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Anthony Smith joined Matt Serra and Jim Norton on UFC Unfiltered following the aftermath of UFC 247.
UFC 247 was one of the most controversial cards in recent memory. In large part due to the questionable judging decisions on display. It forced the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) to address the situation and has caught the ire of both fans and fighters.
One such fighter is Anthony ‘Lionheart’ Smith, who joined Matt Serra and Jim Norton on their popular UFC Unfiltered podcast show.
Smith, who lost to Jon Jones for the UFC light heavyweight championship at UFC 235, believes that most-recent challenger Dominick Reyes should have won in Houston.
“I had it 3-2 Reyes. I had Reyes winning the first three rounds and Jones winning the last two,” Smith told Serra and Norton.
Both the hosts seemed to agree with Smith’s scoring of the event but believed that Jones did not look like his usual self. Smith explained his thoughts, “I was more focused on what he looked like in between rounds. In between rounds he looked lost, flustered and he looked worried.”
Norton also suggested that Jones did not wear the expression of a fighter who had just won a fight and broke the record for number of title defenses (15). While Serra offered some explanation for this, suggesting that fighters can oftentimes be critical when analyzing their performance during the course of a fight, but that is not necessarily indicative that they believe they lost.
Regardless of whether Jones or Reyes believe they won or lost the fight, the only opinion that truly counts is that of the judges.
UFC commentators Joe Rogan and Dominic Cruz were quick to point out that some judges were not paying attention to fights and this could have detrimentally impacted results. It’s a topic that has been exhausted and Smith suggested that introducing a live scoring system would increase audience engagement and judging accountability.
“Right now there’s zero accountability for some of these judges. I do think it would create some fun, you know the round ends, everyone’s staring, waiting [for the round scores], you know it’s a close round and boom it [results] flashes up. The crowd goes crazy.”