“It’s going to be a game changer,” Dana White had said in the lead up to the Noche UFC slated for the iconic ‘Sphere’ at Sin City. However, as days rolled by, issues kept cropping up. First, it was the astronomically high cost of scheduling a fight at the 17,500-seater, $2.3 billion venue. Then there were ticket prices ranging from somewhere from $800 to $5,000 dollars, with many reports stating a whopping price of $23,000. But fans were still hopeful, only to be met with lackluster results.

As Dana White opined everything was “perfect” and “seamless” in a post-event press conference, what he missed talking about was the scoring controversy that took place just hours earlier. Fans and pundits alike have termed the main card between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O’Malley a snooze fest. Well, not because of the fight literally, but because of—as Team Khabib’s Javier Mendez pointed out—the role scoring judges and the referee Herb Dean played in the controversial ordeal.

Despite O’Malley’s initial aggression chasing his opponent in Round 1 and upholding that attitude for the most part, Dvalishvili delivered a clinic. The Georgian’s talent was on full display as he put his opponent on the mat multiple times in the first round itself. In the second round, ‘The Machine’ continued the same tirade until he suddenly walked away, thinking the round was over. This gave Suga a chance to retort back, but Dvalishvili expertly avoided his surprise attack.

Further in the third round, O’Malley roared back with several body shots before his opponent connected a knee to Suga’s head, bringing him down to the canvas. O’Malley got back up only for a second knee to the head. The next rounds seemed like the US fighter’s work rate had considerably diminished with the Georgian looking like be barely broke a sweat! However, Sean O’Malley exhibited a brief flurry of strikes in the last minutes that seemingly put the Georgian in a problematic position. Nevertheless, Dvalishvili won the fight via unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) keeping his 11 fight-win streak alive and kicking, albeit with a twist…

Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s former coach lauded Merab for controlling most of the fight. However, he took issue with the judges, which included Mike Bell, who had created a major controversy in the last Noche UFC when he gave the infamous 10-8 score for Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko in UFC 285. However, Bell didn’t look to repeat like he messed up this time out, as he understandably scored 46-49 in favor of ‘The Machine’. The rest of the two judges, Sal D’amato and Chris Lee, however, triggered Javier Mendez with the 47-48 score.

“The last round, maybe you can give it to Sean [O’Malley]… but the 48-47 two scores on the judges, I got to tell you, they should be fired,” said Javier Mendez on his YouTube podcast. Moreover, if he had been one of the judges, the AKA head coach claims he would have given all the five rounds to Merab Davlishvili. With the exception of the final round, of course, thanks to O’Malley’s brief comeback.

“He [Merab] clearly dominated. To me, [he] dominated all five rounds… If I was going to give it one, I would him [O’Malley] the fifth round… It’s a lot based on the act that he did hurt him with that front kick,” the AKA head coach added. And then there was Herb Dean’s role that left the whole UFC community puzzled!

Joe Rogan was the first to take issue with how Dean seemed to urge Dvalishvili to “work” it: “This is crazy. I do not understand it.” On the other hand, former US MMA fighter Din Thomas blasted the official saying, “It is not the referee’s job to coach the fighter”.

Besides this, a former champion also came unglued about the whole incident.

Dvalishvili’s former opponent Henry Cejudo also took issue with the Sean O’Malley vs Merab Dvalishvili scorecard

There’s certainly no love lost between Sean O’Malley and Henry Cejudo, but that’s not why ‘Triple C’ took issue with the scorecard of ‘Suga’ last title defense. Echoing the same sentiment as Javier Mendez, ‘Triple’ wants the UFC to make these judges be investigated, which is something Dana White also said back when the 10-8 controversy occurred. On the ‘Pond 4 Pound’ podcast, Cejudo said, “These judges; they need to pay for what they do. Where is the accountability on some of these guys?”

The two 47-48 scores are “absolutely ridiculous,” according to Henry Cejudo because he wasn’t sure which round went to Sean O’Malley for these scores to be so close. Despite such outrage about the scorecard, Dana White didn’t mention much about but he did criticize the former champion for his lackluster showing, given the magnitude of the event.

Do you agree with people questioning the scorecard of the UFC 306 main event? Let us know in the comments down below.