'They need to pay for what they do'… Former UFC double champ slams judges for 'absolutely ridiculous' UFC 306 main event scorecards
09/16/2024 12:13 PM
Merab Dvalishvili utterly dominated Sean O’Malley this past Saturday in the UFC 306 main event from the Sphere, becoming the new bantamweight champion, but the scorecards have come under scrutiny.
Merab Dvalishvili put an end to Sean O’Malley‘s 13-month UFC bantamweight title reign this past Saturday with a huge win on what will likely go down as the biggest combat sports event of all time.
‘The Machine’ imposed himself on ‘Suga’ from the opening bell and seemingly dominated for all rounds barring the final round when O’Malley began to land some strong body strikes.
Henry Cejudo slams judges for ‘ridiculous’ scoring of the UFC 306 main event
Fortunately for Merab, he convincingly won at least three of the rounds, and in many people’s opinions, won four of the five.
Despite that, both Sal D’Amato and Chris Lee scored the fight 48-47, only slightly favoring Dvalishvili. Both judges scored round three for the 29-year-old champion, likely giving him the edge for opening up a cut on Dvalishvili’s nose towards the end of the round.
Former UFC two-weight world champion, Henry Cejudo has questioned both D’Amato’s and Lee’s scorecards, stating that he doesn’t think O’Malley won a single round.
“First of all let me start off with, like man, you have to be careful man, these judges they need to pay for what they do, where is the accountability on some of these guys?” Cejudo began to explain on the Pound 4 Pound Podcast.
“Sometimes I wonder what the hell they’re looking at but at the same thing Dana says, don’t leave it in the hands of the judges. That scorecard is absolutely ridiculous, I don’t even know what round Sean even won,” the former flyweight and bantamweight champion continued.
Cejudo went on to claim that his performance against the Georgian was better than what O’Malley’s was, claiming that O’Malley’s title win over Aljamain Sterling was a ‘fluke’ and that showed on Saturday night.
“That was a 50-45 slaughtering, talk about being controlled… What can I say, I predicted these things, Sean is not accustomed to going five rounds, and he is not accustomed to people on his legs.
“I still go back and say, hey, that fight with Aljamain Sterling was a fluke too, Aljamain was still in that fight and people thought I was just hating. I’ve been in there with Merab and did a whole lot better than Sean did,” Cejudo added.
Cejudo wants O’Malley next otherwise he’ll move back to flyweight
For O’Malley to climb back to a bantamweight title fight, he will likely have to pick up one or two wins, with one likely having to come against a wrestling specialist.
‘Suga’ and ‘Triple C’ have a longstanding feud with each other and even a few days out from his UFC 306 title defense, O’Malley commented on Cejudo calling him a ‘little f*cking weasel’.
The 37-year-old is hoping that now O’Malley has lost the title, there may be a chance for the two to finally meet each other inside the Octagon to settle their feud.
“I personally would love to fight him, I think with all the trolling that we have done to each other, we both live in the same city but I just don’t think that he’s gonna want to fight me particularly right after this performance.
“Moving forward, if Sean O’Malley is willing and wants to fight this troll who’s a true king of Arizona well then here I am, but if not, I’m making my way back down to 125lbs because I’m not gonna waste my time,” Cejudo offered.
