Warren/Galvao Judge: Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges
Saturday night Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren won a controversial unanimous decision over Marcos Galvao in a non title fight….
Saturday night Bellator featherweight champion Joe Warren won a controversial unanimous decision over Marcos Galvao in a non title fight. All three judges gave the bout to Warren, a result that found few supporters outside of Warren’s immediate family. Indeed, responses from the MMA community ranged from ‘controversial’ to ‘fix’.
The greatest source of controversy was judge Chuck Wolfe, who, alone, called the second round for Warren. MMAFighting caught up with Wolfe, who defended his decision, although he declined to go into a detailed account of the second round.
“It could be one takedown different, it could be one punch different, it could be one kick different, it could be one attempted submission different.”
“I’ve judged and refereed since the beginning of the sport, I’ve been head official for over 600 different bouts. If you want to question my credentials, I think I have way more than anyone out there to be qualified to judge. I know fans get disappointed, but I don’t think you’re going to have Joe Warren fans complain about how the decision went.”
“Did he damage Warren in that fight? Yeah, he did, for a short period of time. I remember the bout very clearly. When they are close rounds there’s one thing or maybe two things that might put someone ahead. … You can grade it 10-10 but you might as well not be there if you’re not going to score someone to win the round.”
“There are a lot of things that a fan will cheer about outside the cage, but each judge has a different viewpoint and a different angle. Unfortunately, judges don’t have a replay, don’t have a rewind, they just have to judge by what they see.”
“He had three rounds to take Warren out if he really wanted to beat him — he had three rounds to dominate Warren, as well as Warren had three rounds to dominate him. It’s up to the fighter. … Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges, especially when it’s a close fight.”