Arman Tsarukyan defeated Charles Oliveira at UFC 300 via split decision. Although it really should have been a unanimous decision victory with Tsarukyan at least taking the last two rounds comfortably with an argument for the first round. Though Oliveira taking round one is a much easier take to defend. The reasoning here is Oliveira was effectively shut down in all areas of the fight in rounds 2-3 except for the lackluster Darce attempt at the end of round 3, which was never close to locked in, and Oliveira knew that very well, hence the gesturing. Why this fight changed how we score fights is how this fight changed how fans value sub attempts. Never in the history of the ufc have sub attempts been valued as a near-finish like strikes would lead to. Thus effective grappling is weighted less than effective striking in scoring criteria. This is because most people don’t grapple, and even amongst those who do know that there are too many nuances to simply say one fighter is in complete control over the other simply because they have top position. I digress, this fight was the first time ever in all my years watching where a fighter seemingly won rounds in fans eyes due to locking up a sub that never led to a tap. Just one sub attempt in a round they were losing convincingly. If this was consistent then there’d be discussion to this day on a potential lopes win over Evloev, because that fight when it happened was virtually the same fight, but there is consensus that lopes got outclassed in every department. Sub attempts are really only as good as the tap in the ufc. But those are just specific ways this fight changed fan scoring. The gist of it is optics and and who the fans favor. Because since Diego lopes was not well know at the time, there is virtually no controversy in if he won or not. Charles has a huge fanbase, many came to his defense, although baseless. This along with fans favoring exciting fights really also means that whoever it looks like is winning is winning. As I mentioned before, this is too casual in the nuanced high level sport of mma. It’s been years since then, but scoring has changed because fans have willed it. Larger figures have willed it too. Most recently, Joe Rogan declared Brandon Moreno winner of round 1 against Taira because of a sustained sub attempt, which was the only offense sustained in the round. The triangle was never locked into begin with, if taira had a few strikes he wins that round. Either way, the official scoring criteria has largely been shelved to allow for more casual-like scoring. Though it still exists, casual fans have ensured this, see my previous discussion for a more in-depth breakdown on that front.