Sean Strickland is not happy with the judging of UFC Vegas 66’s main event.
Strickland suffered his second loss in a row Saturday, falling short to Jared Cannonier in an unusual split decision that saw none of the judges unanimously agree on a single round of the five-round bout. Judges Derek Cleary and Junichiro Kamijo both scored the bout 49-46 for Cannonier, while judge Sal D’Amato scored a dissenting 49-46 for Strickland, with Cleary and D’Amato’s scorecards even being literal opposites of one another.
According to the UFC’s official stats, Strickland out-landed Cannonier in total strikes in each of the five rounds, however Cannonier’s power shots ultimately won him the decision.
And safe to say, Strickland did not agree with that line of thinking.
The outspoken 31-year-old took to Instagram following the loss to criticize the judging of the bout and complain that judges “don’t know how to f****** do their job.”
Strickland’s comments can be read and watched below.
“I’m a f****** sore loser. Hats off to Jared. But again, you have judges that don’t know how to f****** do their job. You actually look at the scorecards and you look at the significant strikes and you look at how many times I wobbled him, and you know, you have people — experts in the field — come up to me and say, ‘Yeah man, I don’t know how you lost that one. You landed way more. The scorecards should say it.’ So anyway, I’m going to shut the f*** up now and get off my soapbox. Thank you guys for supporting me. Thank you to the UFC. Back to the drawing board. On to the next one.”
Strickland also doubled down on his message with the text accompanying his post.
“I just want to ask a judge when you go back and look at the data do you ever feel bad for robbing guys because you don’t know a damn thing about fighting?? Hmmm anyways thank you everyone.. Coaches, fans and haters! Onto the next!!”
Cannonier, for his part, stated post-fight that was “confident” the right person won and called for either a title fight or a No. 1 contenders bout next.
Does Strickland have a case to be upset?
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Did the judges get it wrong at UFC Vegas 66?
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54%
Yes, Strickland should’ve won
(95 votes)
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45%
No, Cannonier was the rightful winner
(78 votes)
173 votes total
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