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Chael Sonnen has suggested that the judges went against a combat sports “industry standard” by scoring the UFC 284 main event in favor of Islam Makhachev.
Following this past weekend’s event, Makhachev is heading back to Dagestan with the longest active UFC win streak on his record. The Russian added a 12th victory to his lengthy run in Perth, but it didn’t come in the fashion many had predicted.
Having won the gold last October, Makhachev made his first defense in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, and his reign certainly appeared to be on shaky legs at points of his bout with featherweight king and Australia’s own Alexander Volkanovski.
Ultimately, though, Makhachev escaped with his place on the throne still intact thanks to three scorecards in his favor, much to the fury of the pro-Volkanovski crowd in attendance at the RAC Arena.
But according to one former two-division title challenger, had the three judges sat cageside for the UFC 284 headliner followed an unspoken ‘industry protocol’, the fans present would have witnessed the latest two-division title crowning.
Sonnen: ‘Judges Didn’t Show Courage By Giving It To Makhachev’
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen provided his immediate reaction to the events that concluded UFC 284.
Perhaps for the first time this year, the headliner marked a bout that has split opinion regarding the result. While just six of 29 media members scored the fight in favor of Volkanovski on MMA Decisions, the landscape was a lot closer in the fan vote, which saw 46.2% of just under 3,000 submitted scorecards going against Makhachev.
Given the competitive nature of the contest, Sonnen appeared surprised that the judges didn’t lean towards the hometown side, noting that they’d have been following “industry standard” if they had.
“I gotta tell you, I’m not being completely sincere within this, but it is a conversation… I am saying this with some tongue in cheek, but not completely,” Sonnen began. “Every single industry has something called ‘a standard of the industry’. … You have a home-court advantage. That means, if you’re the guy from home and the judges have an opportunity to stick it up the other guy’s ass, including unjustly, they will… Did you watch those Olympics, took place in Tokyo? You had more Japanese medalists than you had in 100 years… It’s the way it works.
“I’m not positive that (the judges) got it right, but I don’t really live in that world that comes in and questions judges… I don’t begrudge your decision, that you saw Islam won.
“What I begrudge is the lack of courage that you showed by giving Islam the fight and not doing what we have an industry standard of doing and giving it to the hometown guy, the hometown guy who was undersized, who was the only one who had any interest there tonight, who had all of the crowd and the momentum going… who was a three-to-one underdog,” Sonnen added. “You give it to the guy. That is what the standard of our industry says.”
Beyond just the lack of bias for the home side, “The American Gangster” also questioned how the judges perceived some of the grappling exchanges, specifically the sequence that saw Volkanovski throwing punches while Makhachev controlled his back.
“You can disagree with me. You’d be on the right side to disagree with me. But I will stand by the point nonetheless,” Sonnen stated. “How do you possibly have a fight that was supposed to be a one-sided ass-kicking and ends up being a back-and-forth battle and you don’t give it to Volkanovski?
“Two minutes of the fourth round, might have been the third, Islam’s on the back of Volkanovski… Great, that looks like a good start to a position… That’s it,” Sonnen continued. “His face was getting peppered by Volk… I would think (that) when scoring an ass-whooping contest, you’d care about which guy made a fist and rammed it into the other guy’s face… Islam letting the choke go and starting to do the hits is the admission… The judges gave him that round. How?”
With that in mind, Sonnen branded the three judges responsible for awarding Makhachev a first successful defense “cowards,” especially given the circumstances and lopsided odds that Volkanovski competed against.
“How are you going to be a judge, within combat… you’e going to go to (Australia), that’s sold out for one guy who’s a three-to-one dog, oh, by the way he’s outsized, surprises everybody, wins rounds, wins moments, wins scrambles, and you don’t give him the fight?” Sonnen asked.
“You didn’t show courage by going out there and doing the right thing, seeing through that bias… You took a standard that we have… and you did not give him the fight. You re a coward, all three of you.”
What do you make of Chael Sonnen’s comments about the Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski scorecards?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Chael Sonnen has suggested that the judges went against a combat sports “industry standard” by scoring the UFC 284 main event in favor of Islam Makhachev.
Following this past weekend’s event, Makhachev is heading back to Dagestan with the longest active UFC win streak on his record. The Russian added a 12th victory to his lengthy run in Perth, but it didn’t come in the fashion many had predicted.
Having won the gold last October, Makhachev made his first defense in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, and his reign certainly appeared to be on shaky legs at points of his bout with featherweight king and Australia’s own Alexander Volkanovski.
Ultimately, though, Makhachev escaped with his place on the throne still intact thanks to three scorecards in his favor, much to the fury of the pro-Volkanovski crowd in attendance at the RAC Arena.
But according to one former two-division title challenger, had the three judges sat cageside for the UFC 284 headliner followed an unspoken ‘industry protocol’, the fans present would have witnessed the latest two-division title crowning.
Sonnen: ‘Judges Didn’t Show Courage By Giving It To Makhachev’
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen provided his immediate reaction to the events that concluded UFC 284.
Perhaps for the first time this year, the headliner marked a bout that has split opinion regarding the result. While just six of 29 media members scored the fight in favor of Volkanovski on MMA Decisions, the landscape was a lot closer in the fan vote, which saw 46.2% of just under 3,000 submitted scorecards going against Makhachev.
Given the competitive nature of the contest, Sonnen appeared surprised that the judges didn’t lean towards the hometown side, noting that they’d have been following “industry standard” if they had.
“I gotta tell you, I’m not being completely sincere within this, but it is a conversation… I am saying this with some tongue in cheek, but not completely,” Sonnen began. “Every single industry has something called ‘a standard of the industry’. … You have a home-court advantage. That means, if you’re the guy from home and the judges have an opportunity to stick it up the other guy’s ass, including unjustly, they will… Did you watch those Olympics, took place in Tokyo? You had more Japanese medalists than you had in 100 years… It’s the way it works.
“I’m not positive that (the judges) got it right, but I don’t really live in that world that comes in and questions judges… I don’t begrudge your decision, that you saw Islam won.
“What I begrudge is the lack of courage that you showed by giving Islam the fight and not doing what we have an industry standard of doing and giving it to the hometown guy, the hometown guy who was undersized, who was the only one who had any interest there tonight, who had all of the crowd and the momentum going… who was a three-to-one underdog,” Sonnen added. “You give it to the guy. That is what the standard of our industry says.”
[/quote]
Beyond just the lack of bias for the home side, “The American Gangster” also questioned how the judges perceived some of the grappling exchanges, specifically the sequence that saw Volkanovski throwing punches while Makhachev controlled his back.
“You can disagree with me. You’d be on the right side to disagree with me. But I will stand by the point nonetheless,” Sonnen stated. “How do you possibly have a fight that was supposed to be a one-sided ass-kicking and ends up being a back-and-forth battle and you don’t give it to Volkanovski?
“Two minutes of the fourth round, might have been the third, Islam’s on the back of Volkanovski… Great, that looks like a good start to a position… That’s it,” Sonnen continued. “His face was getting peppered by Volk… I would think (that) when scoring an ass-whooping contest, you’d care about which guy made a fist and rammed it into the other guy’s face… Islam letting the choke go and starting to do the hits is the admission… The judges gave him that round. How?”
With that in mind, Sonnen branded the three judges responsible for awarding Makhachev a first successful defense “cowards,” especially given the circumstances and lopsided odds that Volkanovski competed against.
“How are you going to be a judge, within combat… you’e going to go to (Australia), that’s sold out for one guy who’s a three-to-one dog, oh, by the way he’s outsized, surprises everybody, wins rounds, wins moments, wins scrambles, and you don’t give him the fight?” Sonnen asked.
“You didn’t show courage by going out there and doing the right thing, seeing through that bias… You took a standard that we have… and you did not give him the fight. You re a coward, all three of you.”
[/quote]
What do you make of Chael Sonnen’s comments about the Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski scorecards?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Click here to view the article.
Following this past weekend’s event, Makhachev is heading back to Dagestan with the longest active UFC win streak on his record. The Russian added a 12th victory to his lengthy run in Perth, but it didn’t come in the fashion many had predicted.
Having won the gold last October, Makhachev made his first defense in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, and his reign certainly appeared to be on shaky legs at points of his bout with featherweight king and Australia’s own Alexander Volkanovski.
Ultimately, though, Makhachev escaped with his place on the throne still intact thanks to three scorecards in his favor, much to the fury of the pro-Volkanovski crowd in attendance at the RAC Arena.
But according to one former two-division title challenger, had the three judges sat cageside for the UFC 284 headliner followed an unspoken ‘industry protocol’, the fans present would have witnessed the latest two-division title crowning.
Sonnen: ‘Judges Didn’t Show Courage By Giving It To Makhachev’
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen provided his immediate reaction to the events that concluded UFC 284.
Perhaps for the first time this year, the headliner marked a bout that has split opinion regarding the result. While just six of 29 media members scored the fight in favor of Volkanovski on MMA Decisions, the landscape was a lot closer in the fan vote, which saw 46.2% of just under 3,000 submitted scorecards going against Makhachev.
Given the competitive nature of the contest, Sonnen appeared surprised that the judges didn’t lean towards the hometown side, noting that they’d have been following “industry standard” if they had.
“I gotta tell you, I’m not being completely sincere within this, but it is a conversation… I am saying this with some tongue in cheek, but not completely,” Sonnen began. “Every single industry has something called ‘a standard of the industry’. … You have a home-court advantage. That means, if you’re the guy from home and the judges have an opportunity to stick it up the other guy’s ass, including unjustly, they will… Did you watch those Olympics, took place in Tokyo? You had more Japanese medalists than you had in 100 years… It’s the way it works.
“I’m not positive that (the judges) got it right, but I don’t really live in that world that comes in and questions judges… I don’t begrudge your decision, that you saw Islam won.
“What I begrudge is the lack of courage that you showed by giving Islam the fight and not doing what we have an industry standard of doing and giving it to the hometown guy, the hometown guy who was undersized, who was the only one who had any interest there tonight, who had all of the crowd and the momentum going… who was a three-to-one underdog,” Sonnen added. “You give it to the guy. That is what the standard of our industry says.”
Beyond just the lack of bias for the home side, “The American Gangster” also questioned how the judges perceived some of the grappling exchanges, specifically the sequence that saw Volkanovski throwing punches while Makhachev controlled his back.
“You can disagree with me. You’d be on the right side to disagree with me. But I will stand by the point nonetheless,” Sonnen stated. “How do you possibly have a fight that was supposed to be a one-sided ass-kicking and ends up being a back-and-forth battle and you don’t give it to Volkanovski?
“Two minutes of the fourth round, might have been the third, Islam’s on the back of Volkanovski… Great, that looks like a good start to a position… That’s it,” Sonnen continued. “His face was getting peppered by Volk… I would think (that) when scoring an ass-whooping contest, you’d care about which guy made a fist and rammed it into the other guy’s face… Islam letting the choke go and starting to do the hits is the admission… The judges gave him that round. How?”
With that in mind, Sonnen branded the three judges responsible for awarding Makhachev a first successful defense “cowards,” especially given the circumstances and lopsided odds that Volkanovski competed against.
“How are you going to be a judge, within combat… you’e going to go to (Australia), that’s sold out for one guy who’s a three-to-one dog, oh, by the way he’s outsized, surprises everybody, wins rounds, wins moments, wins scrambles, and you don’t give him the fight?” Sonnen asked.
“You didn’t show courage by going out there and doing the right thing, seeing through that bias… You took a standard that we have… and you did not give him the fight. You re a coward, all three of you.”
What do you make of Chael Sonnen’s comments about the Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski scorecards?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Following this past weekend’s event, Makhachev is heading back to Dagestan with the longest active UFC win streak on his record. The Russian added a 12th victory to his lengthy run in Perth, but it didn’t come in the fashion many had predicted.
Having won the gold last October, Makhachev made his first defense in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner, and his reign certainly appeared to be on shaky legs at points of his bout with featherweight king and Australia’s own Alexander Volkanovski.
Ultimately, though, Makhachev escaped with his place on the throne still intact thanks to three scorecards in his favor, much to the fury of the pro-Volkanovski crowd in attendance at the RAC Arena.
But according to one former two-division title challenger, had the three judges sat cageside for the UFC 284 headliner followed an unspoken ‘industry protocol’, the fans present would have witnessed the latest two-division title crowning.
Sonnen: ‘Judges Didn’t Show Courage By Giving It To Makhachev’
During a recent video uploaded to his YouTube channel, former middleweight and light heavyweight contender Chael Sonnen provided his immediate reaction to the events that concluded UFC 284.
Perhaps for the first time this year, the headliner marked a bout that has split opinion regarding the result. While just six of 29 media members scored the fight in favor of Volkanovski on MMA Decisions, the landscape was a lot closer in the fan vote, which saw 46.2% of just under 3,000 submitted scorecards going against Makhachev.
Given the competitive nature of the contest, Sonnen appeared surprised that the judges didn’t lean towards the hometown side, noting that they’d have been following “industry standard” if they had.
“I gotta tell you, I’m not being completely sincere within this, but it is a conversation… I am saying this with some tongue in cheek, but not completely,” Sonnen began. “Every single industry has something called ‘a standard of the industry’. … You have a home-court advantage. That means, if you’re the guy from home and the judges have an opportunity to stick it up the other guy’s ass, including unjustly, they will… Did you watch those Olympics, took place in Tokyo? You had more Japanese medalists than you had in 100 years… It’s the way it works.
“I’m not positive that (the judges) got it right, but I don’t really live in that world that comes in and questions judges… I don’t begrudge your decision, that you saw Islam won.
“What I begrudge is the lack of courage that you showed by giving Islam the fight and not doing what we have an industry standard of doing and giving it to the hometown guy, the hometown guy who was undersized, who was the only one who had any interest there tonight, who had all of the crowd and the momentum going… who was a three-to-one underdog,” Sonnen added. “You give it to the guy. That is what the standard of our industry says.”
[/quote]
Beyond just the lack of bias for the home side, “The American Gangster” also questioned how the judges perceived some of the grappling exchanges, specifically the sequence that saw Volkanovski throwing punches while Makhachev controlled his back.
“You can disagree with me. You’d be on the right side to disagree with me. But I will stand by the point nonetheless,” Sonnen stated. “How do you possibly have a fight that was supposed to be a one-sided ass-kicking and ends up being a back-and-forth battle and you don’t give it to Volkanovski?
“Two minutes of the fourth round, might have been the third, Islam’s on the back of Volkanovski… Great, that looks like a good start to a position… That’s it,” Sonnen continued. “His face was getting peppered by Volk… I would think (that) when scoring an ass-whooping contest, you’d care about which guy made a fist and rammed it into the other guy’s face… Islam letting the choke go and starting to do the hits is the admission… The judges gave him that round. How?”
With that in mind, Sonnen branded the three judges responsible for awarding Makhachev a first successful defense “cowards,” especially given the circumstances and lopsided odds that Volkanovski competed against.
“How are you going to be a judge, within combat… you’e going to go to (Australia), that’s sold out for one guy who’s a three-to-one dog, oh, by the way he’s outsized, surprises everybody, wins rounds, wins moments, wins scrambles, and you don’t give him the fight?” Sonnen asked.
“You didn’t show courage by going out there and doing the right thing, seeing through that bias… You took a standard that we have… and you did not give him the fight. You re a coward, all three of you.”
[/quote]
What do you make of Chael Sonnen’s comments about the Islam Makhachev vs. Alexander Volkanovski scorecards?
Please provide transcription credit with a link to this article if you use any of these quotes.
Click here to view the article.
