Controversial Decisions: ufc 310
Well, it wouldn’t be a UFC PPV without at least one controversial decision. This weekend, the UFC rounded out their 2024 PPV schedule with UFC 310. On the whole, the card was very entertaining. Kennedy Nzechukwu opened the early prelims with a beautiful R1 KO victory over Lukasz Brzeski and Alexandre Pantoja brought the main card to an end by putting Kai Asakura to sleep via RNC in R2. Between the bookends, we saw a more mature Chase Hooper submit wiley UFC vet Clay Guida, Evloev and Aljo put on an mma grappling masterclass, Choi Doo-ho throw hands like a professional boxer, Bryce Mitchell teach Kron Gracie a hard lesson about jumping guard in mma, and of course, a horrible judging decision.
Of the 14 fights, 9 had finishes and 5 went to the judge’s scorecards for decisions. While there were some rumblings online over the outcome of the Evloev/Sterling fight, I won’t include it here as a “controversial” decision - both fighters looked great and the grappling exchanges were top notch. This was a technical fight and I really think it could have gone either way. There is also room for some discussion about the Battle/Brown decision, which Dana pointed out in his post-fight press conference. But the real doozy of the night was the split-decision nod to Ciryl Gane over Alexander Volkov.
Volkov gets robbed
While watching the fight live, I thought R1 was a clear 10-9 for Gane. Although Volkov opened with an early takedown, Gane wrestled up quickly, scored a takedown of his own, and was able to close the round with Volkov locked in what seemed to be a pretty deep guillotine (should be noted too that Gane had a blatant fence grab in R1, for which he received a warning).
In R2, Volkov came out much more aggressively and wobbled Gane with a spinning backfist early in the round. Although Gane managed to land several shots and score a takedown in the final 90 seconds of the round, the volume and damage done by Volkov gave him the clear advantage on my card. 19-19 after two.
In R3, Volkov shot a single leg, but Gane turned the corner on him and ended up in half guard, hunting a kimura. They stayed in this half guard position for the remainder of the fight, with Volkov in top position, landing low-damage, short-range shots and accumulating control time. R3 was a clear 10-9 for Volkov. On my card, it’s 29-28 Volkov.
Unfortunately for Volkov, only one of the three judges agreed with me. Ciryl Gane ended up getting the win via split-decision:
Loud booing came from the crowd immediately. Gane, looking as confused as Volkov, actually exited the cage but was escorted back in for his octagon interview with Rogan. The boos continued throughout the interview. Gane, standing on what he said was a broken foot, finished his interview with Rogan by saying “I’m not happy about this fight. I got the win but I am not happy.”
In a video released by ESPN MMA (@espnmma), Dana White can be heard in the octagon telling Volkov, “you got f***ed…that’s horrible.” Although we didn’t get an octagon interview with Volkov, we did get his thoughts in the post-fight press conference.
Volkov began his post-fight presser by saying, “I am absolutely sure I won this fight. I did much more than Gane.”
When told by a reporter how the judges scored each round, Volkov responded: “my coaches said the first round was close, but I was more active and I had more pressure on him. For sure I got the second round and the third round. I did more damage to him, for sure.”
When told specifically that Adalaide Byrd - who collects controversial decisions like they’re rare trading cards (in both boxing and mma) - had been one of the judges to give the fight to Gane, Volkov responded: “I don’t understand how a person who is not professionally learned in this sport can either not be requalified to judge the sport or be f***ing fired.”
As alluded to above, this is not the first time that Adalaide Byrd has been involved in a controversial decision. One in particular was her 118-110 scorecard in the 2017 Canelo Alverez vs Gennady Golovkin fight.
Dana also reiterated that he thought Volkov had won the fight in his post-fight presser. MMA Decisions had 19 of 20 media members scoring the fight in favor of Volkov.
Decisions like these are a clear indicator that something needs to change about judging in MMA. We’re working on a new solution. Stay tuned.
UFC on ESPN: Covington vs Buckley
The UFC is back next weekend with their final card of the year. The main event features a Welterweight showdown between Colby Covington and Joaquin Buckley. This will be Covington’s first appearance in the Octagon since December 16, 2023, where he lost a unanimous decision to Leon Edwards. This also marks the 5th consecutive year that Covington has only entered the Octagon once. Featherweights Cub Swanson and Billy Quarantillo are set to square off in the co-main event.
Written by Daniel Kuhman