UFC 277 judge hits back at Joe Rogan & Daniel Cormier for criticizing scorecard
Seth Fuller has hit back at Joe Rogan for criticizing his scoring at UFC 277.
MMA judge Fuller faced heat from Rogan, who was on commentary duties alongside former UFC two-division champion Daniel Cormier, for his work at the promotion’s latest pay-per-view event. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, the state athletic commission that he works for, forbids officials from speaking about their scoring publicly.
Although Fuller acknowledges that he’s prohibited from discussing the matter, he defended his scorecard amidst criticism from the community.
Joe Rogan & Daniel Cormier criticized Seth Fuller’s scoring at UFC 277
During the heavyweight prelim contest between Hamdy Abdelwahab and Don’Tale Mayes, Fuller was bashed for scoring the fight 29-28 for Mayes, whereas judges Kent Basinger and Dan Mathisen scored the bout 29-28 for Abdelwahab, who came out on top by split decision.
Fuller did not realize the controversy until after the show was over and he received a text message from an unknown number.
“Are you even watching the fights f*cktard?” the message read (ht MMA Junkie). “No one in the world had Mayes except you. Sad when even the commentators are clowning your terrible ability to do your job.”
As for the commentary team, Rogan and Cormier had some harsh words for Fuller upon hearing the decision.
“I mean, come on,” Cormier said on the broadcast. “… Somebody gave Don’Tale the third round, Joe.”
Rogan responded, “That guy needs a talking to. We need to check and see what he bet on.”
Fuller hits back at Rogan
In the response video, Fuller defended his actions and hit back at Rogan.
“I figure I’ve judged about 80 cards and several hundred fights themselves,” Fuller said. “I’ve judged and reffed, because I do both. Now again, is that experience enough? I don’t know in what profession 10 years of doing something is not considered seasoned. … This ‘regional’ judge Steve Armstrong, here he is at UFC 5 cornering Guy Mezger – UFC 5.
“He’d been doing it since before this. How much more seasoned do you need to be? The other judges, Ken Basinger, Dan Mathison, Aaron Menard have also been doing it over a decade. These are seasoned judges. For them to talk about it again, every time a judge makes a score they don’t like, they have to insult them.”
He stated that he holds no ill will toward Rogan, but felt the need to vindicate himself from the public.
“The commission (might go), ‘Hey, this is why we shouldn’t have put this guy on the main UFC. This is why we shouldn’t have put Steve Armstrong in the main UFC. This is why we shouldn’t have put these local judges on the main UFC card.’ To me, that’s a bunch of BS,” Fuller said. “To me, if I’m doing it wrong, then cite me for doing it wrong.
“But if you’re pretending that I’m not experienced, or I was careless, or I didn’t think or concentrate or didn’t do my absolute best and that I don’t care about these fighters and don’t care if the result is the correct result, according to the rules that they agreed to, then you are crazy. You’re just plain wrong. It’s not OK.
