Usman Nurmagomedov believes that even 50-45 – a clean sweep – is not a wide enough score for his rematch with Paul Hughes.
The PFL lightweight champion moved to 20-0 with a unanimous decision win in his rematch with Irishman Hughes, although controversy followed a string of bizarre scorecards. While many felt a swing round or two may have shifted the fight, one judge scored it 50-45 while another had it 49-46.
Nurmagomedov had argued prior to the fight that Hughes didn’t even deserve a rematch. But by the end of their tenth collective round together, it seemed that the pair were relatively evenly matched and both bouts could have gone either way.
Usman Nurmagomedov launches defence of scorecards after Paul Hughes fight
Immediately after the decision was read in the cage, Usman Nurmagomedov was far from humble in his victory. He joked in the cage that this bout was not nearly as close as the first one, and seemed to laugh off the idea that he had just been to war.
He did give Paul Hughes his props, but in general appeared relieved to have gotten away with yet another result. And moments later when he spoke to media including Bloody Elbow backstage, things hadn’t changed too much.
Asked by Bloody Elbow if he felt the fight warranted a scorecard as wide as 50-45, he replied: “Brother, I think that was 50-44, just my opinion.” When pressed on what round could possibly have been a 10-8, he claimed that the first deserved it.
Usman Nurmagomedov vs Paul Hughes scoring controversy got worse with social media errors
After the particularly wide scorecard of judge Bryan Miner was announced, there were immediately calls online to see all three cards. PFL’s official Public Relations account released the numbers, but there were a number of mistakes and the cards had to be re-posted again.
Ironically, the initial scorecard that was released agreed with Usman’s assessment that he deserved to win 50-44. However, this card had the fifth – one of the most contentious swing rounds – going 10-8 for the Russian.
Eventually, the right cards were posted. But it didn’t stop fans speculating on all sorts of conspiracy theories regarding the result being rigged. The belief is that the Nurmagomedov name holds more weight in Dubai, so the fight was scored more favorably for him over Hughes.