Any MMA fighter will tell you that you shouldn’t leave anything to the judges, get the finish if you can. There’s a reason for such reasonings. It is because even if you think you’ve done a stellar job of controlling the fight, putting in the work rate and dominating on the ground and on the feet…the judges might disagree with you.
This is a list of the top 5 most disputed and controversial decisions across the whole of 2024 in the UFC. While it is mostly going to be how I personally interpreted some of the more horrendous decision-making this year, there will probably be some results in here that you’d expect.
5. Puja Tomar defeats Rayanne dos Santos – UFC on ESPN 57
Starting us off on this list is Puja Tomar defeating Rayanne dos Santos at UFC on ESPN 57. Only one judge decided that dos Santos did enough to win the fight, and the fighter herself was insistent on Instagram after the fight that the only reason she lost was due to judge Matt Jones.
I already know who he is. He’s an active professional MMA fighter. Matt Jones is his name. He fought recently at an event in Texas. And I believe he doesn’t like me.
Rayanne dos Santos via Instagram
Puja Tomar vs. Rayanne dos Santos (Image via X)Jones judged the fight 30-27 in favor of Tomar. This caused a ton of uproar when it happened and was massively controversial. In the process, Tomar became the first Indian fighter to win a UFC bout.
| Judge | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total | Decision |
| Derek Cleary | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 29-28 | Tomar |
| Sal D’Amato | 9-10 | 9-10 | 9-10 | 27-30 | dos Santos |
| Matt Jones | 10-9 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 30-27 | Tomar |
4. Christian Rodriguez defeats Isaac Dulgarian – UFC on ESPN+ 97
Christian Rodriguez’s split decision win over Isaac Dulgarian also ranks in my top 5 most controversial UFC decisions this year. To be fair, this fight was an awful lot closer than some of the others I’ll be talking about on this list. However, when you factor in how Dulgarian accumulated over nine minutes of control time during a 15-minute fight, HOW can you give Rodriguez the nod?
Dulgarian was completely dominant in the opening round, taking it to the floor straight away and looking for the sub. Rodriguez was sliced open by Dulgarian’s ground and pound, which masked the fact that his two officially counted submission attempts weren’t successful.
Christian Rodriguez defeats Isaac Dulgarian (Image via X)On paper, Rodriguez had a better night in terms of total and significant strikes. However, the domination from Dulgarian’s wrestling just seemed to be completely missed by the judges.
| Judge | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total | Decision |
| Sal D’Amato | 8-10 | 10-9 | 10-8 | 28-27 | Rodriguez |
| Anthony Maness | 8-10 | 9-10 | 10-8 | 27-28 | Dulgarian |
| Ron McCarthy | 8-10 | 10-9 | 10-8 | 28-27 | Rodriguez |
3. Rinat Fakhretdinov defeats Carlos Leal – UFC 308
This fight was an absolute barnburner, but the unanimous decision win for Rinat Fakhretdinov over Carlos Leal still feels like a robbery. There’s no doubt that Leal pulled off the better strikes during this UFC 308, and he damaged his opponent several times. Still, none of the three judges saw it that way and gave the fight to Fakhretdinov.
Granted the actual stats from the fight aren’t lightyears apart, with both men having a 50% success rate on their Total Strikes (119 for Fakhretdinov and 146 for Leal). However, out of the 19 Takedown attempts from the Russian, he managed to land just 2, showing how ineffective he was.
Rinat Fakhretdinov vs. Carlos Leal was deemed a brutal robbery by fans (Image via X/Bleacher Report)The single most baffling thing about this result was one judge giving the Russian fighter all three rounds. I still have no idea what compelled them to do that. If you’re unsure because it’s early on in a fight night, then sure I accept there are sometimes oversights, but this was egregious. This decision raised questions and controversies about favoritism and hate towards Muslim UFC fighters.
| Judge | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total | Decision |
| Hadi Mohamed Ali | 10-9 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 30-27 | Fakhretdinov |
| Michael Bell | 10-9 | 9-10 | 10-9 | 29-28 | Fakhretdinov |
| David Lethaby | 9-10 | 10-9 | 10-9 | 29-28 | Fakhretdinov |
2. Julianna Pena defeats Raquel Pennington – UFC 307
Julianna Pena getting the victory over Raquel Pennington at UFC 307 also makes it onto the list. It comes in as my second most controversial win of 2024. While Pena managed to have some early success in the fight with her grappling, the conditioning of Pennington managed to nullify most of what she threw at her. The later rounds saw Pena get rocked and knocked down with a big right hand.
Julianna Pena vs. Raquel Pennington at UFC 307 (via MMA Fighting)In terms of significant strikes, the fight was 50/50, with both women landing 92 across all five rounds. On paper, Pena had better stats when it came to overall output (123 Total Strikes with 40% success rate and 2 out of 3 takedowns being successful). However, Pennington did more damage and LOOKED like she had won that night. The bout keeps raising questions on what is effective – Volume or Damage!
1. Ciryl Gane defeats Alexander Volkov – UFC 310
There is no doubt in my mind that Alexander Volkov losing to Ciryl Gane via split decision at UFC 310 is the biggest controversial finish of 2024. The rematch between the two heavyweight fighters was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 308 in September. However, it was cancelled and rescheduled to December after Volkov suffered from a knee injury.
The result of the fight got a lot of mainstream attention, with Dana White himself saying to Volkov after the fight that he was “f*cked” by the decision. Looking at the output of both fighters purely from a statistical level shows how baffling the result was. Volkov threw 105 total strikes and landing 75% of them compared to Gane’s 48 Total Strikes with a 73% overall accuracy.
Alexander Volkov upset after losing against Ciryl Gane at UFC 310 (Image via Bloody Elbow)Granted, Gane’s higher significant striking accuracy (43 to Volkov’s 39 for significant strikes) might have painted the picture of a more precise and controlled performance inside the octagon, even if his overall output was lower. You can see WHY (sort of) Gane got the win, but it should’ve gone the other way.
| Category | Ciryl Gane | Alexander Volkov |
| Total Strikes | 48 (73%) | 105 (75%) |
| Takedowns | 2/4 (50%) | 3/4 (75%) |
| Submission Attempts | 2 | 1 |
| Reversals | 0 | 0 |
| Significant Strikes | 43 | 39 |
| Knockdowns | 0 | 0 |
| Odds | -345 | 275 |
Here is how the judges saw the fight on the night:
| Judge | Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Total | Decision |
| Adalaide Byrd | 10-9 | 10-9 | 9-10 | 29-28 | Gane |
| Eric Colón | 10-9 | 9-10 | 9-10 | 28-29 | Volkov |
| Junichiro Kamijo | 10-9 | 10-9 | 9-10 | 29-28 | Gane |
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