How did you score the Rory MacDonald-Jon Fitch fight at Bellator 220? Is it the right call to let MacDonald move on to the second round?
Frank Hyden, Columnist – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Yeah, I guess it’s the right call. That’s the benefit of being the champion. I guess you could have the alternate take his place but MacDonald didn’t lose his championship so that’d be kind of weird. As for the score, I thought MacDonald won three of the rounds to Fitch’s two but that fight was sort of mind-numbing so maybe I’m wrong on that. There’s no way I’m re-watching the fight to see if I scored it wrong.
Sean Covington, Columnist – Covington’s Corner
Scoring is always a tough thing. I typically don’t keep score in my head because I’m very strict and I would not hesitate to score a round lopsidedly. I think MacDonald moving forward is the right thing however, he basically said he’s not gonna try anymore so I’d pull him from the tournament. You can’t have a fighter out there that’s been compromised.
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Michael Hiscoe, MMATorch Managing Editor
I thought Fitch won that fight. I had it 48-47 Fitch. Some of the rounds were close enough where maybe I’d score differently on a second look. If you look at the fight as a whole, it really seemed like Fitch won. As for the ruling that MacDonald moves on to the next round despite not getting the win, that’s the only way they can really do it. Because MacDonald was in the tournament as Bellator champion and defending the title in each fight, all fights needed to be five rounds to keep things fair. They are not able to add a sixth, sudden death round so this is the fairest way to do it. They could have done a rematch, but no one wants that, or they could eliminate both MacDonald and Fitch and give Neiman Gracie a bye to the finals, but that doesn’t benefit anyone either. It’s not the most satisfying outcome, but it’s probably the best in the circumstance.
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