Judges draw ire of MMA world at UFC 307

Val Dewar

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Judges draw ire of MMA world at UFC 307 image

© Stephen R. Sylvanie-Imagn Images

Jose Aldo vs Mario Bautista, which ended in controversial split decision.

It did not bode well that the first decision of UFC 307, in the second fight of the night, was controversial.

Boos for Tecia Pennington and cheers for Carla Esparza after that fight were some of the loudest of the whole evening. Tecia getting the nod is not a bad decision, but fans were especially incensed by the singular 30-27 scorecard for her, despite Carla Esparza definitely winning one round.

It did not improve much from there. Cesar Almeida vs Ihor Potieria did not techincally have judging issues, but referee Dave Sejestad became the focus by allowing at least four eye pokes without even a stern warning to Almeida, then began to separate clinches after as little as five seconds as if it was a boxing bout.

The two fights after that one were both split decisions; the Rodriguez/Lucindo fight was scored fairly but a 30-27 scorecard for Austin Hubbard in the following fight turned what should have been a unanimous decision for Alexander Hernandez into a sketchy split.

The featured prelim led into the PPV with a bang, as Joaquin Buckley knocked out Stephen Thompson late. However, the scorecards released for the first two rounds showed a heavy split, with one judge shockingly having had Buckley up 20-18 going into round three despite Thompson's dominance early.

Judging cropped up once more when the legend Jose Aldo fought Mario Bautista. Although Bautista had a lot of control time late, fans were incensed that he beat Aldo, beleiving the GOAT to have done more damage in a split decision loss which was the lowest-ranked defeat in his entire career.

The co-main event once again brought the judges to face public scrutiny. Raquel Pennington lost her women's bantamweight title to Julianna Pena by split decision. The prevailing opinion seemed to be that the score was tied going into round five, which Pennington won.

Though judging is absolutely a hard job, it is too often that unjustifiable scorecards are turned in, or judges show a complete refusal to truly treat damage as the top criteria.

As always, the athletes are the ones who suffer due to the UFCs show/win pay structure.

Val Dewar

Val Dewar Photo

Val was initiated into Steelers Nation from the moment he was born — his first memory is a game vs. New England from when "Slash" was QB — and doing sports writing has always been a dream career for him. In 2022 he broke into the industry by writing about combat sports for Cageside Press, and now has the opportunity to continue that work with TSN as an MMA writer, as well as get his feet wet on the Steelers beat.