UFC Kansas City card kicks off with controversial judging, leaves fighters and fans enraged

The UFC's return to Kansas City, Missouri after nearly four years away was marred by controversial judging. The fight in question was the women's bantamweight clash between Joselyne Edwards and Lucie Pudilova.

Edwards and Pudilova set the tone for an action-packed event at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Edwards prevailed in the early exchanges of an energetic start to her bout against Pudilova. The Czech bantamweight contender attempted a takedown, which Edwards countered with a knee to the body in the clinch.

She created enough space to drill a takedown and quickly transitioned into half-guard. Later in the round, Pudilova had the opportunity to take Edwards' back and threaten her with some submission attempts. However, 'La Pantera' scrambled out of the dangerous position and regained control.

The subsequent rounds progressed similarly, with Lucie Pudilova's finding more success with her takedown attempts. Joselyne Edwards spent the majority of the fight defending her opponent's submission attempts. Despite this, Edwards won the fight by split decision, which shocked the MMA community.

Fight fans were fuming that debutant UFC judge Henry Guery was the only one who according to them got the scorecards right. They swarmed to Twitter to lash out at the judges who scored the fight in favor of Edwards. Former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier, who also served as a commentator, responded to the scorecards with the following comment:

"That’s really bad! What a bad start to the night with Judging. Holy sh*t."

Another fan wrote:

"Wow that was piss poor judging. @lucie_pudilova won that clearly. Horrible way to start the night Kansas judges… horrible."

Yet another fan alleged that the judges were bribed:

"Those judges are definitely paid by someone not with the #UFC"

Check out some of the tweets below:

---

Joselyne Edwards claims she wasn't surprised by the decision despite controversial UFC judging

The clash between Joselyne Edwards and Lucie Pudilova went to the judges' scorecards on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. Edwards won a split decision after spending the majority of the three rounds defending against Pudilova's submission attempts.

Before the verdict was announced, UFC commentator Daniel Cormier, much like other MMA fans, expected Pudilova to get her hand raised. However, the decision shocked everyone, as Edwards eked out a close split-decision victory.

While fans have been citing robbery, Joselyne Edwards remains confident that the judges made the right decision. Speaking in the post-fight press conference, she said:

"The amount of time I have spent watching and experiencing MMA, at this point nothing surprises me. She did get the takedown but being on top means nothing. She did work [for some submissions] but she was missing more in order to get the victory."

Catch Edwards' comments below: