Judge Doug Crosby speaks out about his controversial Bellator 289 and UFC 282 scorecards.
Judge Doug Crosby has recently faced criticism for his controversial scorecards in two major MMA events that took place earlier this month: Bellator 289 and UFC 282.
At Bellator 289, Crosby scored the main event bout between Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello for Sabatello, making him the only judge in history to score a contest 50-45 in favor of the losing fighter.
Crosby also faced criticism for awarding the UFC 282 co-main event victory to Paddy Pimblett, despite most media outlets giving Jared Gordon the win. However, in this fight, his fellow judges agreed with his decision.
In response to the criticism, Crosby stated that there is a system in place for fighters to request information about how their fights were scored and that they are welcome to contact the administrators for more information.
“There is a system and protocols in place for officials to comment on fights that they have judged and I respect that,” Crosby said on Sonnen’s You’re Welcome podcast (h/t Damon Martin). “There’s a process in place for any fighter who’s interested in information about how their fight was judged. That information is based upon the officials using the scoring criteria and any fight, not just this past weekend, or any fighter is welcome to contact to the administrators and ask them about that process.
“As far as me commenting on particular fights right now or maybe ever, that is up to the discretion of the administrators. That’s not me trying to duck out of answering hard questions about judging fights but there is a process and I respect the process.”
Although Crosby didn’t address the controversial scorecards in question, he did hint that he was pushed for time in making a decision, revealing that judges have only around 10 seconds to make a decision on who won or lost.
“You’ve got to assign a numerical value to what you just saw and on average you get about 15 seconds to turn that score in,” Crosby said. “If you write off about five of those seconds for the time it takes to write it, that leaves you about 10 seconds to make a decision about who won a round and who lost a round, in the most sophisticated, dynamic sport featuring the best athletes in the world.
“As a judge that’s what you are doing. I do everything I can to avail myself of whatever knowledge and insight I can get from the fighters, first and foremost, from the fighters.”
To hear more from Crosby, click here.