Former champ Brandon Moreno now has a new opponent at the upcoming February event in Mexico City.
Former UFC flyweight champ [autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] now has a new, yet familiar opponent for his next outing.
Originally scheduled to face Amir Albazi on Feb. 24, Moreno (21-7-2 MMA, 9-4-2 UFC) will now face former title challenger [autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag] in the new main event.
The event takes place at Mexico City Arena in Mexico City, Mexico, and airs live on ESPN+. The promotion officially announced the change Thursday.
In a statement posted to X, Albazi explained that a neck injury led to his removal from the fight.
“I have been dealing with a serious neck injury the past weeks,” Albazi wrote. “After some scans the UFC doctors decided to pull me out of the fight immediately. I want to apologize to the fans and the @UFC. I will be back inshallah.”
In their first meeting at UFC 255, Moreno defeated Royval (15-7 MMA, 5-3 UFC) after a nasty shoulder injury led to the end of the fight in the first round. Now, Moreno and Royval will run it back 39 months later in the UFC’s return to Mexico.
Moreno will be fighting for the first time since dropping his flyweight title to Alexandre Pantoja by split decision at UFC 290 in July. Royval was Pantoja’s first title challenger at UFC 296, but ended up on the wrong side of a unanimous decision. Coincidentally, Moreno weighed in as the backup fighter incase something went wrong at the last minute.
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With the change, the UFC event on Feb. 24 in Mexico City includes:
All the UFC fight announcements that were first reported or confirmed by MMA Junkie in the past week.
MMA fight announcements are hard to follow. With so many outlets and channels available, it’s nearly impossible to organize.
But here at MMA Junkie, we’ve got your back.
Each week, we’ll compile all the newly surfaced fights in one spot. Every Monday, expect a feature listing everything you might have missed from the UFC.
Here are the fight announcements that were broken or confirmed by MMA Junkie or officially announced by the promotions from Nov. 27-Dec. 3.
Brandon Moreno and Amir Albazi will meet in a five-round co-main event fight when UFC returns to Mexico City in February.
[autotag]Brandon Moreno[/autotag] and [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] will get their wish for a high-stakes flyweight contender matchup in February, and it will unfold over the course of five rounds.
Former multi-time 125-pound champion Moreno (21-7-2 MMA, 9-3-2 UFC) told MMA Junkie earlier this week a fight against Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) was the “logical” next move for his career, and now it has materialized as the co-main event for UFC Fight Night on Feb. 24, which is expected to take place in Mexico City.
The event in Mexico has not been formally announced, but two people with knowledge of the situation told MMA Junkie that the matchup is signed following an initial report from ESPN Deportes. The people requested anonymity.
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Moreno, No. 3 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie flyweight rankings, last competed at UFC 290 in July where he lost the title to Alexandre Pantoja by unanimous decision in a Fight of the Year contender. Moreno, 29, suffered a broken hand in the fight, but has fully recovered and is looking to use Albazi as his platform to get another crack at gold.
It will be no easy task against the No. 7-ranked Albazi, however, who has been on nothing short of a roll since making his octagon debut in July 2020. The 30-year-old is coming off his biggest win to date, a narrow split decision over Kai Kara-France at UFC on ESPN 46 in June.
UFC Fight Night on Feb. 24 will mark the promotion’s sixth event in Mexico City and first since September 2019. The card will likely take place at Arena Ciudad de México. Broadcast plans are unknown at this time.
Never have judges publicly explained their decisions like this until MMA Junkie joined a CSAC meeting in the immediate aftermath of Bellator 290.
Calls for transparency and accountability from judges is a constant thing in MMA. After all, it’s a big responsibility given the livelihoods of fighters depend on judges “getting it right.” And yet, state athletic commissions who hire these officials never make them available to the media – until now.
At Bellator 290 on Feb. 4, the California State Athletic Commission allowed MMA Junkie to attend its immediate post-event debriefing, where judges and referees discussed their decisions with CSAC executives. It was the first time a news organization has been granted access to such a meeting after a major MMA event. Below is an in-depth recap.
*****
Two days after [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] lost to [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] in the UFC on ESPN 46 main event, popular combat sports personality Ariel Helwani was flabbergasted by the outcome.
Just how egregious was it? Nineteen of 21 media members scored the fight for Kara-France, according to MMADecisions.com, making it one of the most disputed fights of the year.
Helwani, host of “The MMA Hour,” went on his June 5 show echoing the sentiment of just about everyone who watched the fight. He lambasted both judges – Chris Lee and Sal D’Amato – responsible for awarding Albazi a split decision with 48-47 scores. Mike Bell was the dissenting judge who went 48-47 for Kara-France.
“One thing that I think is changeable, if that’s even a word … is transparency and accountability,” Helwani said. “And what I mean by that is, why is it that we do not hear from these men and women who are the officials on Saturday night, on Sunday, on Monday to at least explain to us what they were thinking?”
The simple answer is that athletic commissions, who hire and assign MMA judges and referees, widely discourage them from openly discussing the fights they officiate. The Nevada Athletic Commission, which oversaw Albazi vs. Kara-France at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, long has frowned upon judges speaking to the media, with one judge telling MMA Junkie that message has been communicated from NAC executives in the past.
The California State Athletic Commission, however, believes in doing things differently. Helwani said he found this out when he made a phone call to CSAC executive director Andy Foster after the UFC on ESPN 46 main event controversy.
Executive officer Andy Foster (right) leads a California State Athletic Commission meeting to review Bellator 290 at The Forum in Inglewood.
“Andy Foster, he told me, believe it or not, after every event in California – I’ve been doing this since 2006, (and) I never knew this,” Helwani said. “After every event in California, there is actually a commission meeting with the officials that the media is allowed to attend. Did you guys know this? I never knew this.”
It’s true.
In fact, four months prior to UFC on ESPN 46, during a phone conversation in the lead up to Bellator 290 on Feb. 4, Foster invited me to the CSAC’s debriefing for the event held at The Forum in Inglewood. Much to my surprise, I didn’t have to ask. He invited me.
“There’s this nonsense going around in various media circles that commissions are not transparent,” Foster told me. “Nobody’s ever asked to come. You’re welcome to come anytime you want to.”
So I took him up on the offer. Roughly 15 minutes after the final fight at Bellator 290, I sat in an arena conference room while Foster led the meeting of CSAC executives, inspectors, judges, and referees who powwowed about what transpired.
From where I sat cageside, three fights were particularly of interest for different reasons: [autotag]Darrion Caldwell[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Nikita Mikhailov[/autotag]; [autotag]Diana Avsaragova[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Alejandra Lara[/autotag]; and [autotag]Ali Isaev[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Steve Mowry[/autotag].
And so, I went into the CSAC meeting with questions about all three. It was an enlightening first-time experience to hear judges and one prominent referee speak for themselves to this extent immediately after the fights.
Result: Nikita Mikhailov def. Darrion Caldwell via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28) Judges: Chris Leben, Jon Marigliano, Felicia Oh; all three scored each round exactly the same. Media scores: Four out of five 29-28 in favor of Caldwell (via MMADecisions.com) Referee: Raphael Davis
Synopsis: This fight came down to the second round. Within the first minute, Caldwell secured a takedown, took Mikhailov’s back and worked a rear-naked choke that, for a moment, was locked in tightly. Mikhailov fought off the hands and then his defense, while lying supine on top of Caldwell, was to throw short, backward punches over his shoulder that landed. With about three minutes remaining, Mikhailov tried to escape by rolling into Caldwell, who did a nice job staying on top but in Mikhailov’s guard. With his back on the mat, Mikhailov kept busy with elbows. Despite owning top control, Caldwell didn’t take full advantage. At the 1:10 mark, referee Davis stood them up. Caldwell landed a nice counter left and hit a perfectly timed double leg takedown to end up inside of Mikhailov’s guard with about 50 seconds remaining. Caldwell was more active with his attach to close the round, but Mikhailov also went back to throwing elbows.
MMA Junkie asks:Caldwell spent the majority of Rounds 1 and 2 in top control and seemed to have secured both of them. Why did all three judges score Round 2 in favor of Mikhailov?
Foster: “He got a takedown, and he had a choke. It’s unusual that you see the amount of damage that that fighter that was being choked or was in that position come back, so I’ve got to think that’s probably what the judges were seeing because they all came back with the same score. The elbows were pretty hard. Chris, you want to start?”
Leben: “It’s rare to see a fighter win off his back, but his striking was far more effective off his back than the grappling was on top. It’s as simple as that. The striking was the most effective thing in that round.”
Marigliano: “Yeah, I agree with that. Initially he had him in the rear and had a choke attempt, but after that dissipated, Caldwell was on top and didn’t, in my eyes, come close to any valid submission, and the guy on the bottom was just damaging with elbows. Really from the three-minute, four-minute, five-minute (marks), all the strikes were landed by the guy on the bottom in my humble opinion.”
Oh: “He had the top position, but he didn’t really do anything. There was a lot of holding. At the beginning, he was attempting the choke. But even after that, he was taking punches, and he wasn’t really trying to finish it. He was more holding. The elbows from the bottom were definitely much more effective.”
Foster: “There was the attempt there where I think he was really trying to get the choke for a little while, for a short amount of time. And it’s like he was content to just sit there and get hit because he was in the better position, but we’re not playing the grappling match. I’m not saying you’ve got to agree with the judges, but you’ve heard their explanation.”
Result: Diana Avsaragova def. Alejandra Lara via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28) Judges: Hadi Mohamed Ali, Raphael Davis, Jon Marigliano; Marigliano was the odd judge who scored it for Lara. Media scores: Five out of seven 29-28 in favor of Lara (via MMADecisions.com) Referee: Jonathan Romero
Synopsis: In Round 1, the timing and distance of Avsaragova’s counter striking was the difference, which showed in all three judges’ 10-9 scores in her favor. Round 2 proved to be the difference. Both landed decent strikes through two minutes, close to even, but after that things got interesting. For about the next two minutes, it appeared Avsaragova got the better of the exchanges – if only slightly. Every time Lara closed the distance, Avsaragova faded the combo attacks and landed counters. But in the final 45 seconds, Lara decided to bite down on her mouthpiece and charge forward with looping punches. The combinations were wild, but some of these shots – perhaps the biggest of the round – landed cleanly and caused Avsaragova to retreat. Lara would later tell MMA Junkie’s Danny Segura that she believed she did enough to get the win.
MMA Junkie asks:Overall this was a very close fight that could’ve gone either way. What was the difference for the judge who scored it for Lara?
Marigliano: “I had Lara winning (Round 2). I thought objectively you could see the damage with her rights because the whole left side of Diana, all around her eye, was bruised up to her cheek. Lara had some great leg kicks in the first round and was bruising the inside of the leg. Diana kept coming forward, so I gave (Diana) the first round. The second round, (Lara) was landing those kicks. Now Diana wasn’t coming forward, so subjectively I thought she had diminished energy. She wasn’t active coming forward, and Lara kept coming forward and was hurting her with the leg kicks. But I really thought she had some right power punches that were more effective the second round and incurred a good bit of damage. That’s why I gave it to her. I thought her striking was more effective – maybe not more efficient, but more effective.”
Foster: “My notes on Round 2 was, ‘Very close, both had moments, that round could’ve gone either way.’ That’s literally what I thought.”
‘I was definitely close to stopping it’
Judge Mike Bell (left) and referee Herb Dean (right) during the California State Athletic Commission’s meeting after Bellator 290 at The Forum in Inglewood.
Result: Ali Isaev vs. Steve Mowry declared unanimous draw (28-28, 28-28, 28-28) Judges: Hadi Mohamed Ali, Chris Crail, Elliot Kelly; all three scored each round exactly the same. Media scores: Eight out of nine 28-28 draw (via MMADecisions.com) Referee: Herb Dean
Synopsis: There was a pivotal moment within the first 30 seconds of Round 2 when Isaev tried to throw Mowry to the ground, but he missed it and ended up with Mowry on his back, which quickly escalated once Mowry locked in hooks and flattened Isaev on his belly. With his legs hovering above the canvas, Isaev had no escape. For the next 30 seconds, Isaev absorbed a plethora of punches as he struggled to defend himself. During the barrage, referee Dean could be heard on the broadcast telling Isaev to “fight back” and “get out of there” several times as he warned of an impending stoppage. Ultimately, Dean didn’t stop the fight in that moment. The round continued with Mowry in firm control, going back and forth between ground-and-pound and arm-triangle choke attempts while an exhausted Isaev could do nothing but lay there and defend. It was a clear 10-8 for Mowry from all three judges, which led to the unanimous draw.
MMA Junkie asks:There was good reason to stop the fight in Round 2 when Mowry was on Isaev’s back, flattened him out and rained ground-and-pound down on him. The crowd seemed to be calling for a stoppage. Herb, what did you see, and why did you let the action continue?
Dean: “I was close to stopping the fight. I go into the fighters’ rooms, and I give instructions before the fight. I talk about some of the fouls and things like that, but I always tell them, ‘The most important thing I’m going to tell you is before I intervene, I’m going to talk to you. If I say fight back, that means I’m about to stop your fight. What I expect from you is I want to see an effort that lets me know you know what’s going on, you still want to do this, and some sort of effort to solve your position.’ So if I see someone getting pounded on and I say fight back, and he just lays there and continues to (cover up) and hopefully it goes away, then I’m going to stop that fight. But if someone gives me effort to make their position better – now, they don’t always have to be successful, but their effort has to be something where maybe it’s going to make it harder for the other person, he breaks his posture or he has to stop punching. And that’s what that young man (Isaev) did. Whenever I told him to fight back, he gave an effort to get out of the position. He wasn’t successful getting out of the position, but he gave effort, and the other guy had to keep addressing it. Then, after he stopped, I always have to balance if the guy is able to defend himself and how much is he defending himself from. When it got to about the last minute-and-a-half of the round, (Mowry) was still in the mount and about to come after him again, but this time the guy on top was diminished from maintaining that position and trying to (finish the fight). Earlier he was able to roll elbows and land them; this time when he tried to roll elbows or set stuff up, he was never able to land something. So for the last minute of the round, even though (Mowry) was coming after him, he never really landed anything that effective. So (Isaev) did enough to make it through the round. I was definitely close to stopping it, though.”
When Bellator returns to the “Golden State” for Bellator 300 on Friday in San Diego, the CSAC will gather immediately afterward to review the event. Reporters are welcome to attend. With four title fights on the night, the judges are sure to be under the spotlight.
But this is what transparency looks like in MMA officiating. There’s too much at stake to not hold judges accountable for their decisions.
The CSAC gets that and is to be commended for going against the grain on this issue. Hopefully more commissions are willing to follow Foster’s lead.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for Bellator 290.
UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja doesn’t see a clear-cut contender for his first title defense.
UFC flyweight champion [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag] doesn’t see a clear-cut contender for his first title defense.
Pantoja (25-5 MMA, 9-3 UFC) dethroned Brandon Moreno (21-6-2 MMA, 9-3-2 UFC) to claim the flyweight title in this past Saturday’s UFC 290 co-main event. Weighing in as a backup for their fight was Brandon Royval, whom Pantoja submitted in August 2021.
Also recently emerging as a top contender was [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC), who edged out Kai Kara-France (24-11 MMA, 7-4 UFC) in the UFC on ESPN 45 main event in June. However, Pantoja doesn’t think anyone has quite earned the title shot yet. He suggests Albazi fight Royval to determine the No. 1 contender.
“I respect Amir a lot. He’s making a good job, but he just took one guy off the top 10 with a close fight,” Pantoja told MMA Junkie. “Brandon Royval, that’s a very good name. I like this kid, but I beat him in my last two fights. Put these guys to fight end of the year, and take one and give to me. Who deserves it more, put these guys to fight. That’s what I think is the best choice.”
Pantoja isn’t against running things back with Moreno but would like to see fresh blood in the division get their shot. In a pre-fight interview with MMA Junkie, Pantoja envisioned dominating Moreno, so is a little disappointed with his performance.
“I respect Moreno a lot, I want to fight with Moreno, of course, because I think I need to prove more for me, not for everyone,” Pantoja said. “For me, because I know I can finish him. It’s not disrespecting him. It’s about my vision, about the life and my vision of what I do in the gym.
“At this point, I don’t think he needs to fight again for the belt. I wait a lot for this belt. I think the UFC needs to give the opportunity to other guys. Moreno fought for the belt for the last three years, and I wait for that. There are a lot of guys in the division that wait for that too. I respect all the division. Everybody doing a lot of beautiful work.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.
Amir Albazi thinks the commentators at UFC on ESPN 45 showed a little bit of bias toward Kai Kara-France.
[autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] believes the commentators at UFC on ESPN 45 showed a little bit of bias toward [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] in their fight.
But even after rewatching the fight, Albazi is still confident that he did enough to win.
“I don’t think it was a controversial decision. I think it was a close fight,” Albazi told ESPN. “The highest level we are at right now, so of course it’s gonna be a close fight. I expect it on the way too.”
The Iraq-born fighter thinks the UFC commentary team – which consisted of Brendan Fitzgerald, Michael Bisping and Laura Sanko – helped sway the public’s opinion against him.
I still think I won (Rounds) 1, 2, and 3,” Albazi said. “I came into the fourth feeling like I had done enough. I took three in the bag, so it came to the judges. That’s about it. I feel like the judges were with me on that one. I think a lot of people are also looking at commentary, what the commentary said.
“That’s another part I didn’t like. They were kind of like not giving me credit for what I was doing and giving Kai too much credit for stuff that I don’t believe. They said he defended my takedowns, but let’s be real here. The moment I tried to take you down, I got you down. I didn’t want to take you down, I wanted to punch you in the face. That’s actually what happened.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Henry Cejudo doesn’t like what he sees from judges and believes it’s time open scoring was implemented in the UFC.
[autotag]Henry Cejudo[/autotag] thinks it’s time open scoring is implemented in the UFC.
Cejudo’s comments come after [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag]’s split decision win over [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 45 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Cejudo thought Kara-France was robbed.
Cejudo himself is coming off a split decision loss at UFC 288, where he was edged out by bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling. He also pointed to Vasiliy Lomachenko’s close setback to Devin Haney as a recent example of a controversial loss.
“Let’s talk about judging,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “That’s right. I’m talking about all you bald-headed fat people who have never fought before who are actually judging fights. Guys, I’m not here just to talk about my fight. I’m talking about Vasiliy Lomachenko. I’m talking about Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi.”
Cejudo thinks open scoring would help solve the problem of close fights. While he has accepted his loss to Sterling, he’s particularly irked by judge Derek Cleary awarding Sterling Round 5 of their fight – a round he thinks was clearly his.
“All these fights happened in the last three weeks,” Cejudo continued. “Robbery upon robbery. Close fights, people giving a fifth round to somebody who I don’t know how it is he actually won it. Where are we going to hold these judges accountable? What are they watching? Could there be a curriculum where a lot of these judges could actually fight or do we make the actual referee into a judge and we make it even because he’s the closest person in there? Or should we have an open scorecard?
“I actually like that. I actually do believe that the UFC should actually change it into an (open) scorecard. We said, ‘Hey man, you lost. That was blue corners or that was red corners round.’ Where people actually know where is it and when is it that you have to put the pedal to the metal. It’s to the point where it’s getting confusing and the last thing we want to do is turn the sport of mixed martial arts into boxing where there’s complete robbery. Where you know that you can knock the guy down 10 out of the 12 rounds and still lose.”
Cejudo suggests a prerequisite for people to have martial arts backgrounds in order to be eligible to judge.
“Where is it that these people are going to be held accountable? Should there be a curriculum for these judges to be able to say, ‘Hey man, you at least to be a judge have to have a background and have to have amateur experience in boxing, wrestling, jiu-jitsu, or mixed martial arts,'” Cejudo said.
“But you need one of those traits in order for you to actually do it because I don’t feel like at times people really count the actual takedown. I don’t think at the time people really count the actual leg kicks or even to the body. This is becoming a problem, and we have to do our best to let the best man win because if not, guys, it’s becoming a sh*t show. It’s becoming a circus.”
Brandon Royval doesn’t think Amir Albazi’s performance against Kai Kara-France warrants a title shot.
[autotag]Brandon Royval[/autotag] doesn’t think [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag]’s performance against [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] warrants a title shot.
Kara-France (24-11 MMA, 7-4 UFC) lost a split decision to Albazi (17-1 MMA, 5-0 UFC) in this past Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 45 headliner at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. Like many, Royval disagreed with the judges’ scorecards.
Royval (15-6 MMA, 5-2 UFC) is pegged as the backup for the flyweight title fight between champion Brandon Moreno and Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 290. But after Albazi beat Kara-France, not only did he jump Royval in the rankings, but Dana White said the next title challenger is still up for debate.
Dana White says Brandon Royval isn't a lock over #UFCVegas74 winner Amir Albazi for the next flyweight title shot.
“I thought at the very least, even if Albazi won, it’s not deserving of a title performance and it’s not really deserving to jump me in the rankings,” Royval told MMA Underground. “I thought that immediately, I was like, ‘Cool, he ain’t gonna beat me in the rankings and he’s not gonna take my title shot from me.’
“I was pretty stoked. Then I saw Dana White’s interview and I was like, ‘What the f*ck?’ If they’re really gonna jump me over that performance, that’s f*cking crazy. I’m not even trying to say just over my winning over Kai Kara-France.”
Royval beat Kara-France in a more definitive way than Albazi, submitting him at UFC 253. Royval then dropped two straight to Moreno and Pantoja, before rebounding with three straight wins – most recently snapping Matheus Nicolau’s six-fight winning streak with a first-round knockout in April.
“Raw Dog” thinks his body of work has been much more impressive than that of Albazi.
“That was a sh*tty fight,” Royval said on Albazi vs. Kara-France. “It was definitely not him (Albazi) winning. If it was, it was the razor-ist of winning, barely. It was a very underwhelming performance. Then if you compare performance vs. performance and we go the resume that Matheus Nicolau had compared to Amir Albazi, it’s like, ‘There’s no way he’s gonna jump me in the rankings.’ This dude’s never fought anybody and the fight that was supposed to be a big one, nobody really thinks he won it.”
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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 45.
Amir Albazi gets closer to the top of the flyweight divison after defeating Kai Kara-France at UFC on ESPN 45.
The men’s flyweight division is shaken up in this week’s rankings update.
In the main event of UFC on ESPN 45, [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] picked up a split decision win over former vacant interim title challenger [autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag]. Although it was a close fight, the result caused a number of movements in the flyweight divisional rankings.
Kara-France is on a two-fight skid, and falls from No. 4 to No. 9. Albazi, who remains undefeated in the UFC, improves from No. 10 to No. 7. This means in between such as Askar Askarov, Alexandre Pantoja, and Brandon Royval move up one spot as Kara-France takes a tumble.
Check out all the latest pound-for-pound and divisional USA TODAY Sports/MMA Junkie rankings above.
Our “Spinning Back Clique” debates the outcome of the UFC on ESPN 45 main event that saw Amir Albazi defeat Kai Kara-France.
The UFC on ESPN 45 main event was a close one, but the official result left a sour taste in the mouth of many.
[autotag]Kai Kara-France[/autotag] ended up on the wrong side of a split decision last Saturday against [autotag]Amir Albazi[/autotag] at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.
After 25 minutes of back-and-forth action, Albazi emerged victorious with two judges issuing scores of 48-47 in his favor, while the third judge scored the fight for Kara-France. Upon closer inspection of the official scores, judge Chris Lee scored the fourth round for Albazi, which to many watching at home, felt like a round that Kara-France won. Had Lee scored the round like the other two official judges Sal D’Amato and Mike Bell, the New Zealand-based fighter would have won the decision.
But was there more to the scorecards than the fourth round? Other frames throughout the five-round bout were close, including the first.
Was this a robbery? Did Kara-France deserve to get his hand raised? Did Albazi really do enough to walk out of the cage as the winner? Was this simply a case of a very close fight that could have gone either way?
Our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Farah Hannoun, Mike Bohn, and Danny Segura discuss the judges’ decision along with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia. You can watch their discussion in the video above and check out this week’s full episode below.
