Controversy Report: UFC Seattle

UFC Seattle

Throughout the first 7 fights of UFC Seattle, I had a firm conviction I wouldn’t even need to write an article this week! Beautiful finish, one after the other with three fights not even getting to the second round. We were on pace to have a legendary main card, until the main card started.

We saw a few controversial decisions, and as it turned out, those weren’t even the worst things we would witness at UFC Seattle. What is being considered as one of the most anti-climatic main events of all time took place, and of course, we’re going to go over what went right and what went wrong when dealing with it. 

Alonzo Menifield defeats Julius Walker

• Split Decision (29-28 ,30-27, 28-29)

Despite the fight of the night claim to this bout, fans weren’t entirely impressed, when compared to the vicious finishes we saw in the build up to the main card. Julius Walker had every intention of making this a successful debut, but the experience of Alonzo Menifield ultimately played a role. 

Round 1 saw Julius Walker waste no time engaging the wrestling and trying his luck in the clinch. While upsetting the fans it seemed it didn’t work for long, because the separation of the clinch saw him get tagged by Menifield a few times. It was back and forth exchanges that marked this round, but ultimately, Walker landed more strikes and had almost half of the round of control time in the clinch. Judges D’Amato and Cleary favored this for Menifield while Judge Davis favored it for Walker. I saw this as fair regardless of who you’d score it too. Menifield had the bigger moments, but Walker more than made up for it with his control time and clinch strikes. 

Round 2, it was clear both men were fatigued. Once more the judging here was split, with Walker winning on D’Amato and Davis cards and losing on the Cleary card. When looking at statistics, Walker outlanded Menifield by 5 strikes, had a minute of control time and seemingly looked like a fresher fighter. I would understand giving him this round too, but again, the fatigue played a huge role in how both men looked.

Round 3 was the only unanimous score-card, all for veteran Alonzo Menifield. In this case, it was justified. He out-struck Walker by almost double the strikes to the head and the overall optics were that he was a fresher fighter. Conclusively, Menifield won the most clear round after two very close rounds. Not every Split Decision is a robbery and this was a perfect example of that.

Rob Font defeats Jean Matsumoto

• Split Decision (29-28, 29-28,28-29)

This fight had some fans furious from the start. As soon as the bell rang in round one, Rob Font utilized the glove-touch as an opportunity to land a big shot on Jean Matsumoto, which even had Paul Felder and Michael Bisping discussing that while legal, it’s frowned upon by the fighting community. Rob Font started aggressively, but spent 3 and a half minutes on the ground, unable to get up and controlled in dominant position. While on the feet, he was able to out-strike the Brazilian, but regardless, the shots weren’t influential.

Round 1 in the eyes of many had it as an easy 10-9 for Matsumoto, with almost 4 minutes of dominant ground time. Instead, only referee Sal D’Amato had it for Matusmoto, while Cleary and Bell scored it for the American. 

Round 2 was a unanimous round for Matsumoto. After all, he attempted five takedowns, landed five takedowns, had two minutes of control time and was even on strikes and almost even on significant strikes. Matsumoto also showed versatility on the feet in this round landing dynamic strikes and solid calf kicks that hindered Font’s movement. 

Round 3 was yet again another unanimous round, though this time for Rob Font. Font landed a cutting leading elbow on Matsumoto that did in fact make him bleed a lot. Font also pushed the pace to another level, and despite being out-landed here, landed the better shots. While a close round on the feet, Font landed the more impactful shots, which I do believe swayed the judges towards Rob Font. 

While Round 2 and Round 3 had their unanimous victors, what really had fans confused was the first round, where Matsumoto had almost 4 minutes of control time and dominant position and still lost. Had he won that round, he would’ve won the fight 29-28. While Rob Font did end the fight well with a great elbow that cut the Brazilian open, fights are scored round by round, which I felt was done incorrectly here.

Song Yadong defeats Henry Cejudo

• Technical Decision (29-28,29-28,30-27)

The main event between Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong seemed to be picking up and we were getting ready for intense championship rounds. While down on the score-cards and being out-struck Cejudo still managed to make this competitive fight and bring some threats to the gameplan of the younger opponent. This all changed with roughly over a minute left in the third round, when Song Yadong landed a bad eye poke that clearly bothered the olympic gold medalist. 

Jason Herzog instructed Cejudo that he could take the extent of the five minutes, as per regulation. While this is occurring, he understands that there was no intent from Song’s end in committing an intentional eye poke. Cejudo takes the entirety of the five minutes, while utilizing a wet towel to ease the situation. 

Obviously the crowd is uneasy with Cejudo sitting down against the cage, seemingly making the best of the situation. Speculation began that Cejudo would look for a No Contest, as his wishes for a point reduction weren’t given. Issue is, following the end of those 5 minutes, he chose to continue with the fight. Not much occurred over the last minute of that third round. 

In the corner between Round 3 and Round 4, Cejudo stated that his vision was blurry, and that he did not feel fit to continue. The doctor is brought in and Cejudo informs the referee that he can no longer continue. Here is where the expertise of Herzog comes to the equation. Another referee would have chosen to end the fight at that point, and it would have most likely result into a No Contest or even a DQ win for Henry Cejudo. 

Herzog initiated and ended the 4th round instantly, so that the fight would be scored fairly up to that point. Cejudo would then lose by decision in the score-cards. What’s interesting here is that if Cejudo wished to avoid a loss, he could’ve taken the No Contest in the initial eye poke stoppage during the third round. Because he waited until the end of Round 3, this allowed the technical decision to occur. 

While controversial and anti-climatic, this could have been handled horribly if other referees were in charge. In an alternate universe, Song would have lost by DQ despite clearly winning the fight and that would have been upsetting. 

As for bettors, more controversy arose. Since many had bets on Song by Decision or even Fight Goes the Distance, many sports books didn’t claim those as fulfilled which was obviously upsetting. 

All things considered, UFC Seattle was quite the entertaining card and let’s be honest. The UFC wouldn’t be this sport we all love without a few bumps along the way. 

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!