UFC 251 PBP/Discussion

[Nandez]

The Max/Volk fight had 2 clear for Max and 3 close rounds that could be argued either way. It's conceivable you can give it to Volk, but improbable that he gets all those close rounds.

The Dos Santos/Salikhov decision was inconceivable.

I hear what you’re saying. But I had money on Volk and Salikhov; so I disagree. Great scoring.

 

[PolarBearPaulVarelans]

The Max/Volk fight had 2 clear for Max and 3 close rounds that could be argued either way. It's conceivable you can give it to Volk, but improbable that he gets all those close rounds.

The Dos Santos/Salikhov decision was inconceivable.

I didn't think rounds 4 and 5 were that close, honestly. On MMADecisions too, something like 88% of fans scored each one for Volkanovski.

The truly close round was 3. 48% had it for the Hawaiin and 46% had it for the Aussie. 48-47 either way was a perfectly reasonable scorecard. People who shout "robbery!" at the Holloway-Volkanovski rematch cheapen the use of that term and provide cover for ACTUAL robberies...like Dos Santos-Salikhov.

 

[bruthead]

The problem on scoring is never scoring 10-10 and 10-8 only rarely. So Max gets no credit for dropping Alex in R1 and R2. Or R3 could be scored 10-10.

It never feels fair when one guys wins 2 rounds CLEARLY and a guy who edges the other 3 rounds gets the win. Especially like there where it's easy to score R3 to Alex simply for having a better round than the first two.

 

[Crimp_Keeper]

I had bet volkanowski at -190 and thought he lost the first 3

live bet max and the rest is history

I almost hedged then I realized Volk would be given the decision if it was a close fight since the UFC is trying hard to tap into that Aussie market.

 

[PuertoRican]

"According to William Hill sportsbook, 'A $200,000 bet was placed on Masvidal at +230 against Kamaru Usman in tonight’s welterweight title fight at The M in the Las Vegas area. If Masvidal were to pull off the upset, the total payout for the wager would be $660,000.'" -- MMA Mania

 

[Cockadoodle]

Weasel had a good 3rd round break down of the Max vs Volk fight which is worth a watch and should squash further talk of robbery.

Luke Thomas post fight show was interesting also talking about One Championship judging the fight as a whole not just the 10 point must system per round. If the fight is judged as a whole yes Max wins the fight as he won the first 2 rounds decisively with the last 3 being closer. If judged per round anything from 49-46 Max to 48-47 Volk is acceptable.

 

[TrueAscension]

Weasel had a good 3rd round break down of the Max vs Volk fight which is worth a watch and should squash further talk of robbery.

Luke Thomas post fight show was interesting also talking about One Championship judging the fight as a whole not just the 10 point must system per round. If the fight is judged as a whole yes Max wins the fight as he won the first 2 rounds decisively with the last 3 being closer. If judged per round anything from 49-46 Max to 48-47 Volk is acceptable.

The fight wasn't a robbery in my opinion but Volkanovski in no way decisively won R3-R5. There are two things that would steal those those rounds away. First, takedowns that accomplished nothing. If you take someone down, do not hit them even once and they get right back up, that's an absurd reason to give away a round. The second reason was he pushed Max against the cage which is the same boring shit he did against Aldo. This also caused no damage at all and while it should score him a little bit of the action, Max pushed forward nearly the entire fight and occupied the ring control and maxed him strike for strike.

Max won the fight. It wasn't a robbery in the slightest. That said, I had a bet on Max. I'd like to think I could objectively say Max won that fight even if I had Volk on my slip. I have won parlays in the past where I felt my fighter won in a very questionable decision and have admitted as much. Nunes in no way beat Valentina a couple years ago on my scorecard but it hit a parlay for me. I can admit that she lost that fight objectively and still be psyched about the bet cashing.

There are two arguments here: First, to be the champ you have to beat the champ decisively. Max did that in the first two rounds and then apparently he needed to knock Volk down again in the later rounds to get the W in those rounds. Fine, I get that narrative. That said, Max was never in trouble at any moment in that fight and Volk was visibly shaken a couple of times by my count.

The second argument is you need to take the fight out of the judges' hands and I can't wait to watch either Ortega or the Zombie do just that because Volk is a terrible champ. He's boring, he has very little to offer fans of that division, and he's just overall not a great fighter. He's a very smart fighter but unbearable to watch. I feel the same way about Usman. He's absolutely trash to watch. I don't know who can beat him in that division but count me out of ever being one of the ten people who buys a PPV where he's the ME ever again. Boring, garbage, albeit smart fighter.

 

[mkess101]

The fight wasn't a robbery in my opinion but Volkanovski in no way decisively won R3-R5. There are two things that would steal those those rounds away. First, takedowns that accomplished nothing. If you take someone down, do not hit them even once and they get right back up, that's an absurd reason to give away a round. The second reason was he pushed Max against the cage which is the same boring shit he did against Aldo. This also caused no damage at all and while it should score him a little bit of the action, Max pushed forward nearly the entire fight and occupied the ring control and maxed him strike for strike.

Max won the fight. It wasn't a robbery in the slightest. That said, I had a bet on Max. I'd like to think I could objectively say Max won that fight even if I had Volk on my slip. I have won parlays in the past where I felt my fighter won in a very questionable decision and have admitted as much. Nunes in no way beat Valentina a couple years ago on my scorecard but it hit a parlay for me. I can admit that she lost that fight objectively and still be psyched about the bet cashing.

There are two arguments here: First, to be the champ you have to beat the champ decisively. Max did that in the first two rounds and then apparently he needed to knock Volk down again in the later rounds to get the W in those rounds. Fine, I get that narrative. That said, Max was never in trouble at any moment in that fight and Volk was visibly shaken a couple of times by my count.

The second argument is you need to take the fight out of the judges' hands and I can't wait to watch either Ortega or the Zombie do just that because Volk is a terrible champ. He's boring, he has very little to offer fans of that division, and he's just overall not a great fighter. He's a very smart fighter but unbearable to watch. I feel the same way about Usman. He's absolutely trash to watch. I don't know who can beat him in that division but count me out of ever being one of the ten people who buys a PPV where he's the ME ever again. Boring, garbage, albeit smart fighter.

Really the fight boils down to this:

Max won 1-2 clearly. 3-5 were flat out coin tosses.

Basically it's like if Max was heads and Volk was tails and it was best 3 of 5, and the first two tosses were already known to be heads. The last 3 rounds were pick 'ems and Volk needed to get EXTREMELY lucky to win all 3 on at least 2 judges cards.

I was on Volk and I scored it 48-47 Max for the record but also acknowledge that I'm giving Max rd 3 when it was insanely close.