Cathal Pendred stretched his UFC record to 3-0 last night with a unanimous decision over Sean Spencer that many members of the MMA community found questionable.
Both Dana White and Joe Rogan were in agreement that the decision was a bad call on behalf of the judges so we decided to look at a few other decisions that caused a bit of uproar in the UFC.
While you may not agree with the five examples of this that we have selected, we think it’s fair to say that these decisions were, at the very least, debatable.
1. Georges St-Pierre v Johny Hendricks
The beating that welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre received at the hands of challenger Johny Hendricks forced the pound-for-pound kingpin to take some time away from the sport.
The five rounds were close, we’re not arguing that, but none were close enough to suggest that GSP had won the fight using the ten point must system which is used by the UFC.
The heavy-handed contender should have taken that fight by three rounds to GSP’s two with “Bigg Rigg” taking rounds one, two and four while the champion won rounds three and five.
Round one ended up being the decisive five minutes that enabled GSP to retain his belt but it was this round that saw Hendricks land vicious elbows on St-Pierre, take him down (which cancelled out an earlier GSP takedown) and connect with brutal knees and punches.
The other four rounds were less debatable and the judges got those right for the most part but misreading the first round ended up robbing Johny Hendricks out of his much-deserved title.
Who looks like they won that fight?
2. Leonard Garcia v Nam Phan
The decision to give Leonard Garcia the nod in this contest in late 2010 was nigh on criminal.
We’re fairly confident that there’s no wiggle room for anybody, except two of the three judges, to suggest that Nam Phan didn’t easily take the win here.
The only round that you could argue was won by Garcia was the first as he fought aggressively but the second and third rounds were decisively won by Phan who dropped his opponent before Garcia gassed as the fight progressed.
The worst case scenario should have seen Nam Phan be awarded 29-28 on all judges scorecards but the blurry-eyed judges viewed the bout in favour of Garcia (29-28, 27-30, 29-28).
3. Ross Pearson v Diego Sanchez
Dana White was so incensed by the judges’ decision to award Diego Sanchez the win in June last year that he was quoted as saying:”It was horrible. In the second round, Diego got dropped and one judge still gave him that round. Insanity, man. Pearson got robbed. Pearson won that fight clearly. He easily won that fight. We have to treat Pearson like he won and give him that next level fight.”
Most sane people thought that Ross Pearson won every round when he took on the TUF 1 vet which would have left us with a scorecard of 30-27 x 3 in favour of the Brit.
What we really got was one judge scoring it 30-27 for Pearson, one judge scoring it 29-28 for Diego and one “judge” scoring it 30-27 for Diego.
4. Lyoto Machida v Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
This one may not be as controversial as the above ones but it certainly raised a few eyebrows and prompted more than a few boos when Lyoto Machida’s name was called by Bruce Buffer on October 24, 2009.
The first time that Lyoto fought Shogun, Rua stood out as the aggressor throughout the contest while the then-light heavyweight champion Machida became sluggish as the fight made its way to the championship rounds.
Rua did much more damage than “The Dragon” and admitted that he was shocked at the decision, saying: “My corner told me that I was winning all the rounds. I feel like I won this fight, but a fight is a fight. What can I do?”
In this instance karma had a way of working the debate out as the next time the Brazilian pair fought, seven months later, Shogun ended up TKOing Lyoto and taking his 205lb belt.
5. Michael Bisping v Matt Hamill
The home crowd element had absolutely everything to do with the fact that Michael Bisping came out on top when he met TUF 2 castmate and rival Matt Hamill at UFC 75 in London.
The majority of fighters, fans and eye-owners saw that Matt Hamill should have taken the decision over the brash Brit and would have if the bout had taken place anywhere other than England.
Hamill inarguably took the first round as he dominated the hometown hero for five minutes before Bisping rallied and took the second by finding his range.
But the fact that the majority of the third round was spent with “The Count” on his back and Hamill bossing the grappling would suggest that the American would be taking home a tidy 29-28 victory with him.
Wrong! The judges favoured Bisping and even the English fans could see the injustice with a fraction of the crowd booing their own fighter.
