I felt the fight came down to the third. Sexyama looked great in the first, but Shields just put in more effort in the seond. Then the third turned out like it did.
Sexyama needed to let his hands go more. Judges also need to account for takedown stuffs and take points away for failing so many attempts.
Agree with all of this.
I had the fight 29-28 Akiyama. I have a major problem with the judging in fights like this. Shields goes for 100 takedowns, and gets stuffed on all of them. That should result in scoring for Akiyama. Why can one fighter stuff 5 takedowns, and gain nothing for it, yet if he goes down on the 6th attempt, the other fighter scores? That's bullshit. "Effective grappling" is a scoring criteria, and based on the stuffs, Akiyama was the more effective grappler.
"EFFECTIVE striking" is another scoring criteria. Shields outstruck Akiyama, but I saw no effective striking. Akiyama was totally unfazed by Shields striking, to the point he wasnt even defending and walking straight through those weak jabs that cant break eggs. Sorry, but I can not credit Shields for his striking in that fight. He did zero damage. None.
To me, Akiyama won the first two rounds because of the 100% on his takedown defense, and the fact that the two impressive judo throws (one in each round) were the most damaging and effective attacks by either fighter. They were close rounds, and I might have given them to Shields if not for the throws because at least he was more active. But the throws are the difference, because Akiyama was 2/2 on his takedowns, Shields was 0-for-whatever (something like 6 or 8).
Shields won the third round in the last 30 seconds, when he finally secured takedown #1 (he had a kinda/sorta takedown earlier in the round, but Akiyama stood up with minimal effort).
The judging is so skewed for wrestlers, it makes me not enjoy the fights sometimes. Just go for constant takedowns, and if you get a few, and stay busy with shitty jabs, you win.
