There was quite a few questionable calls at UFC Vegas 55.
The judges’ scorecards from a few fights on the card caused an uproar, especially in the main event. Ketlen Vieira would win the headliner by split decision, but many believed Holm should have be the victor. The same goes for Santiago Ponzinibbio who lost to Michel Pereira and also Eryk Anders who lost against Jun Yong Park.
“The Blame Resides In The Judging”
Daniel Cormier was in the broadcast booth for all of the action. Let’s just say DC didn’t agree with the judges for the most part.
“Once again, it’s on the judges,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “They keep on making these mistakes, I would think? Or we just don’t know what the hell we’re watching.
“One judge in the Pereira fight had it 30-27 Pereira. It was so clear that Ponzinibbio won at least one round, but one judge scored it 30-27 which was crazy. How do you get that wrong?
“The whole fight last night was wrong. This is no knock on Ketlen Vieira. When I state this opinions, it’s not a direct attack on anyone in particular. This is just me saying what I feel and where I believe the blame resides. The blame resides in the judging. It really does.”
“My Job Is Not To Tell You Who’s Winning The Rounds”
While DC is only a commentator, he often does present his analysis like a judge scoring rounds. Cormier would clear that up as ‘not doing his job’.
“There’s a lot of times in which we’re calling the fights and we get lost talking about the judging, what we think the scorecards will be and how the fight is going to look at the end. The reality is when we do that, we are not doing our job,” DC continued. “We aren’t. My job is not to tell you who’s winning the rounds.”
“My job is to tell you, how does a fighter get from point A to point B? How do they do this? How do you manage what goes on inside of that octagon from fighter one’s perspective to fighter two’s perspective? How does fighter one get his hand raised?
“What does fighter two need to do in order to not allow that to happen and vice versa. Because the judging has become such a main topic of conversation, now we are spending time discussing that because we are so unsure about what it’s gonna look like at the end of the fight.”
Going Back To School
In the aftermath of UFC Vegas 55, DC says he will go learn more about the criteria of judging and officiating.
“Last night was probably the most clear instance in which I felt like I did not know what I’m watching. I was on the wrong side of two fights that I thought were going in one direction— they didn’t. When we’re on the wrong side of the commentary, our producers are not afraid to tell us, ‘I believe you’re on the wrong side of the commentary, I think this fight is going different than what you’re watching’. And I’m like, oh, well, what am I missing?
“…We’re all going back to school to try to understand what judging and what officiating is supposed to be.”
