UFC News: Edson Barboza's attempt to overturn Paul Felder decision loss gets rejected
Paul Felder won a very tight decision victory against Brazillian Lightweight contender Edson Barboza at UFC 242. The decision could have gone either way, but the judges in Abu Dhabi seemed to think that The Irish Dragon had done just enough for the split decision victory.
Immediately after, Barboza's manager appealed to the UFC to have the loss overturned, while Felder made a post on Instagram offering a main event trilogy fight against the Brazillian.
In an interview with MMAFighting, Barboza's manager Alex Davis revealed that the UFC rejected their appeal to have the Felder fight overturned.
"He also agrees that the scorecards were absurd"
The controversy came from the scorecards and Felder's split decision victory. One judge gave every round to Barboza, scoring it 30-27, while the second judge scored gave Felder 30-27. Felder earned the split decision after the third judge scored it 29-28 in his favor.
Speaking to MMAFighting, Barboza's manager Alex Davis showed respect to Felder, but justified his decision to appeal the loss:
“We have the utmost respect for Paul Felder. He thinks he won, and he’s very coherent. He also agrees that the scorecards were absurd. We all know it’s absurd that one judge scores it 30-27 to one fighter and another judge scores it 30-27 to the other.”
He continued, saying:
“I’ll appeal every time there’s a mistake, not because I think I’ll win, but because we have to fight it. A mistake happens, everyone forgets about it in three or four days, and life goes on. We can’t let that happen"
He also appealed to his other client Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira's loss at UFC Copenhagen. He stated that these wrong decisions cost them a large chunk of money and Dhiego Lima was nearly the victim to that after a bizarre split decision victory at UFC 243. In this case, it was clear that Lima won a lopsided unanimous decision but everyone was left bewildered at the scorecards.
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