Jay Rodriguez, rising star of the B-Team and ADCC 2022 silver medalist, has voiced frustration with the Polaris scoring system following his controversial loss at Polaris 29.
Speaking on The Everyday Perspective Podcast, Rodriguez broke down his match against Muhammad and expressed confusion over the judges’ decision:
“I ended up losing at Polaris by judges’ decision. Performance-wise, I’d say not the best performance. There were a few tactical mistakes strategy-wise that I made.”
Rodriguez explained that he conceded the quadpod position, which he’s very comfortable in, but acknowledged this may have looked bad to the judges despite not being in real danger:
“I shouldn’t have conceded that position. As well as the other main offensive movement that happened in the match was I took his back. I was able to get two hooks, get a body triangle and threaten multiple rear naked chokes. And I didn’t win. I don’t know why.”
Jay Rod on the back #Polaris29 pic.twitter.com/ePZAu6dsJR
— UFC FIGHT PASS (@UFCFightPass) September 7, 2024
He noted that under a points system, he likely would have won easily. Rodriguez criticized Polaris’ unique scoring approach:
“They split the match in like three quadrants and they judge each quadrant separately. So if the guy won those first two quadrants but you beat the piss out of him in that last quadrant, you don’t win the match.”
While not overly upset about the loss, Rodriguez believes the scoring system may need adjustment:
“If there’s multiple matches that are going weird ways where a lot of people are kind of like ‘ah, this doesn’t make sense’ then I think something should be changed in the rule set.”
He contrasted it with the ADCC and IBJJF systems, which he feels better reflect the overall match. Rodriguez acknowledged he could have pushed harder for a finish when he had back control, but was confident he had already secured the win at that point.
Ultimately, Rodriguez chalked it up as a learning experience about understanding rule sets. He expressed appreciation for competing at Polaris but hopes to see improvements to create fairer outcomes in the future.
