Daniel Cormier has weighed in on Sean O’Malley’s controversial split decision victory over Petr Yan in their bantamweight bout at UFC 280 on October 22. Many in the MMA community, including Cormier, seemingly believe that Yan should’ve been awarded the win on the judges’ scorecards.
As per the official scorecards, octagon-side judges Ben Cartlidge and David Lethaby scored the fight 29-28 for Sean O’Malley, while Vito Paolillo had it 29-28 for Petr Yan.
In an edition of ESPN MMA‘s DC & RC show, MMA legend Daniel Cormier insinuated that the fight was incredibly close and could’ve been scored either way. Nevertheless, Cormier revealed that he felt ‘No Mercy’ did enough to win the fight.
However, he recalled that he’d personally learned a lot from judge Ben Cartlidge regarding the criteria used to score MMA bouts. On that note, ‘DC’ emphasized that the Cartlidge scorecard convinced him to rewatch the O’Malley-Yan matchup and reanalyze the fight:
“I respect Ben Cartlidge tremendously. I think he’s one of the most smart judges in the entire world.”
Moreover, the former UFC double champion clarified that he has nothing against the cards put forth by Lethaby and Paolillo. Circling back to Cartlidge, ‘DC’ further explained:
“But it’s the Cartlidge card that makes me go, ‘Maybe, we need to watch this again because I know how good of a judge this guy [Ben Cartlidge] is, Ryan Clark… This guy has helped me in terms of understanding judging when he didn’t need to, when I didn’t have a real vast understanding of the judging. I disagree with him on this one. But because of his card, it makes me go, ‘Maybe, I’ll take another look at it to see if I see it different on the second watch.'”
Watch Cormier discuss the topic at 39:27 in the video below:
Aljamain Sterling on Sean O’Malley’s razor-thin win against Petr Yan at UFC 280
Apart from the Sean O’Malley vs. Petr Yan showdown, UFC 280 also saw UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling compete on the card. Sterling dominantly beat former bantamweight titleholder T.J. Dillashaw via second-round TKO.
‘Funk Master’ subsequently appeared on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani and touched upon the O’Malley-Yan matchup.
Revisiting his own back-and-forth rematch and victory over Petr Yan, Aljamain Sterling opined that he clearly beat Yan whereas Sean O’Malley didn’t. He indicated that Yan was robbed of a win over ‘Sugar’.
Pointing out that even O’Malley was “a little shocked and perplexed at the decision,” Sterling said:
“I think it kind of caught him [O’Malley] off guard that it was a split decision. I think it caught him more off guard that he won.”
Watch Sterling’s assessment at 41:53 in the video below:
