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…When you want to turn a win into a bigger win.
It’s not often you see a fighter and his team appeal a win, but that’s what Dhiego Lima intends to do.
Lima appeared to have a clear-cut decision over Luke Jumeau at UFC 243 in Australia, but one judge did give Jumeau a scorecard. While Lima officially has a split decision win from this contest, his manager Alex Davis confirmed with MMA Junkie that they want it changed to a unanimous decision. Seriously.
“Although Dhiego won, we have decided to appeal this decision,” Davis said. “We are asking that it be changed from split to unanimous on a question of principle. Although we are happy with Dhiego’s win, we are intrigued at how a judge could have scored the fight for Jumeau. No disrespect to Jumeau – he fought a tough fight. But a split decision does not reflect the reality of the fight.
“Once again, this exposes a fundamental flaw in MMA judging and structure. The question again looms: Who are these people? What are their credentials? How did they get into such an important position, as to judge fights that affect these hard-working athletes’ lives and careers?”
MMA media scored the fight unanimously for Lima, with nearly everyone giving the Brazilian a shutout on the scorecards. Certainly no one made the case for Jumeau winning other than judge Garth Harriman.
You may recall that Davis also appealed Edson Barboza’s split decision defeat to Paul Felder at UFC 242, pointing to the 30-27 scorecard in Felder’s favor, but also saying that they wouldn’t complain about a 29-28 Felder scorecard.
It appears that the heart of both of Davis’ appeals is the want of better judging, such that he’s even thinking about upgrading a win to a clearer win because of a very questionable scorecard.