UFC color commentary analyst Joe Rogan didn’t understand what he was seeing from the judges at UFC 247 on Saturday night. Jon Jones retained his light heavyweight title by beating Dominick Reyes by unanimous decision (48-47, 48-47, 49-46), and Rogan wasn’t happy with that result in Houston at the Toyota Center.
That third scorecard (49-46), submitted by Joe Soliz, seemed to be the one in question. The fight had been incredibly tight — and yet Soliz didn’t quite score it as such. The judge made Jones the winner of the final four rounds.
“I can’t argue about this enough,” Rogan said on the UFC broadcast on Saturday night, via MMA Junkie. “I can’t get angry enough. I’ve done it so many times. For anyone to think that was 4-1 Jon Jones, that person’s insane. They’re insane. Dominick Reyes put on a hell of a fight tonight. And to disrespect that performance by that kind of judging is insane.”
Reyes seemed to open the match with pace, and took an offensive game plan in the first three rounds when Reyes seemed to have an advantage while landing a number of big hits on Jones. But endurance became key in the final two rounds, with Jones clearly taking control of the match in the second half. And Soliz, among other judges, decided in favor of Jones.
Soliz took to Twitter to defend his scoring of the match.
“Let me explain my scoring of the main event to end controversy,” Soliz wrote on Twitter in the early morning on Sunday. “If you look at the stats, Reyes did not advance for one bit during the fight. Jones was clearly the most dominant fighter and won round 2, 3, 4, and 5. I have been working for the Texas commission for years I know my job.”
He added: “To elaborate. Dominick Reyes advanced for only 9% of the fight. You cannot win a fight or a round without advancing this is one of the most basic parts of scoring in this sport. I could concede and understand that the second round was close but even then Jones would still win.”
