White Blasts Jan Vs. Izzy Judges: ‘This 10-8 S**t Is Out Of Control’

The new Nevada rules give judges more leeway when it comes to handing out 10-8 rounds. But did they go too far during UFC 259’s main event?

Dana White is starting to get fed up with the terrible judging in Nevada.

In the past, bad judging has been spread out across the United States where a variety of stodgy semi-corrupt athletic commissions have shared the blame for bad decisions. But with the COVID-19 pandemic putting 75% of the UFC’s events in the Las Vegas APEX Arena, a bright light has been shone on just how bad Nevada judging is, week in, week out.

This event’s big judging controversy has something of a happy ending — at least the right guy won in the Jan Blachowicz vs. Israel Adesanya light heavyweight title fight. But when the scorecards came out naming Blachowicz the winner, it left everyone scratching their heads. 49–46, 49–45, 49–45.

What?

“The scoring was insane,” White said during the post-fight press conference seconds after sitting down. “These guys are giving out 10-8 rounds like f**king … there were two rounds in that fight that they gave a 10-8.”

To clarify White’s statements, there weren’t two rounds scored 10-8 for Blachowicz. Two judges – Derek Cleary and Junichiro Kamijo – gave Blachowicz a 10-8 score for the 5th round. Here’s the full breakdown of the scorecard:

But White’s frustration is pretty understandable.

“Now when I came up in the fight business, a 10-8 round was an ass whupping,” White continued. “You got your ass whupped. You didn’t do s**t in that round and got beat down if it was a 10-8. They gotta stop giving — this 10-8 s**t is out of control right now. So hopefully we can get this fixed. They’re going to be screwing up a lot of fights if they’re handing out 10-8s like that. There was no 10-8 in that fight.”

Even past the 10-8s, White felt the 4 rounds to 1 delivered by all three judges for Blachowicz wasn’t accurate.

“I think we can all agree, and I’m not defending Israel Adesanya here – that fight wasn’t four to one,” White said. “That’s bats**t nuts. If anyone watches that fight and thinks that fight is 4-1 you’re nuts. It was even going into the last round. And Israel was winning the first half of the round, then Jan took him down and won the fight in the second half of the round. The only thing that makes that fight 4-1 are ridiculous 10-8 rounds. Who in this room thinks the fight was 4-1, anybody? Tell me if you do. No? Not one person in here.”

“People who watch fights every f**king weekend think that was 4-1,” he finished, shaking his head. “It’s a big problem right now with judging that needs to be fixed.”