Although UFC Fight Night 42 had very little hype heading into the event, it’s been nothing short of a beehive full of buzz following the event. There were a lot of strange happenings, but none more outlandish than Diego Sanchez‘s “win” over Ross Pearson.
Pearson has already said he plans on making an appeal for the loss, but now his teammates have expressed concern over another matter with his fight against Sanchez. Dean Amasinger spoke with MMA Junkie about some strange findings that the Pearson team came upon.
Ross was drug tested before the fight, which is perfectly normal. That’s absolutely fine, and all this stuff is supposed to be random. But when Ross came back from the drug test, he said to me, ‘I’ve seen the list; none of the Jackson guys are on the drug test list, or the New Mexican guys who are fighting on the card.’ And so I went and checked and that was the case.
This normally would be attributed as an uncommon occurrence due to the fighters being randomly selected, but following Sanchez’s controversial win, it looks like it may be time to bust open the tin foil hats.
Amasinger also brought up the idea of favoritism towards the hometown fighters and after looking at the judge’s scorecards for the Pearson-Sanchez fight, who could blame him?
One of the judges somehow managed to score all three rounds for Sanchez. That would mean Sanchez somehow managed to win a round in which he was not only taken down, but knocked down as well (FightMetric).
Amasinger also told MMA Junkie that Pearson had yet to be awarded his win bonus, a move the UFC typically makes when they believe the wrong fighter won a decision.
In the end, this is pure speculation from Pearson’s team but it’s definitely not a good look for the New Mexico Athletic Commission. The decision is highly unlikely to be reversed and fans will remember this decision as a black eye for not only the NMAC, but also for MMA judging as a whole.
As Dana White always loves to say, don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.
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