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The UFC Fight Night that went down on June 3 saw flyweights Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi throw down in what is surely going to go down as one of the most controversial fights of the year.
The bout was fairly competitive and nothing out of the ordinary happened in the cage. The controversy came from the scorecards, which, to many fans, media members and fighters, were incorrect.
After a competitive fight, Albazi was given the nod over Kara-France on two of the judges' scorecards. The statistics, however, tell a different story. Kai Kara-France nearly doubled Albazi in strikes landed, and even secured more takedowns. Albazi did have more than six minutes of control time, but did little to threaten Kara-France on the ground. In terms of damage done, the fighter from New Zealand appeared to be ahead compared to Albazi.
Despite the statistics being in favour of Kara-France, fights are scored round-by-round. Judge Chris Lee awarded round 4 to Amir Albazi, which many argue should have been given to Kai Kara-France.
This prompted many to call out the judges for getting it completely wrong. Kai Kara-France's teammate, middleweight champion Israel Adesanya took to his YouTube to react to the decision.
'The Last Stylebender' said:
"They rob you of your moment. They rob you, not just of your money, but of your moment. Like, money comes and goes but moments man...they rob you of the moment. I mean what the f**k is this. It wasn't even close. I mean, he got close with a submission attempt but he (Kai Kara-France) got out of it. And then he f**ked him up."
Check out the clip here:
Kai-Kara France calls out UFC judges, fighters and fans join in
After the fight, Kai Kara-France was outraged with the decision and took to Twitter to express his anger. He tweeted:
"Who’s worse UFC judges or NRL Refs?"
His teammate, Israel Adesanya pinned the tweet, and also joined in. Alongside a picture of the scorecards, he tweeted:
"I tweeted that before even seeing the scorecards because I knew them two will f**k it up!! Hoooow many times will they rob athletes of their moments of glory, if their money, their livelihood for their family. F**k them c***s, they need to expire quickly and go. Mike Bell was the only judge to score this properly, the other two deff need to disappear."
This further brings to attention the issue around judging in the sport of MMA. With this decision being far from the only controversial one, it's clear that more stringent regulations around judges are required.
