It’s not everyday you see just two judges scoring a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) bout cageside. But as rare as that is, it actually happened on Oct. 8 at UFC 204 from Manchester, England. Before Michael Bisping ever defended his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) middleweight title opposite Dan Henderson, a preliminary bout between lightweights Leonardo Santos and Adriano Martins offered quite the situation.
For the first five minutes of the three-round affair, only two judges were cageside. Judge Jeff Mullen had apparently scored the action from the first row of the commission seating area before joining his appropriate seat cageside for the remaining two frames. Mullen played an intricate role in the outcome of the fight as his nod for Santos helped the Brazilian capture a split-decision win over Martins. It’s a rare occurrence when a referee is scoring a bout from anywhere other than his appointed seat, and a troubling miscue UFC officials needed to address in the following statement to MMA Junkie:
At the UFC 204 event on Oct. 8 in Manchester, England, a judge was not in the proper judge’s chair during the first round of the Adriano Martins vs. Leonardo Santos bout. Judge Jeff Mullen was seated in the first row of the commission seating area and was observing the bout. Upon noticing that Judge Mullen was not in his appropriate seat at the end of round 1, Marc Ratner, UFC Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, asked Mullen if he believed that he could adequately score the round from his vantage point. Judge Mullen confirmed that he had observed the entire round and that he could appropriately score the round. As a result, Mullen filled out his judge’s scorecard for round 1 and took his appropriate judge’s seat to observe and score the remaining two rounds of the bout.
Understandably, Martins, who lost a razor-thin decision, was not happy to hear about the rogue judge. Martins’ manager, Alex Davis, issued the following statement:
With all due respect to Santos and Nova Uniao, it was such a close fight that anything that judge missed, a single kick or punch, could change the result of the fight. There is a protocol in place, and if the judge isn’t where he’s supposed to be at cageside, the fight should be considered a no contest.
Whenever UFC hosts an event in a location without an athletic commission, the promotion itself is left to regulate the action, both inside of the cage and out of it. While UFC feels that Mullen was able to adequately judge from the front row in Round 1, protocol is being reviewed:
In order to ensure that a similar incident does not occur in the future, UFC has reviewed its protocol for starting any and all bouts that occur in territories that do not have an applicable athletic commission or federation.
Only time will tell if Martins is able to flip his loss into a no contest. Either way, UFC will have to buckle down on its regulatory measures moving forward considering many events are held in non-commissioned locations.
At least the elevators worked in England.