After the recent controversy of UFC 282, it is hard to not sit and wonder who is actually judging these fights. The judges were not called upon all night until the co-main event. As someone who was at the event, I can attest that every fight was fantastic and the judges spoiled the night. Paddy Pimblett did not win two rounds of that fight. The entire MMA community has been outraged by the decision. What was even worse was the draw in the main event and having to leave T-Mobile Arena without a crowned Light Heavyweight Champion. So I looked into the judges of the debacles at the end of the night.
Sal D'amato is the first one we're going to discuss. This isn't the first time fans have questioned Big Sal's decision-making ability, let alone the first time this year. The vast majority of the fans on Twitter were ripping him for his scoring during Strickland Hermansson. Both other judges gave the fight to Strickland at 49-46. Yet Old Sal scored the fight 48-47 for Hermansson. What fight were you watching? Well, this past weekend he screwed one of Jan Blachowicz or Magomed Ankalaev. In my humble opinion, and the opinion of Joe Rogan, and the majority of people on Twitter, Ankalaev won the fight. However, because Sal scored the fight 47-47 it is up in the air.
Now there's Doug Crosby who has been on the hot seat even more than Sal. Crosby had two really interesting scores this past weekend. On Bellator 289 he scored the Sabatello vs Stots fight 50-45 for Sabatello...Meanwhile, on Planet Earth the other two judges scored the fight 48-47 Stots. Crosby even admits to judging by his own criteria. Excuse me? Now his score wasn't terrible when you consider he gave Jared Gordon round three as did Ron McCarthy, but somehow when it comes out that Ron McCarthy admits to being influenced by the crowd in his decision-making, you need to question these judges. Especially when you look at the final judge for this fight, Chris Lee. Lee gave the third round to Pimblett. Paddy had zero answers for Gordon in that third round, so it becomes really suspicious and weird with scorecards for the co-main event being all over the map.
Now I think the answer is right in front of the UFC and other fighting organizations. Enough with these judges that work for the Fight Commission of each state. They clearly don't know what they are doing, but you know who does know what they are doing? The guys like Marc Goddard, Dan Margliotta, Keith Pederson, and Herb Dean. We trust the refs to literally end and officiate each fight. I would say the majority of refs know who won each fight more than anyone. So maybe while Goddard is in the cage, Big Dan, Herb, and Keith can score the fights. I also think open scoring could help the situation because then fighters will know if they need to go for the knockout or not. Had Jared Gordon seen the scorecards going into round three maybe he would have gone for a kill shot instead of just controlling him (even though in my opinion that won him the fight.) All in all, something needs to change and I think we already have the answer in front of us.
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