The opening fight of UFC 308 bodes poorly for the judging on the rest of the card, as the scorecards handed in by all three judges were decried as incorrect by even the commentary, live on ESPN.
Jon Anik went so far as to say that he might have to Vemo a little something to Carlos Leal tonight because he feels bad.
Rinat took Leal down early a few times but never for long, and Leal was solidly in control of the striking in the latter half of the first round, and the entire second round. Carlos’ punches carried significant power, he landed clean collar-tie knees to counter takedowns, and even on the official stats (https://ufcstats.com/fight-details/6114076c689e8457) he out-struck Fakhretdinov in both rounds.
The fight should have been decided with him winning those two rounds. However, one judge gave Rinat the first, one judge gave him the second, and one – somehow – gave the Russian both rounds where he absorbed way more damage.
All three judges gave Fakhretdinov the third round, in which Leal got tired and slowed down, but the round was still close, and many of the media members gave him the third anyways.
The website MMA Decisions dot com – which aggregates fan scorecards, collects media scores, and displays the official scorecards – showed that not one single media member scored the bout for Rinat Fakhretdinov.
The disparity is too great to ignore, and is clear proof that something is going on with home cooking in Abu Dhabi.
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