The word ‘robbery’ is often thrown around in MMA and combat sports, and this time it seems to have taken place at UFC Denver from the fans’ perspective. The welterweight clash between Santiago Ponzinibbio and Muslim Salikhov ended up with a win for the latter. However, fans believe that the judges did the Argentine wrong.

Muslim Salikhov and Santiago Ponzinibbio put on a striking masterclass, something that Dominick Cruz, who was on commentary, claimed about their fight. But in the end, the Russian fighter edged past his Argentine counterpart with a split-decision win 29-28, 28-29, 29-28. This appeared to confuse the netizens who were watching UFC Denver at home.

Although Santiago Ponzinibbio and Mulsim Salikhov engaged in a striking competition, the Argentine was successful in landing two important takedowns out of the five he attempted on the Russian fighter. But for the judges, it wasn’t enough to make him the victor of that contest.

The ‘Argentine Dagger’ has now lost 4 of his last five fights. This could push Santiago Ponzinibbio down the pecking order in the division. But this recent loss did not go down well with the fans because they believe that he should have been the winner at UFC Denver.

Fans claim Santiago Ponzinibbio got “robbed” at UFC Denver

There were a few discussions about the result of the Santiago Ponzinibbio vs Muslim Salikhov fight, and as such, a UFC fan, with username ‘@WonderbreadMMA’ wanted to know what other people thought as he tweeted, “Ponzi kinda got robbed yeah?” It appeared that fans indeed believed that Santiago Ponzinibbio was robbed, with one fan tweeting, “Ponz robbed.” Some fans also sounded off on the broadcast team who kept highlighting that Muslim Salikhov was a 40-year-old when the fight was going on. “Much being made of Salikhov being 40, but Ponzi is 37. Lost so much time to injury/illness,” MMA outlet ‘Cageside Press’ tweeted.

The scorecard of the fight appeared to annoy certain fans, who sounded off on a judge for not scoring the final round in favor of Santiago Ponzinibbio. An X user, in a surprising tone, claimed, “How did Eric Colon score the fight overall for Ponzinibbio but not give him round 3 lol? what fight was he even watching?” However, that wasn’t it because some fans pointed out Muslim Salikhov’s wounds after the fight ended. That, they believe, should have warranted a win for the ‘Argentine Dagger’. “How he win the first ufc judge the worst just look at his eye after the first round lol,” a fan commented.

Some fans, despite Santiago Ponzinibbio’s performance, believe that it was not just his day in Denver. They believe that he should think about retiring now that he’s 37 years old. “Ponzinibbio should probably retire,” X account with username ‘@thefightbubble’ tweeted. Additionally, fans kept expressing their discontentment with the UFC judges, who they believe never watch the fights. “chris lee again… this guy not watching the fight again,” the fan added.

Scorecard errors aren’t a novelty in the UFC. Recently, Sean Strickland had bashed the judges for their wrong scorecard after Chris Curtis‘s loss to Brendan Allen in April. But what’s next for Santiago Ponzinibbio? Well, we’ll have to wait for UFC’s announcements regarding him before making any assumptions about his future. Nevertheless, what do you think of the fight’s scorecard?