Jake Rossen over at Sherdog, is really mad about stand up,

Let’s face facts: The vast majority of promoters and fans in this industry want to see a mediocre kickboxing match with four-ounce gloves. The stand-up rules, the restarts, the round durations, the illegal blows (no knees on the ground) all work to discourage ground fighting.

This is a business, and business dictates that extended stretches of patty cake inside someone’s guard is box office death. It’s why you saw Art Davie screaming for John McCarthy to stand up Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock at UFC V, why Liddell claims John Perretti told him to keep his first fight at UFC 19 standing and avoid the ground if he wanted to be invited back, and why EliteXC is currently mired in a public relations nightmare over what they did or did not say to Petruzelli about taking Slice down.

The fighters have been so ingratiated into this practice that you can have a bout between an amazing wrestler in Sean Sherk and an amazing jiu-jitsu artist in B.J. Penn decided by nearly 25 minutes of striking.

This industry rejects at least 50 percent of its own product. It’s like Hostess trying to get rid of the filling in a Twinkie. Insanity.

Great point Jake, but there are a few things I would like to build on. First off knock outs are exciting. One reason why MMA is successful is due to the fact that fights actually end instead of going to the judges card where bias decisions often occur in boxing. Besides, to casual fans an Anderson Silva KO of Rich Franklin is far more exciting then Sean Sherk out-wrestling Hermes Franca for a W.

True the ground game is a huge part of mixed martial arts and really makes the sport a chess match. But inactivity really depresses interest. Think of it this way, most sports have rules that favor the offense. Why, because fans love seeing touchdowns, dunks, goals and home runs. Yes a well pitched game or great defense is remarkable to watch but it doesn't carry the same excitement as that 70 yard touchdown pass. Sidenote: yes a no hitter is really exciting but only the last two innings, the other seven are mind numbingly boring

Really what MMA needs is a balance. Referee breaks often eat up time, they need to be faster and crisper. Also the breaks need to make sense, for instance nothing should ever happen like the Arlovski-Nelson break.

The scoring can change too. Judging needs to reward activity on the ground as oppose to sitting in someones guard. Inversely, judging also needs to reward an effective guard, so fighters don't assume they are winning by simply being on top of an opponent.

In the end it is easy to see why standing is encouraged to please casual fans. In order to help those fans understand the finer points of the ground game, all promotions should help educate the fans on the subtleties of jiu-jitsu and wrestling.