With Diego Sanchez’s “victory” over Ross Pearson last Saturday, the mixed martial-arts community is appalled at UFC judging once again and the reasoning of choosing Sanchez as the victor.
Having blood on his face and marks on his body is nothing new to Sanchez as his arm was raised while Ross Pearson was visibly unharmed after the bout. Even the city of Albuquerque was in shock as Diego’s name was announced. He was clearly outstruck, outclassed and clearly more battered up in the bout against Pearson.
Pearson has recently made it official that he will appeal the decision of last Saturday’s bout. It is possible that the New Mexico Athletic Commission will recognize this and change the decision, but most likely the decision will stay the same just as long as there is no proof of corruption or faulty acts in the decision making.
Many wonder what the point system for MMA judging is based on. Whether takedowns and ground control for a minute can nullify the fact that a fighter was clearly outstruck on the feet for four minutes. A factor that is wondered as a factor for the Sanchez vs Pearson bout is moving forward. Sanchez clearly did move forward more, but most of the strikes that he threw clearly missed and Pearson had a counter for every one of them. Apparently Pearson’s efforts were not noticed as one judge scored the bout 29-28 and another judge scored a bizarre 30-27 in favor of Sanchez. The Announcer Kenny Florian clearly stated his opinion that there was faulty judging and that Pearson clearly won the bout.
Dana White unfortunately was not in Albuquerque for the post-fight press conference and MMA fans were not able to hear his comments about the judging (of which he is never shy to share his bold opinion). He was actually at a family function in Maine and did not even tweet his comments at that time.
This is not the first controversial decision that Sanchez has won. His victories over Takanori Gomi and Martin Kampmann are controversial decisions that many MMA analysts and fans did not agree with. Although these other fights were controversial, the Pearson fight has the most controversy behind it and made more headlines.
Hopefully something can be done with the athletic commission to improve the judging in mixed martial-arts, but it seems that nothing will change in the near future. This is why Dana White always says to the fighters: “Never leave it in the hands of the judges.”
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