Ground control time in UFC needs to be revised as a method of victory on points

I've never been a fan of ground-control as far as deciding who wins fights in UFC. For one thing it isn't really quantifiable other than minutes and seconds and to me this is a poor measurements of determining a victor in a fight. I have had problems with wrestlers and grapplers who achieve victory by this method in the past but this all reached an apex with the Aljamain Sterling vs. Petr Yan bout that took place on Saturday during UFC 273.

Sterling in fact did have a lot more "ground control" time but here is the thing: He didn't really do anything with it.

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Yes, he did maintain back control for more than 7 boring minutes with a rather unbreakable leg-lock around Yan's waist. Yes, there was no way for Yan to get out of this and yes, I realize that this is part of the game.

This doesn't change the fact that for those 7 minutes plus Sterling at no point even came close to a submission nor did he do any damage to Yan.

It was evident very early on in the match that if left standing, that Sterling was no match for Yan and would lose if he stayed there so I can also understand his decision to constantly try to take it to the ground. He went 2 for 22 on these takedown attempts achieving a pathetic 9% takedown efficiency. Once he got to the ground he proceeded to do very little in the way of work and merely kept moving just enough to have the official not stand them back up. The crowd was not pleased with this and the boo's rang out in a very loud way in Jacksonville.

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When the fight came to a split decision I, and nearly everyone else in the bar I was in groaned with disbelief as Sterling was declared the victor. During the post fight-interviews in the ring, Sterling was booed as he tried to talk to the crowd and Yan had very little to say other than "I did not lose this fight."

Dana White didn't directly address the "ground control" thing but at a post-fight presser he disagreed with the judges' decision saying that he thought it was 3 rounds to 2 in favor of Yan. Dana may feel more strongly about it than this, but he is normally very careful to not be overly critical of his own organization and with good reason.

I remember back when Johny Hendricks was going for the championship and even though I like Hendricks, I hated how he would continually go for takedowns and then simply lie on top of his opponents and not really do any work once he couldn't pass guard. Everyone knows that takedowns award points and it also disables your opponent's ability to score points so I guess you could say it is an effective path to victory. It doesn't mean I have to agree with it though.

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Over and over Johny would shoot for takedowns and once he got them, he would do little to nothing once he was there. At one point Robbie Lawler was leaned against the fence with Johny at his midsection and he just threw his arms up in the air as a way of protesting why the ref wasn't standing them up because Hendricks was clearly not going to accomplish anything and it didn't even look like he was trying to.

With Sterling, I'm sure he was at times actually trying to lock in a choke but Yan's defense is just too strong for that to happen so basically we just had 2 guys having a hugging contest on the ground for nearly a 3rd of the entire fight.

I'm not saying that we need to stand the fighters up every time that this happens because obviously, there is a chance that Sterling actually would succeed in getting a choke at some point. However, when the fight is over and done with, I don't think that "ground control time" should play much of a factor in the scoring if the person who has this control time doesn't manage to do any actual damage with it. In my mind this is like awarding points for the most attempted punches regardless if said punches even make contact with the opponent.

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If that is a criteria for victory all we have to do is look at this exact same fight and see the very stark difference. That's Yan's stats on the right.

Sterling believes that he "silenced his critics" who said he didn't deserve the belt and unfortunately for him, I think that most people still think he doesn't deserve the belt. I know I don't.

Yan is very unlikely to get a rematch anytime soon because the Bantamweight division is pretty stacked at the moment and based on how they focused the cameras on T.J. Dillashaw in the crowd, that is likely where the next title opportunity is going to head. If we are lucky, maybe they will put Yan vs Aldo to see who gets the next next chance at the strap.

No matter what happens, I am dead sick of things that don't really affect the outcome of a fight having impact on who gets their arm raised at the end of a bout and things like ground control time should have some riders attached to them including and especially if the fighter actually managed to do anything with that time. Sterling did not do anything other than frustrate Yan in all that ground time and to me, that isn't what MMA should be about.