Explaining TPR - Volume I: The Basics
As happy as we were to announce the release of the Total Performance Rating, we didn't provide all that much helpful explanation at the outset. We will be exploring the statistic in greater detail in a series of posts. The first one answers the two most important questions:
What is it and what does it do?
First, what it isn't. TPR is not a judging mechanism. MMA fans seem so dissatisfied with the ten-point must system that they are willing to latch onto any alternative as a way to decide fights. That is not what TPR is for. For one thing, it has the official outcome built into the calculation. So whether a decision is good or bogus, the official winner is getting points. It is impossible to use TPR to judge a fight, given that the fact that a fighter won or lost is part of the score.
So then what is it? It's a single score that you can use to measure the quality of a fighter's performance in a single fight. Based on our analysis and your input, we've identified six measurable (more on that later) things that make one performance good and another not as good. They are: Offensive Volume, Accuracy, Domination, Win/Loss, Time, and Method. Understanding how a fighter performed against each of those categories gives you a pretty good idea of his performance.
What can you do with it? Here are three basic examples of analysis that can be performed using this statistic.
Example #1: Compare the two participants in a single fight
This is the simplest form of analysis. Take a look at the report featuring TPR's for Anderson Silva's five fights in the UFC. The one that sticks out the most in terms of margin of victory is his first bout, the one against Chris Leben. In this case, Silva got a perfect 100 while Leben got a 5. The size of the differential lets you know that this was a dominating performance by Silva and a disappointing showing by Leben.
Example #2: Compare multiple fights by the same fighter
In its most basic form, this is easy to see. Silva's performance against Leben (TPR of 100) was much better than his performance against Travis Lutter (TPR of 68). Or as another example, you can see that both Silva's and Rich Franklin's performance quality was nearly identical in their two fights. The first had TPR's of 95 to 27, while the second fight had TPR's of 96 to 28. The differential is exactly the same and the TPR's are only one point off for both fighters.
Example #3: Compare different fights featuring different fighters
This is where having a mathematical rating system comes in the handiest, because observations aren't as clear as in the previous two examples. For this application, take a look at the report with TPR's for UFC 80. Consider the first fight listed, the championship match between BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson. Clearly, this was a dominating performance by Penn, evidenced by a TPR of 91. TPR allows us to ask a unique question: Which performance was more dominant: Penn's against Stevenson or Silva's second fight against Franklin?
In terms of individual performance quality, the edge goes to Silva. His TPR of 96 includes perfect scores for Accuracy and Offensive Volume and a near-perfect score for Time. Penn's TPR of 91 matches Silva in terms of Volume, but lags in Time (Silva finished three minutes faster) and Accuracy. Still a fantastic performance by Penn, but slightly less so than Silva, who proves his reputation for striking precision is well-founded.
Bu the question above was about dominance, and that's where Penn holds the advantage. Silva received a Dominance score of 12 while Penn was nearly perfect with a 14. Penn also had the greater TPR differential, with 69 points separating him from his opponent, while Silva's differential was 68. Again, the advantage is slight, but Penn's victory over Stevenson was the more dominant.
These are just three examples of the ways TPR can be used to analyze fight results. Watch this space for future installments, when will delve into the finer points of this powerful calculation.
posted by FightMetric @ 12:00 AM
0 Comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home