D’oh! Judge Prematurely Scores Round Despite Last-Second Submission

A cageside judge may have jumped the gun earlier tonight (Sat., Aug. 19, 2023) at UFC 292 live on ESPN+ PPV from inside TD Garden in Boston, Mass., delivering a 10-9 score for the first round despite a last-second submission finish.

The opening fight of the evening was a women’s flyweight bout between Brazilian finisher Karine Silva and veteran Maryna Moroz. Silva did her thing over the course of four minutes before landing on her back. Fortunately, Moroz left herself open for a guillotine choke and Silva locked it up with one second on the clock. It was impressive and can be seen HERE.

It’s protocol to deliver an official scorecard even if a fight ends in the first round. Whether the stoppage comes with one second off the clock or one second remaining, a scorecard is always delivered. However, it’s very rare that a judge has already scored the round despite it never officially ending.

On Saturday, judge Steve Rita apparently entered a 10-9 score for the first round between Silva and Moroz. That means Rita jumped the gun before the clock officially ran out or UFC provided an inaccurate scorecard. We’re only talking about one second, but anything can happen in one second when it comes to fighting. If Rita did in fact enter this score prematurely it’s a bad look for the current state of MMA judging.

Check out the official scorecard for Silva vs. Moroz below:

MMAmania.com will deliver bell-to-bell results coverage of UFC 292 online LIVE all evening (late) night, including latest fight updates, fight recaps, video highlights, winners, losers, press conference streams and all the other post-fight fallout you can handle well into Sunday. Buckle up! We’ll have all the news that’s fit to print and much, much more. We’ve got UFC 292’s entire card — including “Prelims” undercard matches on ESPN/ESPN+ — all covered below in our comprehensive story stream.

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