Questionable scorecards were present all throughout UFC 307 Saturday in Salt Lake City resulting in four split decisions, including two results on the main card that raised eyebrows throughout the mixed martial arts world.
Dana White was among those puzzled by some of the judges’ scoring at the event, plus at least one referee on the preliminary card.
“I thought the judging was atrocious tonight,” the UFC president said at the post-fight press conference. “I’ll just leave it that. It was atrocious.”
White did not mention any one specific fight but two potential options are the pair of bouts that preceded Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight title in an excellent fight with Khalil Rountree Jr. in the main event.
Julianna Pena defeated Raquel Pennington by split decision in the co-main to win the women’s bantamweight title, a decision that was met with boos.
Pennington said after the loss she believed she had done enough to win the fight.
The widely used MMADecisions compiles unofficial scorecards from media members who watch the fights and share their opinions on how they should be scored.
Two of three cageside judges in Utah scored the bout three rounds to two (48-47) Pena, despite 25 of 26 media members scoring the bout thinking Pennington had won three rounds to Pena’s two and the one dissenting media member had it a draw instead of a Pena win.
In the bout prior to the women’s title fight, Mario Bautista was on the right side of a three-round split decision with Hall of Famer Jose Aldo. Conor McGregor wrote on social media he thought the decision was “dirt” while the media was split 50-50 on that fight.
Lightweight Alexander Hernandez had to hold his breath for a moment after his preliminary card win after one judge scored all three rounds for his opponent Austin Hubbard with two judges scoring two rounds for Hernandez.
Also on the preliminary card, Cesar Almeida swept the scorecards against Ihor Potieria in a contest that was consistently interrupted by a referee who did not officiate any more fights after a head-scratching performance during which he ignored several fouls and repeatedly separated the fighters when they would clinch.
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