It’s no secret by now that everyone outside of Diego Sanchez and two judges thought he lost his fight with Ross Pearson at last weekend’s UFC Fight Night event in Albuquerque. UFC president Dana White was on hiatus over the weekend due to some family commitments, but finally resurfaced yesterday to say what we’ve all said – that the decision was ridiculous. He went a step further on The Download, a new weekly interview series with White on UFC.com. He confirmed that Pearson would be getting his $30,000 win bonus, and had this to say:
“Diego lost that fight. The judge who judged that fight should never be judging fights again. He never should be judging fights of this caliber, he needs to go back down into the amateurs and really learn how to judge a fight. First of all, you gave every round to Diego, who got dropped in the second round. It was a knockdown, how does Diego win that round? It’s not possible. I don’t know how you can vote against him, but it goes to show that you’re never safe. That’s as bad as it gets.”
He’s absolutely right. Dana and the UFC rightfully get a lot of flak for their stances on things (see Sonnen, Chael) but I always thought it was cool that they’d give guys their win bonus anyway if they felt the fighter got robbed. Pearson absolutely deserved it this time around, and I’m sure he’s a little happier about the situation knowing that. It won’t take all the sting out of it though, that’s for sure.
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