The greatest heavyweight in MMA history, Fedor Emelianenko, recently won a contested majority decision over Fabio Maldonado at Eurasian Fight Nights 50 in St. Petersburg, Russia on June 17. By all accounts, Fedor really, really, really lost the first round, bad. He then came back to win the second by nearly all accounts, and in the eyes of most won the third as well, by a slim margin.
That would be 10-8, 9-10, 9-10, a draw. One judge saw it that way, but two did not, conceding Fedor lost the first round, but only by 10-9, not 10-8 or even 10-7. Thus Fedor won a majority decision.
10-8 rounds have long been part of the rules used in MMA, but have received greater attention recently. The lack of a 10-8 by two of the judges is not absolute proof of bias, but could conceivably be the result of antiquated judging practices.
The event was sanctioned by the Russian MMA Union, which appointed the referee and three judges – EvgenyGribkov, AlexeyGorokhov, and Maria Makhmutova. The Russian MMA Union is the only MMA federation certified by the Ministry of Sports in Russia; bad news is, the president of the Russian MMA Union is Fedor, and you can’t regulate yourself.
Maldonado’s camp appealed the decision to the Russian MMA Union, but it was denied by vice president RadmirGabdullin?, as the appeal was not filed within 40 minutes of the decision, a baffling requirement, given the chaos that typically follows immediately after a major MMA fight. Vice president Gabdullin has an established working relationship with Russian MMA Union president Emelianenko.
Maldonado’s camp then appealed to the World Mixed Martial Arts Association, the dominant governing body for amateur MMA internationally. Russia is a member nation of the WMMAA, and the Russian MMA Union sanctions MMA in Russia.
Karim Zidan for BE reports the WMMAA assigned three independent officials to post-judge the match – Youri Lamoureux (CAN), LukaszBosacki (POL), AlexeyZemskov (RUS). All three judges scored the fight identically, and correctly: 28-28.
Accordingly, the WMMAA will record the bout results as a Unanimous Draw, and will communicate same to Fight Nights, the Russian MMA Union, and Fedor.
However, the Russian MMA Union says “nyet.”
The “result cannot be overturned,” said Gabdullin to Tass. “The WMMAA can express their views, but do not have the right to influence the judge’s decision on the Russian professional promotion. This situation I regard as an unfounded attempt to take away a well-deserved victory from Russian legend FedorEmelianenko.”.
H/T PPusher
