By the picture above you probably have become familiar with Dom’s face as he is the man outside of the cage as the head judge at Cage Wars fights. We were able to catch up with the ever busy cyber security professional for the state government and MMA Judge Dom Marando for a couple of quick questions about the sport he loves.
Brief Bio:
Dom Marando
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MMAjudgeNY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dom.marando.7
33 Years old
Dom was born and raised in Albany NY and attended Guilderland High School after HS Dom attended SUNY IT in Rome NY where he received his bachelors degree in Computer Information Systems. Family and Friends are very important to Dom and if you know him his smile on his face says it all. While Dom is not working or planning his upcoming wedding with his fiancé Kristin Rappleyea he likes to sneak in the time for some of his favorite hobbies that include Mixed Martial Arts, Hunting, Firearms, Video Games and Technology. Talk about a full schedule Dom has it and we are grateful at Warriors Instinct MMA he was able to take the time to answer our questions.
What made you want to become an MMA Judge? I have always been a huge martial arts fan. As a child I can remember fighting to keep my eyes open so I could watch the Mike Tyson fight and of course the Karate Kid always had a special place in my heart hahahaha. I was always interested in boxing and kickboxing, I took a few boxing classes but nothing ever came of it. I watched a lot of pre Zuffa UFC events on DVD in college and they were really interesting. I was amazed when Royce Gracie slapped a triangle on Dan Severn, I couldn’t believe a little guy could dismantle a big guy that easily. Then in 2005 I truly fell in love with Mixed Martial arts the same time most fight fans did, after watching Griffin and Bonar on the Ultimate Fighter Finale. These two warriors just slugged it out in the octagon and then hugged after. At the time it was one of the most amazing things I had ever seen. It touched me in a way that I became obsessed with the sport and had to learn as much as I could about it. I started watching older pride events, the Gracie in action DVD’s and all of the old UFC events I could find on DVD. It was great seeing all of it but something was missing, I needed to physically participate in the sport. Before he had a school Master Ron McEvilly from Tigon MMA trained me and showed me the basics of MMA, once he opened his school I trained under Master McEvilly for 3 years. He prepared me for my one and only fight which was an amateur MMA exhibition fight. Although the outcome was not in my favor I learned a lot in that fight and it helps me as a judge tremendously. Along with my Tigon Style training I have had multiple training session with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt Professor Ryan Clark. Due to an injury I could no longer train and I needed to find a new way to be involved in the sport. Around the time of Cage Wars 8 Professor Ryan Clark asked me to judge an event for the 5 Guys Fighting organization and at that instant I knew what my role in the sport was going to be. Professor Clark and Mr. Rankins were so impressed with my judging that they asked me back. They wanted me to recruit my own team of judges so fans know that there is no favoritism. I recruited a team of assistant judges and worked with Cage Wars head official Ed Kinner to make sure everything ran smoothly cage side. My team currently judges for the gentleman at 5 Guys Fighting and I am the head judge for the NYS Liberty Games youth MMA event.
How long have you been an MMA Judge? I have been judging MMA and Kickboxing for 2 years.
Are you a MMA referee as well? No. Although it looks like a lot of fun and I have a lot of respect for the ref’s and what they do, I feel my knowledge of MMA is best utilized at the judges table.
When the score cards come in from the other Judges have you ever seen a lopsided score card? Yes I have seen many lopsided score cards. This usually happens when one fighter dominates his opponent. It happens all the time even in the big shows.
How do you recruit assistant judges? I like to have a variety of different judges. I have guys that have trained/fought and guys that have been fight fans for years. When recruiting judges I make sure that judges have no affiliation to any of the fighters participating in the event and that they have a keen understanding of the rules. I prefer to work with judges that have knowledge of the sport whether it be from training, or watching and understanding the sport. My team of judges is not biased towards any schools, fighters or organizations. The gentleman at 5 Guys Fighting have my utmost respect and my team is honored to work for them, although we only work for 5 Guys Fighting at the moment we would judge for any organization. I bring this up because I want the fight fans to know that the promoters have no influence on the outcome of any fights and we are not directly employed by any single organization.
Do you ever look at fighters tapes before a fight, not so much as making a biased opinion towards them, but to see them in action and what to expect? I never watch tape of fighters before an event. Fighters are always evolving so their performance changes from one fight to another. I also think that this would affect how I would judge the fight. Whether it be he/she performing better or worse than I expected it may sway my scoring subconsciously.
Referees and Judges are mainstays inside and outside of the cage, could you let the readers know how you both work together to ensure the safety of the amateur MMA fighters? I am going to be completely honest in saying that judges don’t have much to do with the safety of fighters. The refs, head official and cage side doctors really handle that stuff. Although my team does what it can to help out we really don’t play a role in that aspect of the event.
Can you touch on some of the rules that may not apply to amateur MMA compared to professional MMA? There are three major rules that differentiate amateur and pro:
1)Pro’s can knee opponents to the head
2)Pro’s can use elbow strikes……………just no 12 to 6’s
3)Pro round are 5 minutes and amateur rounds are 2 or 3 minutes
I have my own beliefs on the modifications of the unified rules of MMA. I believe that all championship fights should be longer that regular fights whether it’s pro or ammy, and that certain types of strikes should be allowed at both levels of the sport.
Your thoughts and feelings on the legalization of MMA in our State? I am going to keep this fairly simple because I could go on for hours about this. The truth of the matter is that professional Mixed Martial Arts is not legal in NYS due to an issue in Nevada. Makes sense right. I am not going to get into it, there is boat loads of information on it online. I just wish the politicians would realize all of the benefits the sport would bring to our state and that it’s NOT a blood sport. Next question please……………..
If MMA becomes legalized are you certified to judge professional fights. If you can judge pro fights will you stick with amateur MMA? I currently am not certified to judge professional MMA fights. All of the states have different rules so when NYS finally legalizes this great sport I will get certified and meet all of the requirements they ask of me to judge. I am not biased to ammy or pro fights I will do whatever is available.
Final Thoughts? I just want to thank my fiancé, family and friends for supporting me through all the years and during my quest to become and MMA judge. I want to thank the Gentleman(Timmy, Shannon and Ryan) at 5 Guys Fighting for giving me and my team the opportunity to judge at a great MMA event. A special thanks to Master Ron McEvilly and Professor Ryan Clark for teaching me about the sport and not only the physical aspect but the mental aspect as well.
Interview With Dom Marando MMA Judge
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