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This weekend at the UFC’s latest Fight Night show, controversial judging was again at the forefront of the post-event talking points. Many fans believed that both Michael Johnson and Cortney Casey were robbed of victories by the scorecards.
While the judging in a couple of this weekend’s fights was somewhat questionable, over the years, we’ve seen some far more controversial judges’ decisions in the UFC.
Sometimes, these questionable calls have even left fighters who appeared to have won gold inside the octagon empty-handed, leaving nothing but confusion and frustration for everyone watching.
With this in mind, here are five times that a UFC fighter appeared to have been robbed of a victory by the judges.
#5. Brandon Vera vs. Randy Couture – UFC 105
When the UFC traveled to Manchester, England in November 2009 with a headline bout that pitted the legendary Randy Couture against Brandon Vera – a prospect who hadn’t really lived up to his early hype – it was obvious that the crowd would be behind ‘The Natural’.
Incredibly, though, the controversial judging in this fight ended up swaying the fans entirely. When all was said and done, Couture was showered with boos while Vera left the octagon with a moral win, even if it wasn’t made official.
Many observers expected Couture, the more proven fighter, to simply run through Vera, but that wasn’t the case. Instead, ‘The Truth’ surprised the former champion with his powerful work inside the clinch – usually Couture’s best area – and nullified him in the first round.
In the second, meanwhile, Vera hurt ‘The Natural’ badly with a kick to the body, dropping him momentarily, and clearly dominated all of the exchanges. When he ended the third round by taking Couture down and moving into full mount, it seemed like he’d secured the biggest win of his career.
Instead, though, all three judges inexplicably scored the contest 29-28 for Couture, stunning the live crowd, who quickly turned on ‘The Natural’, all while a crestfallen Vera sat on the steps of the octagon, shaking his head in disbelief.
Quite how anyone could’ve considered Couture the winner in this bout was anyone’s guess. Vera’s career with the promotion never really recovered after he was essentially robbed of his greatest win. He won just one more fight in the octagon before departing in 2013.
#4. Kevin Randleman vs. Bas Rutten – UFC 20
Back in the UFC’s early days, even before the idea of five-minute rounds was implemented, the promotion used a simple way for the judges to score its fights. At the end of a bout – which, by 1999, could last a maximum of 21 minutes – the judges would simply score the fight as a whole and declare who they thought the winner was.
Modern fans who dislike the current ten-point must system would probably believe that this method would produce fewer controversial calls. However, fans who remember UFC 20’s heavyweight title fight between Bas Rutten and Kevin Randleman would probably disagree.
That’s because the judges somehow made a call that was such a head-scratcher that it’s still talked about to this day as one of the biggest robberies in the promotion’s history, well over two decades later.
A clash pitting a striker in Rutten against an almost pure grappler in Randleman, all of the hype coming in seemed to be around ‘El Guapo’. However, despite his skill on the feet, the Dutchman seemingly had no answer to the takedowns of ‘The Monster’.
Although he could not finish Rutten, Randleman took him down on multiple occasions, and on the ground, beat him down with punches and elbows. Sure, ‘El Guapo’ landed some elbows from his back, cutting Randleman’s head open, but they shouldn’t have been enough to secure a win.
Bizarrely, though, when the fight ended after an initial 15-minute round and two three-minute periods of overtime, the judges decided that Rutten had done enough to warrant a victory, baffling the crowd and viewers at home alike.
Conspiracy theories soon abounded, suggesting that the UFC had put so much of their promotional muscle behind ‘El Guapo’ that they couldn’t afford to have him lose, but nothing was ever proven. Instead, the promotion’s very next event saw the introduction of the current ten-point must system – suggesting that instead, Randleman was robbed by basic incompetence.
#3. Tyron Woodley vs. Jake Shields – UFC 161
When future UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley debuted in the octagon and took out Jay Hieron in genuinely brutal fashion, it felt like a star had been born.
It made sense, then, that the promotion looked to push him into contention immediately by matching him with former title challenger Jake Shields in his second bout. Given that Shields had been on a slide of sorts at the time, few fans believed he could find a way past ‘The Chosen One’.
Sure enough, even though Woodley was unable to take out Shields in the same way that he’d done to Hieron, it looked like he was well on his way to a victory once the final buzzer sounded.
The fight was a relatively dull one, but all of the big moments belonged to Woodley, including a big leg kick that dropped Shields in the opening round and a spinning backfist that left him on rubbery legs in the third.
Given that Woodley also blocked all of Shields’ takedown attempts, it seemed clear that ‘The Chosen One’ was going to pick up the win. Instead, two of the judges somehow scored the bout 29-28 for Shields, with the dissenting official correctly going 30-27 for Woodley.
Quite how anyone could’ve scored the bout for Shields was anyone’s guess, particularly when it was revealed that Woodley had landed 63% of his significant strikes as compared to 38% for the former StrikeForce champion.
In the end, the loss didn’t derail Woodley too badly, but it definitely stands as an example of a fighter who was completely robbed by an inexplicable judging call.
#2. Ross Pearson vs. Diego Sanchez – UFC Fight Night 42
When Ross Pearson traveled to Albuquerque, New Mexico in the summer of 2014 to take on the city’s most well-regarded fighter, Diego Sanchez, some observers could’ve forgiven ‘The Real Deal’ for worrying about a hometown bias in favor of ‘The Nightmare’.
However, given that Sanchez had begun to look a little past his prime by the time the fight came around, and had only won one of his previous four bouts, Pearson seemed largely confident in his skills.
Sure enough, the British fighter seemed to be coasting through the majority of the fight. He simply avoided Sanchez’s wild striking attacks and landed cleaner counters, dropping ‘The Nightmare’ badly in the second round, although Sanchez did recover quickly.
The third round saw Sanchez draw Pearson into some more reckless striking exchanges. By the time the fight ended, he was a bloody mess while ‘The Real Deal’ barely had a mark on him. The judges, it seemed, would only be able to go one way.
Incredibly, though, while one judge scored the bout 30-27 for Pearson, the other two bizarrely sided with Sanchez – one even giving him all three rounds – to hand him a split decision victory.
The decision was instantly labeled as one of the worst in UFC history, and the stats – which showed Pearson landed 51 significant strikes to Sanchez’s 33, as well as completing the only takedown of the fight – seemed to back that feeling up.
Whether there was some 'home cooking' going on here remains a mystery, but it’s safe to say that Pearson was robbed of what would’ve been a big victory for him.
#1. Shogun Rua vs. Lyoto Machida – UFC 104
Perhaps the worst example of a UFC fighter being robbed of a victory by the judges remains Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, who somehow walked away without the light-heavyweight title around his waist following his battle with Lyoto Machida in October 2009.
Coming into the bout, it felt like Shogun – who many fans believed was past his best following a string of injuries – was being overlooked. After all, his only UFC wins had come over Mark Coleman and an aging Chuck Liddell, while Machida had destroyed everyone he’d faced, including Rashad Evans in their title bout, and was 16-0 overall.
More to the point, nobody at that stage had figured out quite how to deal with the karate techniques deployed by ‘The Dragon’, namely exactly how to hit a target who never seemed to be static for a second.
Incredibly, though, Shogun managed to work out how to solve the riddle. Rather than attempt to hit Machida in the head, he instead focused purely on hitting him with kicks and knees to the body and legs.
The approach broke down ‘The Dragon’ and hampered his movement, allowing Shogun to seemingly land the most telling blows throughout the fight. Despite everyone from the fans to Dana White believing the former PRIDE champion had won, though, the judges all scored the bout 48-47 for Machida.
The majority of people were baffled by the call, firmly believing that Shogun had been robbed – particularly when judge Cecil Peoples then took to social media to argue that leg kicks didn’t win fights.
Unsurprisingly, the UFC booked an immediate rematch between the two men. Taking White’s mantra about never leaving a fight in the hands of the judges to heart, Shogun left nothing to chance – knocking Machida out in the opening round to claim the title.
