At UFC 310 on Saturday, top heavyweights Ciryl Gane and Alexander Volkov fought to an extremely close split decision, with the Frenchman slightly ahead on the judges' scorecard.
Heading into his UFC 310 fight against Ciryl Gane, Alexander Volkov was riding a four-fight win streak and a win over 'Bon Gamin' would have put him in heavyweight title contention.
Despite this, the judges gave the decision to former interim champion Gane after almost three rounds, which even he wasn't too happy about as he stormed out of the Octagon shortly after his fight before returning claiming he had broken toes. .
Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images
Dana White reveals the conversation he had with the committee about the decision
Judging UFC fights continues to be an issue every week, but unfortunately it is out of the promotion's hands as it is the committee that is responsible for the judges they employ.
However, after the big heavyweight fight, UFC CEO Dana White decided to try to get answers from the committee about how they arrived at their controversial scoring of the fight.
“So this is what happened after that fight. You heard the booing, I went to Volkov, I apologized to him, I thought he won the fight,” he began explaining at the UFC 310 post-fight press conference .
“And then the head of the committee came along and said, 'Listen, we feel like that second round was very close and could have gone either way, both guys got rocked.' I can't remember which (fighter) they thought it might have been. worst in the second round, but you know.
“They made the argument as to why the fight was judged the way it was, I had a problem with the (Bryan) Battle fight too. It doesn't matter what I think, it really doesn't, because ultimately they decide who wins and loses, not us,” White continued.
Bryan Battle picked up a decision victory over Randy Brown after losing 4 pounds of weight on Friday, which White and a large majority of the fanbase also viewed as a controversial decision.
Alexander Volkov reacts to the judges' scorecards after his loss
After his winning streak took a hit due to the controversial decision, Volkov has shared his reaction to the scorecards online after becoming absolutely furious.
“I'm just confident that I won the fight… I'm confident that I won… I don't know what I can do about it backstage. I was approached by UFC bosses, the main boss too, everyone thinks it was wrong decision, honestly I don't know what we can do now,” Volkov said in a post on social media.
“I won that fight 100%. What were the judges looking at? Who were the judges? I don't know,” he continued.
However, Volkov then learned that one of the judges for his fight was Adalaide Byrd, a judge who had ongoing controversial involvement with the boxing jury before stepping down from her role.
“I don't know if she is working on her judging skills, or if sometimes she just comes to watch the fights because she likes it, and gives the victory wherever she wants. Maybe she liked Ciryl Gane's body more,” Volkov said at the post-fight press conference.
Both Byrd and Junichiro Kamijo scored the first and second rounds in the Frenchman's favor, allowing the Russian heavyweight to reach the final round. Eric Colon was of a different opinion and seemingly agreed with White and Volkov, scoring 'Drago' rounds two and three.
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