Tai Tuivasa has tens of millions of followers worldwide, however Howie Sales space might have simply confirmed to be his greatest supporter.
As one of many three judges of Tuivasa’s matchup with Jairzinho Rozenstruik on the primary card of UFC 305, Sales space sat cage-side with arguably crucial job of the struggle other than the 2 fighters. As followers watched the Australian fighter get picked aside for quarter-hour in what was largely an uneventful struggle, everyone within the constructing was stunned to listen to Bruce Buffer announce a break up determination.
Because the scorecards had been being learn, each Tuivasa and Rozenstruik had been shocked to listen to Sales space rating the struggle 30-27 in favor of ‘Bam Bam,’ indicating his perception that the 31-year-old gained all three rounds.
Whereas stats hardly inform the complete story of an MMA struggle, Rozenstruik dominated all three rounds in each facet. In a struggle that concerned no wrestling or grappling, ‘Bigi Boy’ landed 91 vital strikes by way of three rounds to simply 37 getting back from Tuivasa.
In an uncharacteristically gradual strategy, Tuivasa by no means landed greater than 15 vital strikes in a single spherical and ended the primary body with simply 9 strikes landed. Injury is at all times the highest precedence beneath the unified ruleset of MMA and regardless of Tuivasa being recognized for his knockout energy, the Aussie landed simply 19 headshots and couldn’t get Rozenstruik to ever really feel as if he was in peril.
In related conditions up to now, the response of the gang in favor of their most popular fighter has been an inadvertent consider influencing judging. However on this particular state of affairs, that may hardly be thought-about, given how little success Tuivasa had all through. The gang was determined to react to something they may grasp however spent a lot of the quarter-hour in deep frustration, resulting in even Tuivasa’s followers gasping in shock at Buffer’s announcement of Sales space’s tally fairly than cheering.
In the long run, Rozenstruik wound up profitable by break up determination, having rightfully earned the favor of the opposite two judges. Nevertheless, by way of particular person judging, few scorecards could be introduced up as worse than giving Tuivasa even one spherical, not to mention all three.
Later within the evening, Jon Anik revealed on the ESPN+ pay-per-view broadcast that Sales space had been relieved of his remaining duties for the evening. It was not revealed if that decision got here from UFC CEO Dana White, who has by no means been shy in criticizing judges, or the Athletic Fee.