If you were watching closely - or just paying good attention to MMA Twitter - during UFC 204, you may have noticed a strange irregularity in the first fight of the night. During Leonardo Santos’ bout with Adriano Martins in the event’s Fight Pass opener, there were only two ringside judges present for opening round of the contest.
Normal procedure dictates that there be three judges ringside for each UFC bout. It’s even supposed to be part of the ref’s pre-fight checks before starting the action. But at UFC 204, where the third judge was supposed to be there was an empty chair.
MMA Fighting photographer Ester Lin shared the discovery on Twitter, live from the event:
Lin sent an update a few minutes later that the judge had arrived, shortly after the start of round 2, but for the entirety of the first round he was AWOL... Well, not quite AWOL, as it turns out.
In a statement to MMA Junkie, UFC executive Marc Ratner explained that the missing judge, Jeff Mullen, was seated in the first row of the “commission seating area,” for the first round of the fight:
“At the UFC 204 event on Oct. 8 in Manchester, England, a judge was not in the proper judge’s chair during the first round of the Adriano Martins vs. Leonardo Santos bout,” the statement reads. “Judge Jeff Mullen was seated in the first row of the commission seating area and was observing the bout. Upon noticing that Judge Mullen was not in his appropriate seat at the end of round 1, Marc Ratner, UFC Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, asked Mullen if he believed that he could adequately score the round from his vantage point. Judge Mullen confirmed that he had observed the entire round and that he could appropriately score the round. As a result, Mullen filled out his judge’s scorecard for round 1 and took his appropriate judge’s seat to observe and score the remaining two rounds of the bout.”
Ratner went on to not that while Mullen was not in his assigned seat, all three judges scored the first round a 10-9 for Leonardo Santos. He added, however, that in response to the incident, the “UFC has reviewed its protocol for starting any and all bouts that occur in territories that do not have an applicable athletic commission or federation.”
That’s well and good for the future, but the incident has left Adriano Martins’ camp with questions about the fight itself. The bout ended up being a closely contested split decision, scored in favor of Santos. Had Mullen scored round 1 for Martins instead, he would have gotten the win. As such, they’re asking that the fight be declared a no-contest due to Mullen being out of position for a potentially pivotal round.
“With all due respect to Santos and Nova Uniao, it was such a close fight that anything that judge missed, a single kick or punch, could change the result of the fight,” Adriano Martins’ manager told MMA Junkie. “There is a protocol in place, and if the judge isn’t where he’s supposed to be at cageside, the fight should be considered a no contest.”
UFC fight results are notoriously hard to change after the fact, with commissions - and the promotion itself - preferring to stick with the judgement of their referees and judges, rather than potentially calling into question their authority. But Martins’ case seems especially strong, since judges themselves often reference the difference that a vantage point can make in the scoring of any round. Maybe without an actual commission to deal with, these complaints will hold a bit more weight.