Judging became a hot topic once again at UFC Vegas 16.
Roman Dolidze appeared to have comfortably won a unanimous decision in his light heavyweight bout with John Allan on the UFC Vegas 16 main card last night. However, it ended up being a split decision after one judge — Chris Lee — surprisingly scored the fight in favor of Allan.
It wasn’t the first time Lee was the dissenting judge which led to a split decision result either as he notably scored the recent fight between Rafael dos Anjos and Paul Felder to the latter as well despite it being a clear-cut victory for the Brazilian.
And UFC president Dana White was not impressed.
“I don’t know how that guy could score that fight that way,” White said (via MMA Fighting). “I had a 51-year-old schoolteacher from Massachusetts that I grew up with who was watching the fights. A 51-year-old woman that I went to school with in kindergarten text me tonight and go, ‘I don’t know sh*t about fights, but who judged that fight?’ I swear to god, that’s the truth. That’s how scary that is.
“Yeah, it’s not good. It’s something the commission needs to stay on top of, and they need to single out and call out people that continually make bad calls. They’re going to f*ck somebody’s life up. They really are.”
As noted by MMA Fighting, Lee is a long-serving MMA official — not a former boxing judge as stated by commentator Dominick Cruz on the broadcast. Despite that, he still got yet another clear-cut decision wrong.
Hopefully, the Nevada State Athletic Commission make sure Lee is no longer a judge or at the very least, make sure he is thoroughly evaluated going forward.
What do you think of judges in MMA?