I had Dom winning Round 1, he out struck Cody and had better shots overall imo. Round 2 I give to Cody, even though Dom outstruck; Cody's gameplan worked to perfection this round he pulled Dom into his power shots and got better more clean power shots on Dom this round. Same story for Round 3 except Cody started executing his game plan more and taking over the fight. He was able to land some good power shots, stun Dom and even land a very nicely timed takedown.
Now I know people talk about the headbutt and if that played a factor; and ya it very well could of but I think Cody's game plan was already working at this point, but we'll never know. Now Round 4 again people talk about 10-8s and 10-9s. Look just cause someone gets knocked down doesn't mean they lose the round, but in order to win that round basically that person has to have dominated the round overall or outstruck them by a good 200-300% more.
Case in point, Kongo vs. Cain, Kongo dropped Cain in multiple times, yet Cain won 30-27 due to superior wrestling and overall striking. People also look to Condit vs. Diaz. Mainly people felt Diaz won as he had better overall strikes and was pressing the action. Yet on the scorecards it wasn't that close due to Condit outstriking Diaz by a sizeable margin. This is the same reason why Henderson lost against Bisping: however, if Hendo wins Round 5 he's MW Champion of the world.
Now going back to Round 4 I believe Dom outstruck him overall, but it wasn't by far and Cody dropped Dom 3, 4, 5 times whatever it was. I think this is a round that refs should use because Round 4 was a 10-8 no questions asked. Then you go to Round 5 Cody's up 39-36 and basically just trying not to lose the fight, which I don't agree with but it worked. Dom wins Round 5 and Cody wins the fight 48-46. Dom's a very smart fighter and good analyst and even he knew he lost the fight before it was announced.
So to me I think the scoring was pretty clear cut on this one. No draws no way of Dom winning. With all that being said have we've seen similar fights being scored different before and yes we have. I think the scoring in this one was easy, but again it seems that judges need to be more consistent. Even though the right fighter won the scores were all very different.
There needs to be more education, judges need to analyze this fight and see why Cody wins, then they need to look at the Condit-Diaz fight and see why Condit wins, and then Bisping-Hendo and see why Bisping wins. I could go on and on, the judging just needs to improve and I'm just glad they got this one right.
Happy New Year's Everyone!
