By: Stephen Hardy-Delaney
In a night filled with controversy from start to finish, Jon Jones would secure his 13th title victory last Saturday at UFC 247 over the undefeated Dominick Reyes making him No. 1 on top of the list for most title victories in UFC history surpassing former welterweight and middleweight king, Georges St. Pierre.
The reason behind all the controversy was not so much the fighters but the judges who judged Saturday night in Houston, Texas. Former bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz who was commentating that night made note that these were not judges of the MMA world but instead of the boxing world. Several fights who many believe the other was the victor ended up being the complete opposite.
Unfortunately, UFC 247 was full of controversy affecting multiple fighters’ careers, but no other was more significant than the main event itself where many saw it going the way of Dominick Reyes, the young, up and coming undefeated light heavyweight challenger from Victorville, California. A fight where many saw Reyes win at least 3 rounds to Jones’ 2 and some having it 4-1 with Reyes dominating most of the fight. But the judges’ scorecards would say different as Joe Solis would absurdly score it 49-46 with Marcos Rosales and Chris Lee scoring it 48-47 all in favor of the champion. Solis would be the main judge that was scrutinized that night with even awarding a round to Trevin Giles who was dominated in the first round in his fight against James Krause. Krause would take Giles to the ground and take his back threatening a rear-naked choke multiple times for four minutes of a five-minute round. Krause would then go onto lose in the 2nd round but would come back to where most people thought he had won the 3rd and final round, but yet was not given the victory.
Much more controversy came into account when color commentator Joe Rogan was calling out a judge for not even watching the fight that was taking place. The callout lasted for several minutes and though this happened before the main event it’s still concerning to see that these judges were completely disinterested in these fights in such a big event with two belts on the line the other being Valentina Shevchenko’s flyweight title. Luckily that fight ended in no controversy as Shevchenko finished her opponent via TKO in the 3rd round via ground and pound from a mounted crucifix position.
But all that aside, what’s next for these fighters? Jon Jones has been flirting with moving to the heavyweight division to take on the champ Stipe Miocic and even showing interest in a super fight with his new rival UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, but after this fight could we see a rematch between Jones and Reyes? Many including Reyes are clamoring for it and even UFC President Dana White is interested and with Miocic on the sideline with an eye injury, it doesn’t seem that out of bounds. Light heavyweight contenders Corey Anderson and Jan Blachowicz have been chomping at the bit to get a shot at Jones and both will fight in a rematch this coming Saturday headlining UFC Fight Night in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The two previously fought at UFC 191 with Anderson getting the unanimous decision victory.
Only time will tell and it’s only a matter of time before open scoring is introduced to the UFC and the sport of MMA and ex-fighters and referees becoming judges and even adding more judges to score the fights.
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