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Is Fightmetric accurate?

848 views 8 replies 6 participants last post by  limba 
#1 ·
Ok, so another fight and another Fightmetric analysis. I want to talk about FM in general.

The thing about fightmeteric is... who can be bothered to scan through a fight frame by frame and confirm their numbers? And yet, we treat them like the gospel. After all, it is simply another human being scanning the fight and taking notes... not some supercomputer than spots everything.

In the past, Ive analysed single rounds ( because doing a whole fight is painful ) frame by frame and found FM's numbers are plain wrong.

Since then, I tend to completely ignore them.

Basically, I wish there were more than one of this type of website, so we can at least get some second opinions... without wasting half a day doing it ourselves. And even if we do it ourselves to prove a point, most people will still believe FM over anybody else's analysis.
 
#2 ·
I forget which fight it was but I also went through and tabulated my own results getting a far, far different perspective than what was given by FM. (I believe it was the first Edgar/Penn fight, not sure) So I take what they say with a grain of salt. They're usually right in the way they show striking as far as "This guy won",but other than that they aren't accurate.
 
#6 ·
Its still prone to human error and is somebody watching the fights opinion no different than you or me could do.

I posted this the other day, it sums up my feelings.


Alot of MMA fans today are familiar with FightMetric, unfortunately many of them look at it as a computer system that is impartial and free from the bias of human judging and therefore more accurate. Unfortunately this could not be further from the truth, the harsh reality is that fightermetric and compustrike are nothing more than systems for gathering statistics. Unlike traditional sports though like football, baseball or hockey thee statistics do not give a clear indication of much and tell only a small piece of the story. In traditional sports the statistics are much more cut and dry, a goal is either scored or not, yards run a batting average, its all cold hard numbers. These sports statistics are like the answer to a yes no question with a clear winner and loser, mma judging is like a question that requires a detailed explanation though.

MMA judging has come under heavy fire in large part do to its inherit inconsitincies from judge to judge but for people to be so nieve as to believe that some simple counting and a mathematical equation can solve this issue is truly mind boggling. MMA judging is based on effective striking, grappling, aggression and octagon control, how on earth are we supposed to believe a system that neglects aggression completly, limits the use of octagon control and limits the scoring of striking catagorically without accountability for its effectiveness? Lets examine some of the huge fundemental problems with these "scoring systems".



Striking

You know what screw what you may have learned in elementary school, I don't care what Thomas Jefferson said, all men are not created equal and neither are all strikes. Were sites such as these can be useful to go back and use as statistics that is all they are even remotely effective for because they have a huge problem with there ability to efficently attribute points based on a strike by strike basis. Obviously if we are talking about effective striking the effectiveness of the strike needs to come in to play but these sites neglect that in favor of pigeon holing strikes in to catorgories. Some strikes like say a flying knee which is a high risk high reward strike that can be incredibly damaging will be rewarded equally to a hard kick to the body. A viscous head kick like a younger Mirko Cro Cop? Better hope for a knock out because it will be scored the same as one of Pat Barry's leg kicks, speaking of which, guess it doesn't matter who throws that leg kick because according to these sites all strikes are practically even as long as they are thrown with the same intent. Force, skill and accuracy become irellevant. Glancing blows? Sorry they don't exist in this world were punches are black and white and either land of don't. While arguebly the striking statistics are the most relevant and reliable of there stats they are also some of the most flawed.

Grappling

Grappling is obviously gonna be one of the most complicated aspects of mixed martial arts to score using any mathematical equation because the data is obviously hard to interpret without the use of human logic. Is a TD really just a TD? Does the authority with which it is impossed become some obscure nonsense when judging time comes around? Can you do anything with the TD or does you opponent get right back up? Doesn't matter to FighterMetric as long as you don't get swept being shrug off is meaningless. Defending the TD and dictating here the fight takes place or to make it easy controlling the octagon also accounts for nothing. Postitional dominance? Hell compustrike only has one catagory for dominant position which boils down to you scoring the same points for going from guard to half guard as you would if you went straight to mount. Its a problem with trying to judge criteria like this based on statistics, statisctics can only be so complex and mma has to damn many variables for it to ever be more than a novelty.

Submissions.

At what point does a submission attempt become a submission attempt and if you get it locked up and your opponent barely escapes should it really score the same as a half hearted attempt? Again there are so many variables that tying to judge it without human logic is impossible.


Aggression

Neither system even accounts for aggression, one of the fundementals of mma judging has been completly overlooked here by two independent companies masquarading as legitimate scoring systems. Its incomprehensable to me that a fighters aggression and legitimate attempts to end the fight can be completly left out of the equation.

Systems like FitghtMetric and Compustrike can make one honest claim its a scoring system free for the most part of huan bias, unfortunately they are also incomplete and inadequate when it comes to examing a fight in its whole. Enjoy them for what they are a sideshow with statistics.
 
#7 ·
They have been accurate at least a couple times, ive checked numbers then watched the round and keep count and its been pretty close. I can't say always, but sometimes. I also like compustrike (sp)
 
#8 ·
I think the fact fightmetric and compustrikes numbers don't always match though gives and indication that they aren't the be all end all.
 
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