Marlon Vera was left flabbergasted by the judges after his recent loss to Song Yadong.
Vera (17-6-1 MMA, 9-5 UFC) lost a decision to Yadong (16-4-1 MMA, 5-0-1 UFC) Saturday at UFC on ESPN 8, with all three judges awarding the fight to Yadong.
The back-and-forth battle earned both men the “Fight of the Night” honor, but a stunned Vera couldn’t fathom how the judges scored the fight in favour of Yadong, and refused to shake hands after the result was announced.
“It’s something really, really frustrating,” Vera told ESPN. “Because it’s not one of those fights you regret, ‘Oh, I could do this, I could do that to win.’ It was 100% clear the fight was in one side. First round, we feel each other, we started quick, but we feel each other more than anything. Second and third round, I slapped the guy. I broke the guy, took him down, landed more punches, made more damage, walked him down.”
Vera’s five-fight finishing streak came to an end after the judges scored the fight to his Chinese opponent with scores of 29-28 across the board. Vera said not getting the finish certainly played a part in his defeat, but he insisted that he had done enough to pick up the victory on the scorecards.
“I get it. It’s hard to finish every single fight,” he said. “I didn’t finish this one, which I don’t feel bad about, because I know I won the fight. When the fight was over I was celebrating. The guy was on the ground.
“When they called his name, he didn’t even believe he won the fight. He was like, ‘Oh! Thank you!’ I made more money but I got very upset.”
Frustrated Marlon Vera reacts to Song Yadong loss: 'He didn't even believe he won the fight'