At UFC Fight Night 42, Diego Sanchez earned a split decision win over Ross Pearson. One judge scored all the rounds for Pearson, another scored all rounds for Sanchez, and one judge scored one round for Pearson, and the other for Sanchez. It would seem that at least two of the judges were watching completely different fights than the other one.
Looking at the numbers from the entire fight, Pearson landed 51 of 122 significant strikes (41%), to Diego Sanchez’s 33 of 134 (24%). Pearson would also outland Sanchez in each round scored. Pearson landed both a takedown and knockdown in the fight.
Once the final bell sounded, I myself had it 3-0 Pearson, worst case 2-1 Pearson. Once the announcement was made, there was uproar from the public on social media. Some are calling this the worst decision in UFC history.
Here’s the main problem taken away from the night, judges need to become better educated on the sport of MMA. There also needs to be a unified scoring system. Those people insisting on fighters not leave the decision in the judge’s hands; they are the ones who need to let their voices be heard about how poor judging is across the board. No fighter should dominate a fight and have to worry about which way the decision will go.
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