South Korea’s “Iron Turtle” Park Jun-yong put on a dominant display against Tafon Nchukwi on the UFC Vegas 26 preliminaries, but one of the three cageside judges didn’t see it that way on Saturday night.
The 30-year-old Park (13-4) picked up one scorecard of 30-25, while another read 29-26, with referee Chris Tognoni deducting a point from Cameroon-born Nchuwki (5-1) in the second round for multiple groin shots.
However, the third judge Tony Weeks saw it 28-28, awarding Park only the first round at the UFC’s Apex Facility.
“I can’t speak for anyone else but I thought I handily won all three rounds,” Park said in a post-fight media scrum. “It was definitely not a 28-28, but I guess that’s what the judge saw so I can’t speak for them.
“I don’t really have any words for that, it defies logic. I want to say something about it and I’m open to whatever the judge saw, if he can explain why he thought it was 28-28, but I have no words.”
Despite the controversy, Park is now riding a three-fight win streak in the UFC’s stacked middleweight division, and is open to facing anyone. “Whenever the UFC sends a contract, I’m ready to fight,” he said.
“I feel pretty good about my performance,” Park added. “I feel I performed 70 or 80 per cent of what I could have done. There were two chances to do submissions and I lost those chances. I can‘t give myself an ‘A plus’ on this one.
“I thought I won all three rounds convincingly. I believe I got a 10-8 and he got deducted a point for the low blow. I’ve got to say the 28-28 score was kind of weak. That made me a little worried.
“I want to fight as often as possible. I don’t feel like I’m in a position to call anyone out. I’ll take on whoever the UFC throws at me.”
