UFC light heavyweight Anthony Smith has joined the chorus of critics blasting the quality of judging in MMA fights. Smith specifically addressed the controversial unanimous decision victory handed to Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett in his latest UFC outing, making his case on The MMA Hour.
“Do you know anyone other than the three people that judged that fight that thought Paddy won? I always come off sounding like such a hater when you have these conversations about people.
Anthony Smith Blasts UFC Judging
I like Paddy. He’s different, he’s created something a little bit different. A little bit of it is inspired by Conor [McGregor], but he’s wild and crazy and he’s a good fighter. I don’t think he’s elite, but he’s a really good fighter. I like his aggressiveness, I like his interviews, and I have no issue with him, but I think he lost that fight 30-27.”
Smith then took aim at the criteria used by MMA judges to determine the outcome of a fight. “I’ve always been really critical of refs and judges, and it’s because this s*** is serious.
Jared Gordon deserved that win. He’s never going to get an opportunity like that, probably ever again. Could he build his way up and end up in some good spots? For sure. But to be the show-stopper for the Paddy Pimblett hype train, he’s not going to have that opportunity again, and that’s unfortunate. He didn’t get the second half of his check. So we need to get people in those seats that understand what the hell they’re looking at.
Think of this sequence: A guy gets a takedown, he passes from full-guard to half-guard, lands three or four really hard shots, but it takes a little while – this is over a period of two and a half to three minutes – and then he passes to side control and he lands a few shots there.
Guy on the bottom scrambles to his feet, there’s 10 seconds left in the round, the guy on the bottom throws a flurry of 10 punches, doesn’t really land anything hard at all, that round ends. A lot of those judges, most of them, will score that round for the guy that spent most of the time on the bottom.
We need people in those seats that understand how hard it is to get a takedown in the UFC, to then pass someone’s guard, which is goddamn impossible sometimes, then to control someone enough to where you can lift your bodyweight and chest off of them to land those shots.
Just because they scramble away at the end, all of us as fighters, and anybody who knows s*** about fighting, knows who won that exchange. The people in the seats should also know that, and that’s the problem. We need people that know what the f*** they’re looking at.”
