James Krause furious over UFC 247 judge Joe Soliz’s alleged conflict of interest

A TSN report revealed judge Joe Soliz has a connection to the fighter he ruled a winner over James Krause, and Krause is having none of it.

A judge in a controversial decision at UFC 247 had potential conflict of interest issues with one of the fighters involved, and the competitor on the wrong end of the scorecard is none too pleased.

Controversial Texas judge Joe Soliz scored the bout on Feb. 8 in Houston between [autotag]James Krause[/autotag] and [autotag]Trevin Giles[/autotag] in favor of Giles, helping sway a split decision in Giles’ favor.

Tuesday, TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter reported that Soliz had a connection with Giles’ gym, Elite MMA. Soliz trained under Eric Williams — who cornered Giles at UFC 247 — and earned a black belt at the academy before leaving in 2010.

While all three judges scored the second round in Giles’ favor, Soliz was the only one who scored a first round widely believed to be all Krause in Giles’ favor.

That made the difference as Giles won the middleweight fight by split decision, getting the better end of two out of three 29-28 scores.

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The appearance of bias was enough to enrage Krause, who accepted the bout on a single day’s notice due to a late fallout by Antonio Arroyo.

And Krause let loose via Instagram on Tuesday:

If this isn’t the most frustrating (expletive) for me in the world I don’t know what… how is this not a conflict of interest?
Training at someone’s gym for 10+ years and receiving a black belt from the coach corner my opponent.

You can read his full post here:

View this post on Instagram

If this isn’t the most frustrating shit for me in the world I don’t know what… how is this not a conflict of interest? Training at someone’s gym for 10+ years and receiving a black belt from the coach corner my opponent. I no way am I mad I lost the fight, it was close. 1 was mine, 2 was his, and 3 was a toss up. But round 3 was given to me on 2/3 cards. It was round 1 they scored for him. After a take down and almost 4 minutes of back control, not to mention almost finishing the RNC, I don’t know how they would give that round to him. This sport has been around for too long to not start making changes. I know the Texas State Athletic Commission wont do a damn thing about my fight. They never do but I hope the @ufc, @danawhite, and the state commissions can come together to actually make the judging for OUR sport, not boxing and hold the people doing these jobs accountable. This is a disgrace to our sport. Not just my fight but multiple examples of incompetence from the same judge. So frustrated to even read this shit… and remember I lost half my purse because of this guy.

A post shared by James Krause (@thejameskrause) on

Jason House, Krause’s manager, informed TSN they plan on appearing the decision with the Texas commission.

“I was informed that one of the judges of the James Krause versus Trevin Giles bout had a close previous relationship with one of Giles’ coaches,” House told TSN. “If true, this is deeply concerning. These athletes risk and sacrifice too much for there not to be a fair playing field. As we are currently in the appeals process, we are withholding further comment. It is our hope that the appeals process will work as designed and uphold the integrity of our sport.”

Giles vs. Krause was far from the only fight for which Soliz was criticized: His 49-46 score in favor of Jon Jones over Dominick Reyes in the evening’s main event was also the subject of much discussion.

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