiencies in a big way, both by staging some meaningful bouts in lower weight classes and by strength of it's typically unwieldy name.

I entertained notions of breaking down the card accurately and insightfully, but I'm too stupid and lazy. Instead, here is the card, obligatory fight-finder linkage, merit-less opinions, and a some videos that I certainly wasn't helpful enough to have uploaded myself.

Photo: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas and Masakatsu Ueda (via www.x-shooto.jp)

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