And here's an interview with Big John. I'll quote the relevant paragraphs.
http://fightland.vice.com/blog/under...d-martial-arts
New Scoring System
McCarthy explained that the new scoring system will be determined with more emphasis on striking and grappling. In the past, fights have been determined by who has been pressing forward the most, with the old criteria stressing the importance of “Octagon control”. However, McCarthy stated that he only wants judges to look at the “impact” of what happens in the grappling and striking exchanges to determine who won a round.
“(Striking and grappling) are the two elements that make up a fight. If we don’t have two fighters that are either striking or grappling…that’s dancing. It’s not fighting.”
“We want you to judge the effectiveness of who is the better at either one of those two elements. Obviously, if 90% of the round is striking we want you to go with a heavy emphasis on striking. If 90% of the round is grappling, the stronger emphasis will be on grappling.
“Who is doing the most to impact a fight and bring a fight to an end?”
“We’re looking for big power that has an impact on the fight. This is not a game of numbers. If you are giving more credit to numbers than quality, you’re making a mistake. If you have one fighter that lands six jabs fighting a guy who lands one beautiful right cross that hurts his opponent, that one person with the right cross is winning our fight.”
Success in grappling and striking exchanges to determine winner of rounds
Quality of strikes rather than volume to be given more emphasis
Control of grappling exchanges given emphasis in grappling-dominated fights
McCarthy also outlined the different way to score a fight. According to the new rules, at 10-9 round would be a very even contest in terms of the exchanges with the most aggressive fighter of the two being warranted the 10-9 round.
According to the new scheme, 10-8 rounds will be scored a lot more liberally. A 10-8 will be rewarded when a fighter clearly wins a round. McCarthy explained that the fights will be judged on the “Three Ds”—damage, domination, duration. If a fighter has been damaged and dominated in a round, the round should be scored a 10-8. If the domination element does not exist, judges are urged to look at how long the duration of the damage lasted and how much of an impact it had on the fight before determining the round a 10-8. If there is no damage, judges need to look at the duration of the domination that occurred in the round.
10-10 round to be scored for a completely even fight
10-9 to be scored for marginal round win for one fighter
10-8 to be scored when there is a large margin between fighters at the end of a round
10-7 to be scored when there is overwhelming damage and domination in a round