Following UFC 247, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation released the controversial scorecards for Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes.
The main event of UFC 247 ended in controversy when Jones was announced as the winner via unanimous decision, with the judges scoring the fight in his favor 48-47, 48-47 and 49-46 for a clean sweep to once again defend the UFC light heavyweight title. Many media and fans felt that Reyes did enough to win the fight, but the judges awarded the belt back to the champ, leading to an uproar on social media.
UFC president Dana White also felt that Reyes won the fight, and after the event criticized the judges throughout the night for their shoddy judging, which included controversial decisions given to Andre Ewell and Lauren Murphy on the undercard, plus weird round-by-round scoring in the James Krause vs. Trevin Giles fight. But since Jones vs. Reyes was a title fight, the judges’ decision there had a bigger impact.
Below, take a look at the official judges’ scorecards for Jones vs. Reyes via Twitter.
This is the #UFC247 main event official scorecard. (via @marc_raimondi)
How did you score it? pic.twitter.com/vNXVQmvATR
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) February 9, 2020
As you can see, judge Marcos Rosales scored the fight 48-47 for Jones, giving him rounds two, four and five and Reyes rounds one and three. Judge Chris Lee also scored the fight for Jones, giving him the final three rounds and Reyes the first two. And finally judge Joe Solis, who was under the microscope all night for his poor scorecards, scored the bout 49-46 for Jones, giving him the final four rounds and Reyes just the first. All the rounds by all three judges were scored 10-9.
Ultimately, this is going to be a highly controversial decision for some time to come. After Jones won a disputed split decision over Thiago Santos in his last fight at UFC 239, there’s an argument to be made that the champ has actually lost his last two fights. And for Reyes, he very well could be the UFC light heavyweight champion today, but instead, he goes home with the first loss of his MMA career.
What do you think of the Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes judges’ scorecards from UFC 247?