Issue 161
December 2017
If everything was just, fair and right in the world of MMA, the worthy person would have their hand raised after every fight. However, sometimes the officials get it badly wrong...
HOME COOKING
Pearson vs Sanchez, UFC Fight Night 42
When fighters compete in their opponent’s backyard, there’s often a suspicion they won’t get a fair shake from the judges. But when Ross Pearson fought Diego Sanchez at UFC Fight Night 42 in Albuquerque, he outstruck him in every round, knocked him down, bloodied him up and scored the only takedown. He should have been OK…
“I f**king hate taking it to the judges’ decision because I never know,” ‘The Real Deal’ tells FO. “I’m not a fighter who scores the rounds as I’m fighting. If I haven’t knocked the guy out, I don’t think about that because I’m so involved in the fight. At the end of the bout, I look at my corner. If I get the look from Eric Del Fierro (head coach), or he’s jumping around saying I smashed that, I’ve won. If he shrugs his shoulders it’s like, ‘Oh s**t’. Then you never know".
But with the Sanchez fight, he said, ‘100%, you smashed it, you won every round clearly, you dropped him three times, you got takedowns, it was a dominant performance.’ Sweet. I was pretty confident. I remember standing there waiting for Bruce Buffer to announce my win and I didn’t even realize we were in his home state of New Mexico. When I walked out and they’d announced Diego as the winner, everyone was saying that even though he was from there, I’d won.
“Backstage, I was asking, ‘I did win, right?’ I smashed him! The more time that passed after the fight, I thought, ‘Yeah, I smashed that guy!’ Back then, Burt Watson was working with the UFC, so we told him we wanted to speak to the commission right away. “Everyone backstage said I won that fight.
Everyone was just like, ‘What the f**k?’. Guys I’d never met, guys from different gyms. We had to do something. We filed a report and asked for the decision to be overturned. Where has he dominated me to win a round? It’s crazy.
“Dana White said it was such a ridiculous call, it was the worst he’d ever seen, so the UFC actually sent out my win bonus. I was obviously thankful for that, but the result still didn’t get overturned.
“It’s kind of part of my career now. Everyone has seen it, looks back on it and talks about it and everyone wanted to see Ross Pearson vs. Diego Sanchez 2. I get that tweet every day. I wanted the fight for a while, but I’ve kind of just dealt with it now. I thought I won the fight and I don’t look at my record every day and cry to myself about how my record would look so much better.
“Records are for DJs: I’m an MMA fighter. I win some, I lose some, but I always get back up and go and fight again. That’s just the type of person that I am.”
ROBBERY REDEEMED
Garcia vs Phan, TUF 12
Leonard Garcia had a bad reputation for being the poster boy for gift decisions. That was slightly unfair on ‘Bad Boy’, who didn’t turn in the scorecards himself, but his 2010 campaign was remarkable for the way he earned the judges’ favor. First, his hand was undeservedly raised against ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung, but at least he was competitive in that fight. The call to award him a ‘win’ over Nam Phan in the Leonard Garcia had a bad reputation for being the poster boy for gift decisions. That was slightly unfair on ‘Bad Boy’, who didn’t turn in the scorecards himself, but his 2010 campaign was remarkable for the way he earned the judges’ favor. First, his hand was undeservedly raised against ‘The Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung, but at least he was competitive in that fight. The call to award him a ‘win’ over Nam Phan in the TUF 12 Finale was one of the most egregious ever seen.
“I thought I totally dominated,” says Phan. “You saw the fight, I got the win, easy. I was very happy, I already had my hands up and then the judges scored it a split-decision, I was like, ‘What the heck? How is it split?’ Then one went to Leonard Garcia, ‘What the heck?’ One goes to me, ‘Yay!’ And then Leonard Garcia again and I was in disbelief. Oh my god, how did this happen? In my humble opinion, I totally thought I got every round handily. Not even a question.
“Dana White came up to me after the fight and gave me my win bonus. That helped, but I still got a loss on my record. Money helps pay bills – and I got Fight of the Night. But I think five, maybe 10 more years from now, people are going to go to Sherdog and look at the record and see I lost, and that makes a difference.”
The difference between this and Pearson’s robbery is that Phan was able to put things right in the Octagon 10 months later at UFC 136. Fans expected another three-round domination, but things are never that simple in MMA.
“I try to let things go, but I always definitely wanted to get that rematch. I have a lot of losses, but that one I definitely won, so I wanted it and they ended up giving it to me. The UFC definitely wanted the rematch. There was a good storyline to it.
“I was trying so hard to knock him out. I didn’t want to get robbed again. That would suck! In the second fight, I was a lot calmer and I thought about a lot more quick punches, high volume, with more punches on him and then try and hurt him later. But I tried to finish him the whole time. I just kept looking for the body shot or the hard head shot, but he could take it.
“In the third round, he almost knocked me out. He knocked me down and I was like, ‘Oh crap!’ My hands were up but he got right beneath my elbow. I fell and tried to get up right away, but he was on me.
“He was barraging me, punching me and a couple of times he hit me hard. A couple more times the punches got in, I thought if he hit me one more time, I’d probably get knocked out, so I grabbed him. The last time I’d dominated him even worse than this time, but he got a knockdown so I thought, ‘Oh man, what’s going to happen now?’ But this time I got the unanimous decision. I was so happy. I dropped to my knees and was like, ‘Thank god!’ Somebody loves me up there!”
It was such a close call, Phan had absolutely no desire to have a rubber match to complete the trilogy. “After the fight, I was talking to him and he’s a cool guy, but I didn’t want to leave it to incompetent judges. He’s one of the hardest guys I’ve tried to put away. For me, if any doubters thought I lost, the rematch secured it.”
WHAT WAS HE THINKING?
Baroni vs Tanner, UFC 45
Phil Baroni was seconds from finishing the late Evan Tanner after a barrage of punches when referee Larry Landless made his first mistake of the evening at UFC 45.
“I had him knocked out and the referee stopped it for a cut,” remembers the New Yorker. “The f**king idiot. I had the guy on queer street, knocked out, and they stopped it for a cut. Oh my God.”
That horrible call allowed the future UFC 185lb champion to recover and work his way back into the fight and put Baroni in trouble. Not enough trouble to end the fight, but that’s not the way things went down.
“It’s f**king Evan Tanner,” Baroni explains. “He’s a f**king monster. If he gets you down he’s going to get you in the mount. So what? So f**king what? Who gives a f**k? I’m the ‘New York Bad Ass,’ I don’t give a f**k. I was mounted by three chicks the night before and nobody stopped that!
“Some f**king guy mounting me and throwing down elbows, and I’m blocking them, means f**k all. The referee asks me, ‘Do you want out?’ Why the f**k would he even ask me that? Why the f**k would I want out? I would never want out. I would never tap. I would never give up. You should know who the f**k you’re reffing, motherf**ker.
“I don’t ever f**king tap out or want out. Don’t f**king ask me. This motherf**ker is asking me if I want out and I’m telling him, ‘No, no, no.’ ‘You OK?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘You give up?’ ‘No.’ ‘You want out?’ ‘No.’ He asked me a million questions while I’m trying to block elbows from Evan f**king Tanner. The next thing I know he’s stopped the fight and Evan Tanner is getting up and he can’t breathe. Larry Landless is trying to hold me down and I’m getting up and am like, motherf**ker, I did not f**king give up!“
He put his knee on my belly to hold me there. As soon as he did that I punched him in his f**king face from my back three times. I said, ‘Get the f**k off me motherf**ker!’ You ain’t holding me down. That was the craziest fight ever. That was the biggest bulls**t robbery of all time. Evan Tanner goes on to be the UFC champion, and it’s my f**king belt.
“He knows he lost. He knows this f**king guy hits hard. I told him right to his face, you know you f**king lost. You didn’t f**king beat me. I walked the f**k out of there, but Evan Tanner is a legend and it’s part of history.”
I DIDN’T TAP!
Dober vs Silva, UFC Fight Night 62
At UFC Fight Night 62 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Drew Dober got stuck in Leandro Silva’s guillotine choke. It was tight, but he was in no danger. Referee Eduardo Herdy, however, saw things differently.
“I could hear exactly what was being said. It might have been in Portuguese, but the referee was talking to my opponent as we were fighting,” says Dober. “I was confused and didn’t know why he would even be talking to him during the fight. There was no need for it. In the submission, I was just continuing to improve position. The next thing I noticed was his hand gesture, calling off the fight. That’s when I threw my little fit.
“I didn’t know why it happened, then I started to wonder how it happened. The thought didn’t even cross my mind. There was no tunnel vision, I wasn’t in danger, I didn’t pass out and I didn’t tap – nothing – and the ref just called off the fight. I was confused.
“When I got back to the locker room, everyone’s phones were blowing up. I got tons of support and tons of love. Everyone from Dana White and other UFC staff members who I’d never heard of, to other fighters like Miesha Tate, Bryan Caraway, Kenny Florian – the list goes on. I felt like I should have been very disappointed, but then to see all these other people just as disappointed lightened the mood for me.
“Dana White even called me into his office. That was one thing that I did not expect. He told me that he thought I tapped and that he didn’t know why I even fight in the UFC, then told me he was kidding around! He said the decision and stoppage was complete BS and that he was going to compensate me as if I’d won and would do everything he can to get the fight overturned. That showed me how much the UFC and Dana have the fighters’ backs.”
Though Dober was hung out to dry by a horrific refereeing call, the Brazilian MMA Athletic Commission later overturned the result to a no contest after Herdy admitted his mistake.
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