Mixed martial arts (MMA) judge, Doug Crosby, has generated much more buzz than anyone would have expected in the wake of this past weekend.
Crosby turned in two largely controversial scorecards during two of the biggest fights on Bellator 289 and UFC 282 which took place on back-to-back days (Dec. 9 and 10, 2022). In Bellator 289’s main event, Raufeon Stots retained his interim Bantamweight title against Danny Sabatello, advancing to the promotion’s Grand Prix final via a split decision. The one dissenting judge in the bout was Crosby, scoring the fight 50-45 for Sabatello. The night after, Crosby gave out a 29-28 to Paddy Pimblett in his fight versus Jared Gordon, leading to a unanimous decision nod in favor of the Brit.
It isn’t rare for controversy to find Crosby, and if the stories involving him are any sign, he doesn’t appear interested in improving. Xtreme Couture head coach, Eric Nicksick, had his own experience with the infamous judge earlier in 2022.
“I feel like their standards change fight after fight,” Nicksick told MMA on Sirius of judges in the sport. “There’s a lack of consistency there.
“We actually had a Zoom meeting a few months back,” he continued. “That was [something] the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) put together; a Zoom meeting with a bunch of judges and a handful of MMA coaches. The job with that was for us to kind of sit down and mend some fences and ask some questions and things like that. I’ll be transparent with you guys, the No. 1 outlier in that Zoom meeting was Doug Crosby. Like, he didn’t want to be there, he felt combative in the meeting, he thought … I don’t know. I guess he was above this meeting for us. That’s the way I felt and not only myself, but the other coaches that were involved and it was pretty evident.”
One of the biggest beliefs regarding Crosby over the years is that he prefers to judge fights how he thinks they should be judged rather than how they’re supposed to be as written. Following up after the meeting, Nicksick remembers Crosby trying to explain himself in person at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas.
“He wanted to come to the gym after and explain his version of judging,” Nicksick said. “Well, you can’t. You’re in a Zoom meeting with all your superiors, why do you need to come on your own to come to talk to us about what you see and what you feel is right in judging? You have that platform right then and there.
“I let him in the gym, but I just left,” he added. “If you want to talk to whoever you want to talk, but I’m not gonna sign off on that and I just took off. In my mind, I was like maybe he’s mad at me, I don’t know.”