Krause Frustrated At Conflict Of Interest
James Krause was not pleased to learn that one of the judges who scored his fight to Trevin Giles had a connection with his opponent.
Krause stepped in on a day’s notice to take on Giles in a middleweight contest at UFC 247 earlier this month. In a fight that went back-and-forth, it was Giles who ended up earning the split decision win.
That would have been fine if not for judge Joe Soliz’s scorecard. Krause had a dominant first round with two out of three judges scoring it to him. Soliz, meanwhile, scored the first round to Giles.
Had he given it the other way, Krause would have earned the split decision victory. And after learning that Soliz actually trained at the same gym as Giles and received a black belt from his coach (via TSN), Krause reacted promptly:
“If this isn’t the most frustrating sh*t for me in the world I don’t know what… how is this not a conflict of interest? Training at someone’s gym for 10+ years and receiving a black belt from the coach corner[ing] my opponent. I no way am I mad I lost the fight, it was close. 1 was mine, 2 was his, and 3 was a toss up. But round 3 was given to me on 2/3 cards. It was round 1 they scored for him. After a take down and almost 4 minutes of back control, not to mention almost finishing the RNC, I don’t know how they would give that round to him.
“This sport has been around for too long to not start making changes. I know the Texas State Athletic Commission wont do a damn thing about my fight. They never do but I hope the @ufc, @danawhite, and the state commissions can come together to actually make the judging for OUR sport, not boxing and hold the people doing these jobs accountable. This is a disgrace to our sport. Not just my fight but multiple examples of incompetence from the same judge. So frustrated to even read this sh*t… and remember I lost half my purse because of this guy.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B8ukPTYHzBP/
That wasn’t the only controversial scorecard on the night for Soliz, as he also gave Jon Jones four rounds in his closely-contested light heavyweight title fight with Dominick Reyes.
Given everything that happened, it might be a while before Soliz gets to judge another UFC event in Texas.
