Daniel Cormier’s cageside commentary is being called into question yet again after “DC” labeled a fighter’s split-decision win as “trash.”
Last weekend at UFC 315, UFC light heavyweight Modestas Bukauskas returned to the Octagon in a “Prelims” fight against veteran Ion Cutelaba. The pre-fight betting odds were pretty even as both fighters had the skillset and ability to walk out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, victorious. It was going to be a battle of inches.
Unfortunately, the 205-pound matchup was left in the hands of the judges. While it appeared that Cutelaba’s activity may have been enough to win him the fight it was Bukauskas who walked away with the split-decision victory. What made matters worse is the fact that one of the judges awarded Bukauskas all three rounds, which was completely unfounded based on how the fight actually played out.
After the decision was read, Cormier and the UFC 315 broadcast team discussed the outcome and offered their initial feedback.
“That’s trash,” said Cormier. “That’s actually a very bad decision. A 30-27 for Bukauskas?”
While Cormier is more right than wrong in pointing out the 30-27 score for Bukauskas his comment about the win being “trash” probably didn’t need to be said. After all, Bukauskas fought well for 15 hard minutes and was never put in serious trouble. Cutelaba didn’t do enough to pull away in the fight and it cost him when the scores were tallied up.
Earlier this week, Bukauskas discussed Cormier’s post-fight comment and couldn’t understand why he felt that way. The light heavyweight fighter acknowledged that he probably ruined a lot of parlays with the split decision, but he still feels like he did enough to deserve the win.
“I feel like that seemed to influence a lot of people’s opinions as well, especially online,” Bukauskas told MMA Fighting about Cormier’s “trash” comment. “Then everyone was just sort of [repeating] what was said on the commentary as opposed to taking an opinion for themselves. Obviously, I respect those fighters. They’re Hall of Famers. They’re some of the best in the sport. You can’t knock them for what they’ve done in the sport, but I just didn’t understand where it was coming from. I didn’t understand why their viewpoint was swayed so much to one side. It literally made no sense to me.
“I guess everyone’s got their own opinion. They’re obviously entitled to it. A lot of people lost their parlays as well on the betting so obviously a lot of people weren’t happy about that and it was a close fight. You can’t please everyone in this sport. All I’ve got to do is keep winning. At the end of the day what goes down on paper is a win so all I’ve got to do is just keep continuing to do that.”
