UFC president Dana White has taken aim at the judges involved in Israel Adesanya's first professional MMA defeat, labelling their lopsided scorecards for Jan Blachowicz "insane".
On Sunday, 'The Last Stylebender' fell to unanimous decision loss to Blachowicz in their main event clash at UFC 259, with two of the judges awarding 10-8 scores for the Pole in round five for a flattering final card of 49-45, 49-45, 49-46.
In typically unapologetic fashion, White says the margin of victory was completely unjust and that none of the rounds were deserving of a 10-8 scoreline.
"The scoring was insane,' White said at the post-event press conference.
"There were two rounds in that fight that they gave a 10-8. When I came up in the fight business, a 10-8 was an ass-whooping. You got your ass whooped. You didn't do shit in that round and got beat down if it was a 10-8.
"This 10-8 shit is out of control right now. So hopefully, we can get this fixed.
"They're going to screw up a lot of fights, they're handing out 10-8s like that. There was no 10-8 in that fight."
Blachowicz powered home through the second half of the bout, using his size advantage and vaunted grappling to get Adesanya to the mat, where he was able to control the Kiwi to the closing bell to make a strong impression on the judges.
White didn't dispute the outcome of the fight going in the Pole's favour, but says the judging was indicative of a "big problem" in the sport.
'If anyone watched that fight and thought that was 4-1 you're nuts," he said.
"It was even going into the last round and Israel was winning the first half of the round, and then Jan took him down and won the fight in the second half of the round.
"The only thing that makes that fight 4-1 are ridiculous 10-8 rounds, It's a big problem with judging that needs to be fixed."
Adesanya agreed that the scorecards didn't do the tightly contested nature of the bout justice.
"It wasn't that big of a difference," he said. "I don't know about those 10-8 rounds, I don't know about some of the scorecards from those judges.
"I lost the fight to the better fighter tonight, the craftier fighter tonight and, but it wasn't like an ass whooping or anything like that.
"When he had me on the ground, you know if he postured up and weld on me and thrown some crazy elbows and crazy punches that connected crazy then yeah, I can say give it a 10-8, 10-7 even, use the whole 10-point must system.
"But, there was none of that, he just held on and snuck some shots in and kept it busy enough that the referee doesn't stand it up, and that's a veteran move, because he's a veteran in this game."
