Controversy Report: UFC Mexico

UFC Mexico Controversy Report

UFC’s return to Mexico was a success. Overall, the card had 5 finishes, with 4 KO’s and 1 submission and some great bouts. All together we had a few fights that were riddled with some controversy, but nothing that overall impacted the experience and joy that was to watch UFC Mexico. 

Marquel Mederos defeats Austin Hubbard

• Split Decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28) 

The first bout of the night was perhaps one of the closest ones of the entire night. In all fairness, the first two rounds were quite easy to score with the third round having us debate the age-old conundrum that damage trumps control. Regardless, let’s break it down round by round. 

Round 1 was unanimously a 10-9 round for Marquel Mederos.  He outlanded Austin Hubbard by 6 strikes, had a 65% striking rate, seemingly controlled and managed distance perfectly, and dictated the distance and range, not allowing Austin Hubbard to cut the octagon for any decent takedown entries. So far, so good. 

As we head into Round 2, grappling became a factor. All Hubbard needed here was one sole takedown to have 4 minutes of control. Of course, not a lot of damage happened, however there was a submission attempt, which did carry some threat to it. Overall, an easy 10-9 for Hubbard.

Now, Round 3 was the true close round, with Judges Bell and D’Amato scoring it for Mederos while Judge Miguel Jimenez scored it a 10-9 for Hubbard. Looking at the significant strikes, Medero landed 15 when compared to Hubbard’s 6, which included some damaging shots that did in fact cut Hubbard open. When it comes to control time, Hubbard had 2:38 when compared to Medero’s 1:28. In essence a 1 minute difference. Hubbard also failed 3 of the 4 takedowns attempted. Did that extra minute of control time really cause more impact than the damage caused by Mederos?

Personally, the fight had two clear rounds with a third round being a tad more disputed, however in a damage based sport, damage does trump control in these situations. The third round was a perfect display of correct judging from D’Amato and Bell. Despite being a close round, the damage output by Mederos gets him the nod. 

Melquizael Costa defeats Christian Rodriguez

• Unanimous Decision (28-29, 28-29, 28-29)

Christian Rodriguez, who made his fame defeating undefeated prospects in Rosas Jr, Dulgarian, Saiman and Austin Bashi has lost his two fights against fighters that were not at all undefeated, and this bout was a clear example of damage distribution in MMA. 

All three judges were in unanimous agreement on all three rounds, which would lead you to think this wasn’t a close fight, which isn’t true at all. Let’s break down the numbers, the visuals and why I personally side with the judges decision, based on the current rules of the sport. 

Round 1 was a Unanimous Round for the Brazilian, Melquizael Costa. Both men had 2 minutes of control time, with slight second differentials. C-Rod did attempt 5 takedowns, and landed one, whereas Costa didn’t even land a takedown. Regardless, the control numbers were even, while Costa outlanded C-Rod by 11 strikes, while striking at a 68% efficiency, including 39 shots to the head. Despite C-Rod being the one pushing for the takedowns, the efficiency was on the Brazilian’s side. 

The Second Round was a similar story. C-Rod attempted 4 takedowns, and again, landed only once. The control time was once more skewed in Costa’s favor by 40 seconds. Costa also outlanded Rodriguez by 7 strikes, which included a vicious knee, which curiously, would be illegal only months back. This round left no doubt as well. Damage dictates, and even if damage were to be equal, Costa outworked C-Rod in the clinch. 

All three judges were in accordance with every single round, including the third round. Here, C-Rod took the 10-9 because of his output and urgency, landing 34 strikes to Costa’s 17, while being efficient, landing 59% of the significant strikes thrown. This included 25 of them to the head of Costa. Moreover, he finally landed multiple takedowns, 4 this time, gathering  3 minutes of control time. 

Truly, the best round was for C-Rod, however as we know, fights are scored by rounds, and as much as we’d like it, third rounds aren’t scored any differently. We could always look at One FC’s method of scoring a fight based off its entirety. In that case, seeing how well C-Rod ended, you could believe he won. This is also the reason I believe many fans believe he should have gotten his hand raised. 

Brandon Moreno defeats Steve Erceg

• Decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-46)

Following this bout, I was quite assured that Brandon Moreno would have his hand raised at the end, however after surfing what fans said on Social Media, I was quite surprised at a significant amount of people that had Steve Erceg as the victor of this fight.

Looking at the statistics from the outside, Steve Erceg outlanded Brandon Moreno 116 to 89. That is a 27 strike differential. If you didn’t watch this fight and solely looked at the stats, you’d be thinking this was some sort of generational robbery. Even more so when you realize Erceg outstruck Moreno in each and every round.

Here’s the difference maker. At the moment, we can’t track levels of hard strikes individually. We don’t know the impact of each and every strike, but visually judges do. In almost every one of the rounds Moreno won, the damage done in fewer strikes was more impactful than Erceg’s higher volume approach. 

Obviously the most clear example was Round 5 where Erceg suffered some big shots from Moreno. Another lesson learned is how absorbing strikes and optics is crucial. Judges do not have access to the numbers we do. Their score is simply based off their observations of the fight. 

Regardless of the two controversial decisions and an interesting main event, UFC Mexico was relatively a straight-forward card. UFC Vegas 105 is up next as we head back to the Apex.

Want to know more about each event? Visit homeoffight.com or any of our social media accounts for more articles, fighter interviews, and plenty of more coverage. Enjoy the fights, let us know how you’ll be watching!