Shayna Baszler screwed by dopey judges

Invicta held their second show last night. For the most part, it was better than the first show especially the main event. I have concerns about the broadcast which I will get to later. The main event was Sara McMann vs Shayna Baszler for a shot at an Invicta title in October. Though Sara has the silver medal from the Olympics as her calling card, I haven't been impressed with her fights because she doesn't win convincingly enough against smaller fighters. Shayna was going to be a tough test for her. And she was. I scored the fight 30-29 for Shayna. 30-29? That's right. I scored the first and third rounds as ties and gave round two 10-9 for Shayna. What fans may not know is that judges can score tie rounds. But a lot of judges won't do it even if it is a tie. And that's why we see screwy decisions. And when it comes to striking, many judges confuse quantity with quality. Sara is a wrestler but Shayna is also effective on the ground and a takedown would not guarantee an advantage for Sara. So Sara decided to be a kickboxer. She threw a lot of punches but a lot of them didn't land. Shayna's counterpunching was a lot more accurate. She threw fewer punches but landed more. And she even zonked Sara at the end. I want you to pay special attention to Sara's facial expression in her corner between rounds two and three. Pure panic. There is also this judges assumption that in a clinch against the cage, whichever fighter is back to the cage is at a disadvantage. Not true. A lot of times it's a stalemate and the ref has to break it up. And that's why fighters shouldn't leave a fight to the judges. Judging is supposed to be objective when many times it's subjective. Who knows what they're seeing? A very dopey decision. In the semi main, Alexis Davis won over Hitomi Akano with a rear naked choke in round two. Alexis has recently changed camps. In the past, she has beaten herself with poor strategy. I liked what she did against Hitomi and she won. Will Hitomi retire? Liz Carmouche used her strength and superior ground game to win over Kaitlin Young. Kaitlin is a kickboxer who has never adapted to the ground. Not surprised. One of these two will be Sara's opponent in October. I think Liz has the strength to handle Sara. Ayaka Hamasaki made her US debut with an easy win over Lacey Schuckman by late submission. Ayaka was winning anyway. Raquel Pa'aluhi got the jump on Amanda Nunes. But Amanda turned it around and won with a rear naked choke at 2:24 of round one. Not surprising. Amanda has superior strength and has also recently changed camps. Sarah D'Alelio got a big win over Brazilian veteran Vanessa Porto with an armbar at 3:16 of round one. Barb Honchak won over Bethany Marshall by second round TKO. Barb has improved a lot in the last couple of years. Julia Budd won a mismatch over Swedish fighter Elina Nilsson. And Nilsson looked out of shape. Carla Esparza won a good match over Sarah Schneider by second round TKO. Nicdali Rivera-Calanoc won an easy decision over a very timid Angelica Chavez. After a quick start, Sarah Moras seemed to run out of steam and lost a decision to Raquel Pennington. Jessamyn Duke won by third round TKO over Suzie Monteiro. Late stoppage by the ref in that one. Jocelyn Lybarger used superior striking to beat Cheryl Chan by decision. Jocelyn and her sister are boxers converting to MMA. Liz McCarthy busted Jessica Philippus eye open and the doctor stopped it after round one. Invicta announced a 105lb championship match in October with Jessica Penne vs JEWELS Flyweight Champion Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama. Sugi Rock is very slick on the ground. She trains with Takayo Hashi so we might see her too. I was able to get on the stream on the Invicta website but a lot of folks couldn't for about the first hour. Apparently they blew out their server. The stream was ultimately hosted elsewhere. There's no excuse for this. Of course the ultimate solution is to get a TV deal. Because of my physical limitations, I prefer TV to online streams. I'm not supposed to sit in this chair for five straight hours. I prefer my recliner. The broadcast itself was OK. I don't like three man booths. And like the first show, King Mo didn't add much. Julie Kedzie needs to stop cheerleading and be more objective. And her cage interviews were terrible. This is what happens when you don't hire professional broadcasters. Mauro Ranallo did his best impersonation of a traffic cop and the pre-match videos were good. So it was an OK show marred by tech issues. Here's the video for Sara McMann vs Shayna Baszler. The other match videos should be up on Youtube.