UFC 282 marred by baffling and irregular scoring

After promising so much, the UFC 282 card from a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas concluded on a sour note with the co-main events being subject to some baffling scoring decisions.

Newly minted UFC golden boy Paddy Pimblett was the recipient of a suspicious victory when he was handed a unanimous judges’ decision over Jared Gordon that smacked of favouritism.

While it can be a challenge to understand how three judges will view and score a bout from different angles, this was the second contentious decision in recent times that involved a future UFC star appearing to receive such favourable treatment.

Sean O’Malley was the other beneficiary of a suspicious result at UFC 280, but at least he had the grace to appear surprised when his hand was raised after being dominated for three rounds by Petr Yan.

Pimblett lacked such quality and alienated many MMA fans with his tasteless showboating if the trending reactions on social media are any indication. For all his pre-fight hype, Pimblett looked mediocre against Gordon, failing to land a single takedown, and wearing plenty of damaging strikes.

The highlight was that his chin held up to the ferocious left hooks of his opponent, but otherwise ‘Paddy the Baddy’ looked like a top 10 fighter at best.

The UFC 282 main event was a curious affair that delivered another baffling scoring outcome. After five tough rounds the judges were unable to split Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev with the light heavyweight title fight being declared a draw.

Ankalaev was disgusted with the result and threatened to leave the organisation in his post-fight interview. Blachowicz was unsure of the true winner, but graciously suggested the belt be awarded to the Russian.

A look at the scorecards reveals that the Pole may have been the robbed party, after all three judges awarded him a close opening round. Blachowicz certainly won the second and third rounds with some devastating low kicks that left Ankalaev almost unable to stand. The Russian adjusted in rounds four and five, landing early takedowns that relieved the weight from his compromised legs.

UFC supremo was unimpressed by the quality of the main event and declared that Glover Teixeira will fight Jamal Hill in Brazil for the still vacant light heavyweight crown.

Hill is on an impressive winning run and will be favoured the grab the gold. White blamed Gordon for his contentious loss to Pimblett, and generously handed out 50k bonuses to all fighters who scored a stoppage victory.

That included the 18-year-old Raul Rosas Jr who made light work of UFC debut, wrapping up opponent Jay Perrin in the first round and closing out an impressive submission win. The kid barely raised a sweat and looks like a potential star in the making.

Other highlights were a Fight of the Night war between Darren Till and Dricuss Du Plessis that saw Till slip to his third straight loss after gamely fighting through an early knee injury. The unbeaten Ilia Topuria also looked scarily good in his win over Bryce Mitchell, and the Spanish based fighter appears destined for a featherweight title shot in the immediate future.

So that was the final UFC pay-per-view event of the year. The early fights delivered the thrills, while the main events left confusion and suspicion in their wake.

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