It was a controversial day of fights in Sydney over the weekend.
First, there was an extremely dumbfounding decision given to Calgary's Nick Ring over Japan's Riki Fukuda in the first fight of the televised undercard on Sportsnet.
Scoring it live, I gave the first round to Ring based on more effective strikes. But I didn't see any way he could have won either of the final two frames. Indeed, commentator Joe Rogan didn't either and felt pretty confident that Fukuda was going to get the decision.
But his jaw -- and perhaps even Ring's himself -- dropped when it was announced the Canadian was the winner by unanimous decision. People immediately took to Twitter to berate the judges' call.
FightMetric actually gave all three rounds to Fukuda, with an overall effectiveness score of 201-109.
Looking at the simple stats, Fukuda significantly outstruck Ring percentage-wise in all three rounds and was 6-for-9 in takedowns (vs. 0-for-1 for Ring).
Ring did have the edge in significant strikes (41-of-125 vs. 28-of-82) and the numbers don't take into account pure aggression, Octagon control and other intangibles that may have made the judges feel like he was in more control.
But this is all tempered by the fact that Fukuda managed to get him to the ground many times and passed his guard three times. Some argue he didn't do much damage when he did take Ring down, but he did succeed in outwrestling him and should get credit for that.
The second controversy on the night had nothing to do with the judges. It had to do with some bad blood between Michael Bisping and Jorge Rivera spilling into the cage.
Midway through the first round of their co-main event match-up, Bisping hit Rivera with an illegal knee to the head as Rivera's knees were planted on the ground. Rivera was quite shaken up and there was a question whether he would be able to continue.
Had the doctor and referee decided he couldn't go, it would have resulted in a disqualification for Bisping. But Rivera wasn't about to take the "easy" route to a victory -- especially after all the trash talking that went on between the two -- and when asked if he could continue, he confidently said "yes."
It's hard to believe he wasn't affected by the shot to the head, and in the second round he was eventually overpowered by the more energetic Bisping.
Not to defend the move by Bisping, but it did appear he thought Rivera was on his way off the mat and he mistimed the knee. Although that's exactly what Bisping claimed afterward, he knows better than to do that and needs to be more careful.
Having said that, one question worth pondering is whether there was a noticeable change statistically in Bisping's favour following the illegal shot. At a glance, it would appear yes.
In the first round, Bisping was 20-of-79 (25 %) for the five minutes, while he went 37-of-53 (70%) in the just under two minutes that the second round lasted before the TKO.
But Rivera was 5-of-38 (13%) in the first yet a better 4-of-16 (25%) in the second with one shot that staggered Bisping, so it's hard to argue Rivera was defeated by the illegal knee. Meanwhile, Bisping had two of his three takedowns before the infraction (he was 3-of-8 overall).
For the bout, Bisiping outstruck Rivera 43% to 17% and had one knockdown in the second round. He also landed 50 significant strikes in the fight, moving him into No. 7 on the UFC's all-time list.
It seems pretty clear that Bisping was the better fighter and the illegal knee played only a minor role. But we'll never know for sure, which makes you wonder if a one-point deduction is enough for such an egregious infraction.
Finally, there was the main event, which was controversial inasmuch as the draw left a disappointing end to the night.
I personally scored the bout in Fitch's favour -- I gave Penn the first round 10-9, Fitch the second 10-9 and Fitch the third 10-9 (almost 10-8) for at least a 29-28 edge. Judge Barry Foley agreed with me, while the other two gave Penn each of the first two rounds and went 10-8 for Fitch in the third, effectively awarding Fitch for a completely one-sided final round after a very close middle stanza.
While these scores are reasonable, a more careful look at the stats suggests that Fitch may have been robbed.
Penn fairly won the first with slightly better striking and the only takedown, so that's not at issue.
In the third, Fitch outstruck Penn 149-2 (149-2!) in the third, at an 82-per-cent clip, also tying the UFC record for most strikes thrown (181) in a single round in the process, making that clearly Fitch's round. (Could an argument be made for 10-7?)
So, it naturally all boiled down to the second round. Here are the basic striking numbers:
Penn: 18-of-30 (60%)
Fitch: 59-of-73 (81%)
Fitch had the overwhelming edge in total landed and accuracy. To break it down even further, take a look at FightMetric's in-depth statistics.
Fitch outhit Penn 20-15 in head shots, 31-2 in body strikes, 8-1 in kicks, and had a 14-5 edge in significant strikes. This lends a good argument to the fact that judges Sal D'amato and Chris Lee erred in awarding the round to Penn.
Overall, FightMetric scored the bout for Fitch (29-27 by the 10-point must system). And here were the "effectiveness" scores round-by-round:
Round 1: Penn 76-40
Round 2: Fitch 80-69
Round 3: Fitch 153-14
It seems Penn may have been right when he said the "gods smiled upon" him in his earning of a draw.
One final note: Fitch also became the UFC's all-time leader in total strikes landed. So in many ways, it was a typical Fitch performance.
At the same time, by his own admission, had he gotten busy earlier we wouldn't be talking about the controversial ending to a fight card already full of them.
Follow (Big Game) James Brydon on Twitter: @James_Brydon
