Josh Thomson has called for the judges who scored Saturday night's UFC 310 to be made to pay after an outrageous decision.
The former Strikeforce lightweight champion was one of many viewers stunned to see Ciryl Gane raise his hand after a three-round fight with Alexander Volkov. The pair had previously fought for over five years, and the Russian looked much better this time as he landed takedowns and big strikes.
However, a split decision featuring a scorecard from the controversial Adelaide Byrd saw the French star take the victory, which even he seemed confused by. It sparked an uproar online and vocal criticism from the likes of Dana White and Volkov himself.
Josh Thomson believes UFC 310 judges should be paid due to controversy
During Saturday's event, Thomson felt like enough had happened during the heavyweight bout that he left in the last few seconds to go to the bathroom. But, he noted during a recent episode of his Weighing In podcast, he returned surprised when he saw Gane speaking victoriously against Joe Rogan.
“When the 10-second bell rang, I got up to go to the bathroom,” he told co-host John McCarthy. “I come back and they're interviewing Gane, I'm thinking 'what the fuck just happened?'”
McCarthy made the case for it being a close fight, although he also felt the decision should have gone Volkov's way. Noting that “the judges disagreed,” Thomson quickly shot back by declaring, “We have to stop their wages.”
“I thought Volkov looked phenomenal,” Thomson continued. “I was very impressed, he used the long distance kicks, the push kick, then came back with the same arms and hand, threw the right leg and came back straight after with the arm.
“As soon as one pulled back, the other came out and landed clean. I was surprised that Gane didn't go down [under a spinning backfist]He looked a little wobbly, but Volkov wasn't trying to get anything done and didn't want to jump into anything big.
“That was smart on his part, but it's just one of those fights, man. One of those fights where you feel like if they had done a little more, he had fought his way out of the kimura and gotten something, it wouldn't have been so close to a fight.
“I gave it to Volkov… I came back from the bathroom and I was like, 's***, man.'
Alexander Volkov invades Judge Adelaide Byrd and calls for the dismissal of judges
One judge whose involvement drew much criticism was infamous boxing personality Adelaide Byrd. She came to prominence in 2017 when she gave Canelo Alvarez a stunning 118-110 decision in his fight with Gennadiy Golovkin, which many felt he didn't win at all.
And Volkov called for her to be fired from her position with the Nevada State Athletic Commission after that fact, asking the media at his post-fight press conference: “This is the same judge who judges boxing and MMA?
“I don't understand, this state is the fighting capital of the world, I don't know what to say… How is it possible that the same person can judge two different types of sports?
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
“I don't understand how a person who is not professionally trained in this sport cannot be requalified to judge this sport, or simply cannot be fired.
“I don't know if she's working on her [judging] skills, or she just comes to watch the fights every now and then because she likes it and give victory wherever she wants… Maybe she liked Ciryl Gane's body more.
“It's the same as in our sport: if you're not professionally fit to fight in the UFC, there's a good chance you'll be fired – and it should be the same for everyone, if you can't do that professionally. it's your job, you shouldn't do it.”
Dana White's full apology to Alexander Volkov after the UFC 310 result
In the aftermath of the decision, Dana White announced during the post-fight that he told Volkov afterward that he had been “f***ed” by the judges. And new footage from ESPN MMA shows exactly what happened when they met in Cageside.
“You're damned,” White can be seen telling Volkov, repeating the message four times at different intervals as they searched for a translator to relay the entire message to the Russian who speaks limited English.
'That's terrible. I don't know what we're going to do, but we'll try to make it right, okay? Do you understand what I mean? I have no idea, the whole arena thought he won the fight. I have no idea, they screwed that up badly, I'll talk to you soon, again, my apologies.
Related posts
Comments