No matter how long you’ve watched combat sports, every event allows you to see something you’ve never seen before.
On Saturday night in Perth, Australia, Howie Booth, a judge at UFC 305, was relieved of his duties mid-event after submitting a questionable scorecard for the Tai Tuivasa vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik fight.
Rozenstruik won the fight by split decision as the other judges scored it for him (Charlie Keech 28 – 29, Howie Booth 30 – 27, David Lethaby 27 – 30), but Booth’s scorecard and the aftermath took on a life of its own.
How bad was Booth’s scorecard?
I have watched combat sports for more than 40 years and have covered it for 15, and I’ve never seen a judge submit a worse scorecard than the one Booth submitted.
Rozenstruik controlled the fight with more accurate striking. From a statistical standpoint, in a battle with no takedown attempts from either man, Rozenstruik outstruck Tuivasa 91-37 over the three rounds.
Rozenstruik also held a striking advantage of +10 or more in every round. There is no logical case to be made that Tuivasa won a single round, let alone all three.
Thankfully, I wasn’t the only person who found the scorecard preposterous, as fight officials almost immediately moved to remove Booth from his judging duties for the rest of the night.
According to long-time combat sports journalist Kevin Iole, Booth was supposed to judge the co-main event between Kai Kara-France and Steve Erceg, but after he proved unfit, he was removed from what would have been an even more important fight.
As it turned out, Kara-France didn’t need any judges. He scored a TKO victory over Erceg in the first round behind the fight-changing power in his left hand.
If we examine all three judges’ cards even more closely, I’m not sure Charlie Keech should escape criticism for his submitted scorecard.
I watched every second of the fight, and I have no idea how he gave the first round to Tuivasa when the latter was out-landed by ten significant strikes and didn’t secure a takedown.
Thankfully, no one on the card was robbed of a victory, but there were a few odd scorecards submitted. Here is a look at all of the results from UFC 305:
- Dricus du Plessis def. Israel Adesanya by submission at 3:38 of Round 4
- Kai Kara-France def. Steve Erceg by TKO at 4:04 of Round 1
- Dan Hooker defeats Mateusz Gamrot by split decision (29-28×2, 28-29)
- Jairzinho Rozenstruik defeats Tai Tuivasa by split decision (30-27, 29-28 and 27-30)
- Carlos Prates defeats Li Jingliang by KO at 4:02 of Round 2
- Valter Walker defeats Junior Tafa by technical submission (ankle lock) at 4:56 of Round 1
- Ricardo Ramos defeats Josh Culibao by split decision (29-28×2, 28-29)
- Casey O’Neill defeats Luana Santos by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)
- Jack Jenkins defeats Herbert Burns by TKO (strikes) at 0:48 of Round 3
- Tom Nolan defeats Alex Reyes by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
- Song Kenan defeats Ricky Glenn by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 29-28)
- Jesus Aguilar defeats Stewart Nicoll by submission (guillotine choke) at 2:39 of Round 1
