NEW YORK – Bobby Green has been on the wrong end of a lot of close fights and he’s tired of the judging system.
Green (27-1-12 MMA, 8-7-1 UFC) enters Saturday’s bout with Al Iaquinta (14-6-1 MMA, 9-5 UFC) at UFC 268 on back-to-back unanimous decision losses to Thiago Moises and Rafael Fiziev in two tightly contested matchups.
Although he’s happy with his “Fight of the Night” effort against Fiziev at UFC 265, Green is not sure the right people are deciding who gets their hands raised.
“The judges – I feel like they’re a bit behind where we need more MMA people to come along and recognize the difference between good shots and bad shots,” Green told MMA Junkie during media day. “Rafael was kicking me, and I could swear I could count on one hand how many times he actually kicked me – and if you want to count these little baby leg kicks, that don’t really count. And then, they hit an elbow and people are thinking that it counts as a land. It doesn’t count as a land in our sport, but the judges go, “Paw, paw, oh God.’ No – he’s kicking my arm. I’m blocking them. You have to understand the difference.
“I think they worry that the MMA guys will be biased. I fought this guy years ago, or that team, and so now he’s going against it. And I would rather take that guy than to take a guy who doesn’t know or take a judge who everyone said you’re wrong. One hundred percent of people said that round is mine and you’re going to give it a 10-9. Actually is was an 8-10 round. How could you go 10-9 for him? It’s just like, ‘Oh, OK. You don’t know how to do your job.’ But every time I say this, it gets me in more trouble. I think they’re doing it sublimely, like, ‘Stick it to him again and stick it to him again. Maybe it’ll shut his mouth.’”
UFC 268 takes place Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews/ESPN+ and early prelims on ESPN+.
Check out the full media day interview with Green in the video above.
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