Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya isn't planning on going the distance on Saturday against Yoel Romero but believes there are flaws in the current judges scoring system.
"F------ use the point system, there are 10 points to use right?" Adesanya told theScore. "If a guy gets worked for f------ five minutes completely and survives, that’s a 10-3. Like, don’t (score it) 10-8 or 10-7. Nah, make that a 10-4 or 10-3. Use the whole spectrum of the judging system. This isn’t boxing or kickboxing or whatever - this is MMA. There’s much more to the fight than being on bottom or being on top or walking forward."
Adesanya (18-0) will make the first defense of his title against Romero since unifying it in October when he knocked out former champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 243. Along with changes to the scoring system, the City Kickboxing product would also like to see more MMA judges involved in the sport.
"Also like get rid of all these boxing judges and doctors in boxing from these commissions. Some of them are really good, but a lot of them are useless."
Adesanya added: "A lot of them don’t even understand certain positions in the clinch, certain positions on the ground, and certain positions on the feet. Sometimes they get influenced by the crowd. If you're in someone's hometown sometimes that happens as well. So yeah, there’s a lot of things that can be changed and that needs to happen now."
UFC 248 takes place Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Check out our full interview with Adesanya below on the latest theScoreMMA Podcast:
