Who are Chris Lee and Sal D'Amato? Israel Adesanya rips into two UFC judges for scoring against Kai Kara-France
UFC judge Chris Lee is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, this time with his partner in crime Sal D'Amato.
Lee and D'Amato were keeping the scorecards for the UFC Vegas 74 main-event clash between Kai Kara-France and Amir Albazi. Despite 'Don't Blink' bettering Albazi 99-43 on significant strikes landed, the Iraqi edged out a split decision with Lee and D'Amato scoring the fight in his favor. To defend the controversial scoring, one could of course cite Albazi's control time of over six minutes.
Regardless, the decision did not sit well with the reigning UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who is Kara-France's teammate at the City Kickboxing gym in Auckland run by Eugene Bareman. After initially calling out the two judges for bad scoring, Adesanya claimed to have tweeted their names without even seeing the scorecards. 'The Last Stylebender' wrote:
"I tweeted that before even seeing the scorecards because I knew them two will f*ck it up!! Hoooow many times will they rob athletes of their moments of glory, if their money, their livelihood for their family. F****ck them cunts, they need to expire quickly and go. Mike Bell was the only judge to score this properly, the other two deff need to disappear."
Nah bro…
Fuck yous!!!
Fire Chris Lee & Sal Deez nuts.
I tweeted that before even seeing the scorecards because I knew them two will fuck it up!! Hoooow many times will they rob athletes of their moments of glory, if their money, their livelihood for their family. Fuuuuuuuck them cunts, they need to expire quickly and go. Mike Bell… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… https://t.co/aCRG646b1i
Adesanya also called for more accountability for UFC officials, even suggesting an NBA-style presser to explain their decisions. He further wrote:
"Start interviewing the judges after fights. Hold them accountable for their work."
Start interviewing the judges after fights.
Hold them accountable for their work.
UFC judges Chris Lee and Sal D'Amato have often been criticized for their decisions multiple times
Both veteran judges Chris Lee and Sal D'Amato regularly find themselves at the receiving end of flak due to questionable scoring. D'Amato came under fire last year for being the dissenting judge in Sean Strickland's split-decision win over Jack Hermansson. D'Amato had Hermansson winning three rounds while the other two judges had Strickland winning four.
Similarly, Chris Lee has been the dissenting judge on 37 assignments over the course of his controversial career. UFC president Dana White publicly ripped into him for controversial scores in a Roman Dolidze vs. John Allan bout back in 2020.
Dana White on Chris Lee: "I don't know how that guy could score that fight that way."
White says a girl who he went to kindergarten with, who's now a 51 year old teacher, didn't get how the judge possibly scored the fight that way.