A lot people thought heading into his fight at UFC 137 against Brandon Vera that Eliot Marshall was in a must win fight.
Marshall ended up getting the wrong side of the decision as he lost a controversial fight against Brandon Vera this past Saturday. Marshall doesn’t understand how the last round was not scored a 10-8 round.
“I don’t know what a brother got to do to get a 10-8 in the 3rd,” Marshall told me. “He definitely won the second and the first was kind of up in the air. I don’t really feel like he did much. He pushed me on the cage. My right leg is sore by my knee by my quad from him kneeing my legs.”
Marshall feels the judges scored the first round this way.
“I guess he pushed me into the cage. I guess, maybe he threw a couple more punches or strikes. None of them did anything. I did the damage in the first round. I don’t know. I left it in the judges’ hands.”
A lot of people felt that Marshall dominated the third round and Marshall feels he did more than enough to warrant that score.
“What can you do? We look alike. I guess I was wondering they thought I was Brandon. I just don’t know how round three was not a 10-8. You tell me? I dropped him twice. I took him down. I almost choked him and I broke his arm. If that’s not a 10-8, what is a 10-8? Other than just punching him in the head and dropping him two times, what’s a 10-8? You tell me? In my head, the worst case it could have been was a draw.”
Marshall feels the judging system in the sport needs some tweaks.
“I don’t think scoring in MMA has to be drastically changed. We need educated judges that see the whole game. Not just whose on top and whose on bottom. Not just who landed a punch. If you break someones’ arm, that’s like dropping him more than one time. Especially the way they get out of the armbars’ because the arm isn’t working anymore. That’s some big points. That’s zero points for him and big points for the person who did that. That’s one thing that needs to be addressed. I think the round by round scoring is a little difficult. It works well in boxing because you have ten round fights. So if I whoop your ass in one round, but then you narrowly beat me in nine other ones, ok you win the fight. If we have two close rounds and then I whoop your ass, if you look at the fight, who won the fight? No ones’ going to talk about that. I won the fight. You just can;t even make an argument.”
You can listen to the entire interview with Marshall here.
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