This past weekend, Paul Felder stepped in to face Rafael Dos Anjos on late notice. Although Felder put up a great performance and made RDA work for every round, it seemed like a relatively clear cut decision for the Brazilian. However, when Bruce Buffer announced the scorecards, he revealed that one judge had awarded Felder a 48-47 decision, which even surprised ‘The Irish Dragon’ himself. Fortunately for RDA, the other two judges gave him every round on a 50-45 scorecard, awarding him the split decision victory.
On the Jon Anik & Kenny Florian podcast, the two discussed the decision, and the former UFC contender and TUF 1 finalist didn’t hold back. Kenny Florian gave his thoughts on the current state of judging and how they don’t understand the grappling aspect of mixed martial arts.
“I don’t even know where to start, I don’t know a world where you can score that a 48-47.” Florian opened with.
“What the hell is going on? When a guy is getting taken down and getting his guard passed or getting controlled on the ground, it just shows judges in general… judges don’t know what the f*** is going on, on the ground.” Florian continued as he also went on to discuss Cory McKenna’s decision victory.
“Do you understand how difficult it is to land a takedown? Do you understand how difficult it is to get into side control? To mount? When you’re close to a submission, that means you almost finished the fight. You almost determined who won right there and then. The fact that’s not counting in a judges mind is just [mind blowing].”
MMA judging is a topic that has long gone on and will continue to go on for some time. Many believe that less boxing judges should be crossing over to the sport, and that more former Mixed Martial Artists should be judging fights.
LATEST NEWS
- Davey Grant on Sean O’Malley’s hype: “I think he’s still yet to live up to it.”
- UFC Rankings Update: Michael Chandler replaces Conor McGregor in top 5
- McGregor’s Head Coach: Conor may go to Boxing if he doesn’t receive immediate rematch
- Khabib Nurmagomedov releases statement on McGregor v Poirier 2
- Michael Chandler on Dan Hooker: “It’s not a fight that favors me in a lot of ways”.
- Hooker on Usman changing camp: “maybe he was the one who needed to change”.
- Dana White says Nate Diaz is returning to 155lbs and has been offered a fight
- Ali Abdelaziz says Chimaev v Edwards “Will not go over 2 rounds”
- Colby Covington: The UFC told me Jorge Masvidal “doesn’t want to fight me.”
