Top 5 Most Controversial Judges Decisions in UFC History

Whenever there is a fight between top level fighters in the UFC, it is not always easy to finish the fight by KO or submission. Hence, the fighters have to leave the decision in the hands of judges and trust them to make the right decision, but that is not always the case , sometimes poor decisions have been made in the promotion’s history. Sometimes it is very easy for fans of certain fighters to say “bad or wrong decision” after a loss, but the fights we are going to tell you about were definitely misjudged and the wrong man was termed the winner. 

5. Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks at UFC 167

There was a lot of controversy surrounding UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre’s ninth title defense against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. He defended his title via split decision, but most fans believed that the decision should have gone the other way. Hendricks got off to a bad start, as St-Pierre almost caught him in an early guillotine choke, but then managed to take the first round with some great takedown defense and some hard elbows and punches from the clinch. The second round also firmly went to Hendricks, who rocked GSP several times and hurt him badly, while the champion’s strike did nothing to the challenger. 

GSP did enough to win both the third and fifth rounds. The third saw him finally use his striking to back Hendricks up, while in the fifth he outgrappled his challenger through sheer willpower alone. But in the fourth, he slipped his back and was dominated with ground-and-pound, with Hendricks on top. It seemed like the only possible decision for Hendricks was 48-47, but despite one judge going that way, the other two went in GSP’s way, and he retained his title. This decision not only made fans furious but also UFC President Dana White, who was also annoyed by the fact that “RUSH” didn’t offer Hendricks a rematch. 

4. BJ Penn vs. Caol Uno at UFC 41 

This fight took place on February 28, 2003 and BJ Penn clearly defeated Kyle Uno for the vacant 155-pound title at UFC 41, but the division was put on hold until March 2006, and a new champion wasn’t crowned until October. Penn and Uno earned their right to the title after defeating their respective opponents. 

Penn made a good start and dominated UNo in the first, third, fourth and fifth rounds clearly whenever the fight went to the ground. He was getting better striking exchanges too, which left Caol bruised throughout the bout. Uno probably won the second round with some strong takedowns, and it seemed that he should have lost a 49-46 decision. Instead, the judges inexplicably scored the fight a split draw. One judge gave the score 48-46 for Penn, another gave 48-47 for Uno, and the third one scored it 48-48. These scores are still questioned by everyone who watched the fight, as Penn was clearly the deserving winner. Sadly, the title remained on ice and Penn had to move up to 170 lbs for this next fight. 

3.Tyron Woodley vs. Jake Shields at UFC 161  

On June 15, 2013, Tyron Woodley lost a fight via split decision to Jake Shields, which is one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. Woodley came to this fight after his successful UFC debut, where he knocked out Jay Hieron. It looked like he had the skill to defeat Shields too. As the fight began, Shield definitely looked to be struggling to defeat his opponent. 

In fact, Shields never came close to putting Woodley on his back and although he did manage to get some control and land several spectacular strikes on “The Chosen One”, Shields was taken down in the first round by a heavy leg kick and badly stunned by a spinning backfist in the third round. Woodley didn’t throw a huge amount of strikes, but when he landed them, they clearly had more impact than his opponent. Two judges scored 29-28 for Shields, while the other scored 30-27 for Woodley. It was totally an unearned decision for Shields, while Woodley was clearly stripped of his first win over a top-ranked Welterweight contender. The fight result was a big disappointment for everyone and the fight today has become completely forgettable. 

2. Sean Sherk vs. Evan Dunham at UFC 119 

On September 25, 2010, when Evan faced Sean Sherk at UFC 119, he was coming into the fight after 11 consecutive wins, four in the UFC. It seemed that his winning streak would continue when he caught Sherk in a tight guillotine choke in the first round. It is not often seen that a fighter comes close to defeating his opponent with both strikes and submission attempts and still manages to lose because of a decision. But this is exactly what happened in this fight.

The elbows seemed to have won Sherk the round, but the second and third clearly went to Dunham. He came close to choking “The Muscle Shark” and almost knocked him out in the third with a high kick. At least it should have been a 29-28 win for Dunham, but instead, two judges scored it a 29-28 win for Sherk, which dismayed the whole crowd. A good part was that the UFC recognized Dunham had been robbed and treated him as if he had won the fight, he was given the main event spot against Melvin Guillard in his next fight. 

1. Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera at UFC 105  

The bout between former UFC Heavyweight and Lightweight Champion Randy Couture and Brandon Vera ended in such a bad decision that it turned the crowd against a fighter they were initially supporting. When the fight was announced as the main event of UFC 105, most of the fans were supporting Couture. Although he was coming to this fight after suffering losses against Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, “Captain America was still the favorite to defeat Vera.

Most of the analysts gave Couture the grappling advantage, but Vera had an ace up his sleeve. Couture came to implement his usual game plan of dirty boxing, but Vera was ready for him. The first round probably went to Randy, as he was more aggressive, although the clinch exchanges were largely similar. But “The Truth” showed more dominance in the second round and fended off Couture’s clinch attacks, dropping him with body kicks and knees. The third round saw a similar pattern and this time Vera moved into a dominant position and secured a takedown to clearly consolidate his victory. 

When the judges gave the score 29-28, it was in Couture’s favor, not Vera’s. Despite chanting for Couture initially during the fight, the fans started booing the cage for this terrible robbery as Vera simply slipped down the stairs leading to the octagon and shook their heads in disbelief. This is still the worst decision in the UFC, because in other bad calls, the winner at least did some damage, but in this fight, it appeared that judges gave Couture the victory because of his ability to secure a neutral position. 

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