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Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier had harsh words for the judging at the UFC’s latest Fight Night card in Kansas City, Missouri after he finished up his job, providing commentary for the event on Saturday night.
During a reaction video on Daniel Cormier’s personal Youtube channel, the decorated former fighter made a point to say how disappointed he was in commission officials at the event. He singled out the scorecards provided for the first preliminary bout of the night, where Joselyne Edwards picked up a split decision win over Lucie Pudilova.
“Some of the absolute worst judging I have ever seen in my entire life,” Daniel Cormier said via Youtube. “It was crazy. I have nothing against Joselyne Edwards. She won that fight [but] I don’t know how. She got beat. It is what it is.”
A large part of the fight saw Pudilova earn dominant positions over Edwards on the ground, then land strikes from those positions. The final round was the closest, as the bantamweight bout remained on the feet where both fighters had some limited success, although Edwards won the round on most cards.
Edwards-Pudilova decision shocked many
The decision raised eyebrows immediately as it was read on the UFC broadcast. Many expected Pudilova to take the fight due to the presumed lead she accumulated through the first two rounds of the fight.
“We don’t have a lot of time to waste [on the broadcast] but, that is as bad as I’ve ever seen,” said UFC broadcaster Brendan Fitzgerald.
“That was clearly round one and two for Lucie Pudilova,” former middleweight champion Michael Bisping followed up with. “Don’t understand that. It’s a terrible start to the night. Those judges, whoever scored it for Joselyne Edwards, guys…”
Like the others, Daniel Cormier was in disbelief: “That’s bad. I can only see round three going Joselyne Edwards … And that was a close round.”
The cage-side commentary team weren’t the only ones. Fans and pundits keeping score at home didn’t see the fight going Edwards’ way either. In fact, all 15 of the media scores collected by MMADecisions.com saw the fight in favor of Pudilova. Out of the 236 user-submitted scorecards on the site, 89% of them felt Pudilova should have gotten her hand raised.
The bout broke a three-fight winning streak for the fighter out of the Czech Republic. After getting released from the UFC back in 2020, Pudilova went 3-0 before running into fellow former Octagon vet Talita Bernardo for a decision loss at OKTAGON 26 in 2021. She bounced back quickly, however, with two more wins to get a new UFC contract, and opened her return with a victory over Wu Yanan back in August of last year.
Daniel Cormier on Holloway vs. Allen: ‘I thought 48-47 was the score’
Daniel Cormier also noted that his scorecard in the main event between Max Holloway and Arnold Allen was slightly different from what two of the judges had. He wasn’t as critical of the judging in this fight, noting a difference in scores between him and the judges instead of a dispute over who won the fight.
“I thought the fight was a little closer than the judges had it. The judges had it 49-46, 49-46, and 48-47. I thought 48-47 was the score,” Daniel Cormier said. “Unfortunately, that is not how… Well not, unfortunately. That’s just not how it was judged.”
A quick glance at fan and media scores suggest that many agree with the numbers that Cormier and judge Travis Buesking came up with for the main event. 27 of the 30 media scores submitted to MMADecisions.com for the fight saw Holloway win the bout three rounds to two.
A total of seven decisions took place at UFC’s event in Kansas City last weekend. According to data at hand, the other outcomes on the night were pretty similar to what viewers had scored for themselves.
However, the wide difference between what the official judges felt about the bantamweight opener for the evening and how many outside the commission appointed officials saw the bout seems to have left something of a sour, lingering aftertaste.
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