UFC welterweight Alan Jouban was not happy with how the judges scored his main card fight with Dwight Grant at UFC 236.
UFC welterweight Alan Jouban was hoping for a victory for his return to action after more than a year in the sidelines. Instead, what he got was a split decision loss against Dwight Grant in his main card fight at UFC 236 on Saturday night.
Jouban was convinced he had done enough to secure the win, which makes the verdict a lot more difficult to digest.
“I want to talk to the judges,” Jouban told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in a backstage interview. “I want to look you in the eye and say ‘what’s your martial arts background? How long have you been doing this? And tell me how you judged this?’ Because damage is the overall score.
“He backpedaled for 15 minutes trying to do counter shots backpedaling,” Jouban said of Grant. “He got me with a couple grazing shots, I took him down twice. I almost finished him in the last couple of seconds, given five more seconds.
“I don’t see how you could score 28-29 to him and another judge saw it 30-27 when he backs up the whole time.”
For Jouban, not being able to deliver and show the best of his abilities was the most disappointing part of everything.
“The fans booing rips my heart out because we’re on that main card because they know that I deliver,” he said. “And I had to sit there in front of Dana White and not deliver to the fans and to Dana White, and mess up an opportunity.
“And then they take the victory away. They take my W that I earned when I’m about to renegotiate my contract,” he continued. “When I’ve been out for 14 months without a fight paycheck, and they take half my money. I want to talk to the f—ng judges.”
Now 2-3 in his last five fights, Jouban is calling for a revamp in the system.
“You would have to either get five judges out there so we can have a little bit better percentages of what the right call is, or start implementing half-points,” Jouban said when asked if he has suggestion for improvements. “Because as I said, the scorecards have changed recently, it’s supposed to be damage inflicted. Neither one of is is bleeding, but I want to say that I inflicted more damage than him.
“It wasn’t a lopsided victory, but I won the fight. Come on, man. The judges need to get their sh-t together.”
After the loss, Jouban now drops to a record of 16-7, with 11 wins by stoppage.