Hate to sound like a broken record (guess saying ‘skipping cd’ is also rather dated….), but if you didn’t see last night’s WEC broadcast, yup, sh-ts gotta change. Once again the lil bro of the UFC put on one damn entertaining event (one Fix staffer actually wept tears of joy during the Mark Hominick / Yves Jabouin bout…). The main event tilt between former WEC lightweight champion Jamie Varner and wrestling powerhouse Kamal Shalorus was also thrilling, that is until the judge’s decision was announced, bringing that aforementioned record to a screeching halt.
Now Shalorus certainly didn’t get blown out in the fight; he was aggressive, constantly pursuing Varner while blasting the Arizona fighter’s with kicks. On the other side, Varner landed far more often, and on a couple of occasions, he rocked the Iranian with hard punches and may have been a shot or two away from finishing the fight. One other, rather, glaringly important detail, in his frequent attempts to brutalize Varner’s lead leg, Shalorus ended up kicking the former champ’s ‘it can only do so much’ protective cup, not once, not twice, but thrice. Shalorus was deducted a point for the ‘yeesh’ infractions. So, considering Varner won the first two rounds, the deducted point to Shalorus, win for Jamie right? Wrong-o. Judges scored it a 29-27, 27-29, 28-28, draw….
Speaking after the bout, Varner, who actually was somewhat reserved by his usual ‘outgoing’ standards, had this to say about the decision (thanks to MMA Fighting):
“I think that was bogus,” Varner said. “I definitely feel I won the fight.”
You’re not the only one.