“It’s Baffling, It’s Backwards, It’s Insane” – MMA Reporter Ariel Helwani Lashes Out at the UFC Judges

The UFC judges’ right to decide the winner if the fight continues after the maximum number of rounds has now became a controversial affair. The MMA fighters and fans are often not happy with the decisions of some judges. They believe that some judges are biased, and the deserving fighter ends up losing the bout. The topic has been hotly debated for a long time. However, the issue became a major concern ever since the victory of Paddy Pimblett. The Baddy’s win over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 was considered one of the worst scorecards in UFC history. According to fans, the bout was close; however, it was not Pimblett who was dominating the entire fight.

The debate, however, continued to the present year as well. At the moment, the topic of debate is catching the mainstream’s attention. The MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani, has addressed the issue. He brought up the matter after the controversial scorecard put forward by a judge at UFC on ESPN 43.

The topic of debate

The rights given to the MMA judges were widely criticized after UFC 43 on ESPN. One of the judges, Joel Odeja, was called out for his biased scoring against some of the fighters. The scorecards of the bout between Andrea Lee and Maycee Barber highly disturbed the MMA world. Both fighters came face-to-face in the women’s flyweight division, and Barber won the fight via split decision. Followed by this, Judge Ojeda scored 48-47 in favor of Marlon Vera, while the rest scored in favor of Cory Sandhagen who the majority of viewers felt completely dominated the fight.

In light of this incident, MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani said that the decisions of the judges should be explained. He felt that that could make the judges give points without being partial. However, he states that the current practice is not ideal, where a judge can give any score to a fighter and get away with it.

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Helwani pointed out, “Even in the NFL and the NBA… They put out a statement and there’s a Twitter account where they review the last two minutes in the NBA. In those sports, the judges and referees don’t even determine the winner. In this sport, they do.”

Helwani asks the judges to take accountability

Talking on the same topic Helwani said, “You don’t hear from them, you don’t know what they look like or sound like, you get no explanation, no statement,” Helwani continued. “It’s baffling, it’s backwards, it’s insane, if you ask me. Every event, let one journalist go and talk to them… Put those quotes out… Do something! We get nothing. It’s unbelievable. It’s shocking that they can just get off with potentially ruining people’s careers.” The Canadian reporter pointed out how decisions can ruin the lives of fighters. What do you think about the issue? Do judges have to be held accountable for their actions?

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