Few things infuriate MMA fans greater than a fight being scored incorrectly, though the term “robbery” tends to be thrown around carelessly and is usually steeped in bias. With Robbery Review, we’ll have a look back at controversial fights and determine whether the judges were rightly criticized for his or her decision or if pundits need to look at their very own knee-jerk reactions.
Where Sean O’Malley goes, controversy is certain to follow, and he was the talk of the town after his first trip to Abu Dhabi.
O’Malley scored the most important win of his profession at UFC 280 this past Saturday, edging out a split decision against former bantamweight champion Petr Yan, a controversial call that matches right in with the remainder of O’Malley’s one-of-a-kind UFC run. Remember just just a few months ago when his fight with Pedro Munhoz got here to a premature end resulting from an accidental eye poke? Or when he suffered a weird leg injury before getting TKO’d by Maron Vera? Or when he probably would have lost to Andre Soukhamthath because he couldn’t rise up, but Soukhamthath selected to go to the bottom with him? And who could forget Snoop Dogg yelling “O’Malley! O’Malley! O’Malley!” on the Contender Series?
The O’Malley ride has been a wild one, is what we’re saying, one that appears to proceed as “Sugar” is now perfectly lined as much as fight Aljamain Sterling for a UFC title. Based on reactions to his win over Yan though, the reception to such a booking may very well be chilly.
Here’s what a number of the fighters needed to say in regards to the judging.
Wow speak about UFC privilege that is getting outta hand.
— Dominick Reyes (@DomReyes) October 22, 2022
Worst robbery I’m UFC history, I hope our sport doesn’t turn out to be boxing @danawhite
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) October 22, 2022
All I’ll say is I do not know a single fighter who scored that for O’Malley…
— Chris Curtis The Motion Man (@Actionman513) October 22, 2022
Guess we should always take this one to the Robbery Review lab, eh?
What was the official result?
Sean O’Malley def. Petr Yan via split decision.
How did the fight go?
Each fighters got here out throwing speedy kicks, with Yan throwing the primary bomb, a left hand that just missed, which gave O’Malley a gap to pop him with a left hand down the center. Yan clipped O’Malley with a body kick and continued to press forward as “Sugar” circled the surface of the octagon. A right hand landed clean for O’Malley. You would see that the reach of O’Malley was giving Yan problems as the previous UFC champion whiffed on just a few haymakers and was caught with quick counters. Yan wasn’t having much success with head strikes, but his kicking game was on point and he continually targeted O’Malley’s lead leg.
On the midway point of Round 1 we see our first takedown attempt from Yan. He pushed O’Malley to the cage, but O’Malley fought it off. One other straight left landed for O’Malley and Yan missed on a counter left hook. Getting closer though. O’Malley scored with a few jabs before Yan cut him off with a heavy left excessive. Yan let his left hand go before ducking in for one more takedown, this time changing levels and executing a crowd-pleasing slam. O’Malley was energetic off of his back, defending well, though Yan slipped in just a few short punches before O’Malley made it back to his feet. O’Malley began to toss out combos, nevertheless it looked like many of the punches bounced off of Yan’s arms. O’Malley ended the round with a takedown attempt that Yan escaped.
Yan opened Round 2 with a beautiful low kick to body kick combination. O’Malley went back to his straight combos, landing a left that clearly stunned Yan. Yan took a knee, briefly, then made O’Malley pay for his aggression with a wicked left hand bomb. Had O’Malley not hooked an arm around Yan’s head, he may need been knocked down. As an alternative, Yan seized the chance to get a takedown. Hammerfists by Yan from top position. O’Malley needed to work twice as hard to get the fight back to the feet that point. Knees to the body from Yan as he entered pit bull mode. Trip by Yan with half a round to go and he was styling a little bit there. O’Malley tried a visit of his own and ate a right hand counter for it. Yan was in O’Malley’s face this round and while O’Malley stayed busy, I’m curious which of his straight punches were counted as significant strikes because Yan appeared to parry just a few of them. On the opposite side, Yan was racking up head strikes. O’Malley scored with a right hand during a Yan flurry, though Yan was content to batter him with body kicks. Yan dumped O’Malley for his third takedown of the round and he kept him on the mat for the last minute.
It was an incredibly close fight going into Round 3 and neither man fought like they were up comfortably on the cards. O’Malley opened with rapid jabs, only to be backed up by a snapping Yan right. A switch kick by Yan was blocked, nevertheless it looked cool as hell. That O’Malley jab was a reliable weapon the entire fight. Yan got deep on a takedown, but O’Malley showed incredible balance to stay awake, then he blasted Yan with a knee up the center that cut him open followed by a left hand. O’Malley began tagging Yan, but Yan fired right back with double-barrelled hooks. One other right hook cracked O’Malley as he tried to get back on offense.
Yan went to his wrestling in the ultimate two minutes. He took O’Malley down, but O’Malley again stood up before any real damage was done. The identical can’t be said for the subsequent sequence, which saw Yan land one other huge right hand counter, followed by a left across the jaw. The round ended with O’Malley walking right into a takedown and absorbing a hammerfist on the mat.
What did the judges say?
Ben Cartlidge scored it 29-28 O’Malley.
David Lethaby scored it 29-28 O’Malley.
Vito Paolillo scored it 29-28 Yan.
This one got here right down to the primary round as all three judges agreed that Yan won Round 2 and that O’Malley won Round 3. Cartlidge and Lethaby each gave Round 1 to O’Malley.
What did the numbers say?
(Statistics per UFC Stats)
My advice for those advocating for a robbery? Don’t go to the stats, because they’re not favorable to Yan.
O’Malley had a whopping 84-58 advantage in significant strikes, but more importantly he had the sting in two of the three rounds. O’Malley won Round 1 23-19 and Round 3 40-15 (not a typo), while Yan won Round 2 24-21.
The gap is even wider for O’Malley for those who isolate head strikes, typically considered probably the most damaging strikes, as he beat Yan there 63-24. Yan won each the body strike (13-6) and leg strike (21-15) battle. It’s essential to notice that the stats don’t reflect the impact of the strikes as a jab (of which O’Malley threw many) counts similar to a haymaker (of which Yan landed a several) on paper.
Neither fighter was credited with a knockdown, which is somewhat surprising given how they staggered each other in Round 2. But Yan went to a knee for barely half a second, while O’Malley only went down after Yan took him down.
Speaking of which, Yan scored six successful takedowns, with a minimum of one in each round. He also logged 5:44 of control time, though that shouldn’t factor into the choice all that much (more on this later) as he only landed six total ground strikes.
What did the media say?
Alternatively, for those who want evidence of a robbery, look no further than the media scores on MMA Decisions: 26 of 26 in favor of Yan, with seven going so far as to award all three rounds to the previous champion.
That said, I might implore people to examine out the Twitter comments from these scorers, a handful of whom wrote that the fight was close and will have gone either way.
29-28 Yan for me @MMADecisions
However the type of fight you may easily rating for O’Malley. Very close during. #UFC280
— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) October 22, 2022
That was a wonderful fight.
I even have Yan winning 29-28 but this fight established O’Malley as the actual deal and someone to have a really optimistic outlook on. @MMADecisions
— John Pollock (@iamjohnpollock) October 22, 2022
There’s still an awesome amount of support for a Yan win, but let’s acknowledge that the tally there doesn’t tell the entire story.
What did the people say?
(Data derived from MMA Decisions and Verdict MMA)
Fans scoring the bout on MMA Decisions are solidly in Yan’s corner, with almost 75 percent voting for either 29-28 Yan (44 percent) or 30-27 Yan (30 percent). In third, 20 percent voted 29-28 O’Malley.
Regarding the swing rounds, 66 percent scored Round 1 for Yan, while 53 percent scored Round 3 for O’Malley.
Voters on the Verdict MMA app scored the fight for Yan by a large margin.
That scoring system takes the cumulative total of each submitted fan rating (filtering out aberrant scores like random 10-7s in the event that they comprise lower than one percent of the whole) in every round and divides by the quantity of submitted scores to find out the winner of every round and likewise in totality.
Overall, Yan won the fight by 139 points, with a difference of 100 points or higher being indicative of a robbery in my estimation. Nevertheless, it needs to be noted that the ultimate margin is somewhat deceiving on condition that Round 2 — a transparent Yan round — was unanimously scored 10-9 by Verdict users, giving Yan 100 points right there. The margins of Rounds 1 and three were narrow, with Yan winning the primary by 29 points and the last by just nine points.
In MMA Fighting’s online poll, which asked only who won the fight, Yan got here out ahead with 68.2 percent of the vote.
How did I rating it?
On first viewing, I had it 29-28 for Yan, but was also adamant that it was not a robbery.
Given the names involved, the magnitude of the fight, and the vocal uproar in protest of the choice from multiple angles, this demanded a Robbery Review, and I’m glad I did it. Because I’m much more confident that an O’Malley win is justifiable now.
I actually had difficulty finding an argument for Yan winning Round 1 because O’Malley so clearly landed the perfect punches of that period. We are able to’t discount Yan’s outstanding kicks to the leg and body, but I almost at all times weigh head strikes more heavily so on my card that’s an O’Malley frame. Yan’s slam, as cool because it looked, had little influence on potentially ending the fight.
That leads me to my second point. We’ve got to shoot down the parable that takedowns, top control, and octagon control were major aspects on this fight. You possibly can blame the commentary team for this one as they insisted on spouting the archaic and inaccurate notion that Yan was edging out the rounds with timely takedowns. Takedowns and control are secondary criteria which might be only considered when we are able to’t differentiate who won based on striking damage. I don’t care who you think that won, but any educated viewer must have been able to determine each round strictly based on the striking, not every other factor.
Besides, if one views the striking is so close that they feel the necessity to go to secondary criteria, then isn’t the fight by definition not a robbery?
So with Round 1 for O’Malley in my books and Round 2 for Yan in everybody’s books that leaves Round 3, which was a toss-up. Yan legitimately landed just a few counter punches that I’m shocked didn’t floor O’Malley. Young man’s chin at work. Nevertheless, I could say the identical about O’Malley’s knee, which immediately opened up a cut that should have left a robust impression on the judges, not to say the points he racked up with solid jabs that were greater than pitter-patter.
Personally, I leaned towards Yan because he landed more potentially fight-ending shots in Round 3, but I had my doubts watching live and still do after multiple replays of the ultimate round. I’ll follow 29-28 Yan.
Was it a robbery?
It’s hard for critics to just accept that judging is subjective, but outside of sticking to the standards as much as possible, there’ll at all times be room for interpretation. Again, that last round saw each fighters land strikes that would have ended the fight. Neither did. So how do you even begin to call one fighter’s offense simpler than the others?
That third round is so interesting. Yan landed more BIG strikes, but Seanie landed THE BIG strike. I gave it to O’Malley. #UFC280
— Seán Sheehan (@SeanSheehanBA) October 22, 2022
One other thing that bugs me is that perhaps a big chunk of viewers just aren’t scoring jabs anymore? Definitely, power punches should outweigh jabs any day (see: Marlon Vera vs. Rob Font), but I noticed an identical response to the Daniel Rodriguez-Li Jingliang fight at UFC 279, which saw Rodriguez effectively jab Li for 3 rounds and evade some wild swings to win a highly disputed decision. Jabs matter, people, even in MMA.
And I hate to harp on the commentary team, but there is no such thing as a doubt in my mind that their regrettable emphasis on takedowns that led to zero significant damage (except in Round 2, which Yan won on the feet anyway) influenced plenty of people scoring the fight at home. At the tip of the fight, the otherwise impeccable Jon Anik pointed to the on-screen stats and said, “Control time, also a significant factor…” No, it isn’t! Not in a fight where two guys placed on an amazingly expert standup showing. I’m all for mixing the martial arts, however the commentary team has to know that striking and damage are intended to be a much more substantial a part of that blend in accordance with the scoring criteria.
Admitting my very own biases, it’s possible that I used to be swayed by O’Malley doing higher than expected taking such an enormous leap up in competition. I used to be mindful of this going into the a rewatch of the fight, which was easy on condition that I now knew the winner, nevertheless it is an element that has influenced how lots of us have viewed close, dramatic fights previously.
As for O’Malley not being his usual cocky and assured self in his post-fight interview when asked about his thoughts on the fight, I’m glad he wasn’t. The fight was super close! Also, I wouldn’t put an excessive amount of weight into his self-assessment on condition that he just got punched in the pinnacle a bunch of times by Yan.
Look, I accept that Yan likely won this fight and that that is going to be a subject of debate for the rest of O’Malley’s profession. But I hope, blindly, that the discussion revolves around how the fighters placed on an exciting and competitive back-and-forth bout versus any supposed travesty of judging.
The ultimate verdict
Not a robbery.
Poll
Was Sean O’Malley’s win over Petr Yan a robbery?
