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Using a combined measurement of media and fan scoring percentages, MMAdecisions.com has compiled a list of 2022's most disputed decisions:
| 2022's Most Disputed Decisions |
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Agreement with Winner |
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| # |
Fight |
Media |
Fans |
Avg. |
Winner's Judges |
Other Judge |
Notes |
| 1 | Pimblett def. Gordon | 4% | 8% | 6% | Crosby, Lee, McCarthy | - | Unanimous |
| 2 | Johnson def. Zhumagulov | 8% | 6% | 7% | Cleary, D'Amato | Crosby | - |
| 3 | Arlovski def. Collier | 0% | 16% | 8% | Crosby, D'Amato | Bell | 27-30 Bell |
| 4 | Rodriguez def. Li | 9% | 8% | 8% | Bell, Crosby | McCarthy | - |
| 5 | Cachoeira def. Kim | 7% | 11% | 9% | Bell, Byrd, D'Amato | - | Unanimous |
| 6 | Buday def. Brzeski | 8% | 11% | 9% | D'Amato, Kelly | Bell | - |
| 7 | Vergara def. Rodrigues | 8% | 14% | 11% | Colon, Curcio | Kamijo | - |
| 8 | Rountree Jr. def. Jacoby | 13% | 11% | 12% | Cartlidge, Flores | McCarthy | - |
| 9 | O'Malley def. Yan | 4% | 24% | 14% | Cartlidge, Lethaby | Paolillo | - |
| 10 | Vieira def. Holm | 10% | 22% | 16% | Bell, Cleary | D'Amato | - |
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Honourable Mentions:
Of note:
- For the first time since this was created in 2013, the most disputed decision of the year (Pimblett/Gordon) was a unanimous decision.
- Zhalgas Zhumagulov was on the losing end of the 2nd and 13th most disputed decisions of the year. In 2020, Zhumagulov again found himself on the wrong side of a decision in this list, losing in the 6th most disputed decision of that year.
- Douglas Crosby was a judge in the top four most disputed decisions of the year, siding with the winner in three of those fights.
- The judge with the most completed UFC decisions in 2022 without an appearance on this year's list was Junichiro Kamijo. Kamijo submitted scorecards in 67 UFC decisions in 2022, making him the 3rd most active UFC judge in 2022.
Selection Criteria
- Only decisions in which at least two-thirds of the tracked media scores disagreed with the actual winner AND decisions in which at least two-thirds of the submitted fan scorecards disagreed with the actual winner were included.
- A fight must have a minimum of 6 media scores.
- A fight must have a minimum of 15 fan scorecards.
- Only fights from Bellator, Cage Warriors, Invicta, KSW, PFL and the UFC were considered. Though typically, only UFC fights have enough media and fan scorecards to meet the minimum requirements to qualify for the list.
Sources of Bias
There are several possible sources of bias that could have affected the members and order of this list. Those sources include:
- Loser Bias: Fans who disagree with the outcome are more likely to submit a scorecard than those who are content with the decision.
- Geographical Bias (Fans): Sometimes certain countries generate more traffic than others, which could lead to a bias in fan voting.
- Geographical Bias (Media): The media scorecards tracked on this site are predominantly submitted by US-based media members.
- Small Sample Size: with thresholds set at 6 media members and 15 fan scorecards, it is quite possible that those small thresholds could yield results that vary significantly from the general MMA populace.
- UFC Bias: Because of the dearth of media and fan scores in other organizations, very few non-UFC decisions meet the thresholds for consideration.
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Using a combined measurement of media and fan scoring percentages, MMAdecisions.com has compiled a list of 2021's most disputed decisions:
| 2021's Most Disputed Decisions |
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Agreement with Winner |
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| # |
Fight |
Media |
Fans |
Avg. |
Winner's Judges |
Other Judge |
Notes |
| 1 | Barber def. Maverick | 0% | 6% | 3% | D'Amato, Hagen | Lee | |
| 2 | Moret def. Yamauchi | 0% | 14% | 7% | Crosby, Rogers | Miner | Home-country decision |
| 3 | Romanov def. Espino | 0% | 15% | 8% | Hagen, Weeks | Lee | |
| 4 | Nicolau def. Kape | 0% | 18% | 9% | Lee, Miner | Hagen | - |
| 5 | Brown def. Kamaka III | 0% | 23% | 11% | Bell, D'Amato | Byrd | 27-30 Byrd |
| 6 | Saldana def. Griffin | 11% | 16% | 14% | Byrd, Cleary, Kamijo | - | Unanimous |
| 7 | Aldrich def. Casey | 6% | 23% | 14% | Bell, Winter | D'Amato | - |
| 8 | Parisian def. Martinez | 14% | 15% | 14% | Kamijo, Weeks | Colon | - |
| 9 | Kirk def. Amirkhani | 7% | 26% | 17% | Bell, Hagen, Winter | - | 30-27 Hagen; Unanimous;
Home-country decision |
| 10 | Roberts def. Emeev | 17% | 17% | 17% | Lee, Winter | D'Amato | 30-27 Lee |
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Honourable Mentions:
Of note:
- By the measurement used in this list, Barber/Maverick was the most disputed decision since Lauzon/Held in 2017.
- Michael Bell, Dave Hagen, and Rick Winter made the most appearances (3) on this year's list. Bell submitted more UFC scorecards (81) in 2021 than Hagen (32) and Winter (26) combined.
- Michael Bell's appearances on this list are his first since 2013, the first year that this list was tabulated and the first year that Bell judged in major MMA organizations.
- After being on the losing end of 2020's 8th most disputed decision, Angela Hill took another loss in 2021's 12th most disputed decision. She tied Jorge Masvidal, Clay Guida and Paul Felder for having the most split decision losses (4) in UFC history. Remarkably, a majority of fans and media have thought she won each of those 4 losses. For comparison, the fans and media only agreed that the loser should have won in 2 of the 12 split decision losses belonging to Guida, Masvidal, and Felder (data is limited for Guida's early decisions).
- The judge with the most completed UFC scorecards without an appearance in the top ten is Eric Colon. He added 49 decisions to his UFC tally in 2020.
Home-Country Decisions*
"Home-Country Decisions", by definition, are those fights in which the winner hailed from the country in which the fight was held and his/her opponent was from another country. Conversely, if the loser was from the event's country and his/her opponent was from elsewhere, the fight was marked as an "away-country decision".
* - Marking these fights as such does not imply that the judges held a geographical bias.
Selection Criteria
- Only decisions in which at least two-thirds of the tracked media scores disagreed with the actual winner AND decisions in which at least two-thirds of the submitted fan scorecards disagreed with the actual winner were included.
- A fight must have a minimum of 6 media scores.
- A fight must have a minimum of 15 fan scorecards.
- Only fights from Bellator, Cage Warriors, Invicta, KSW, PFL and the UFC were considered.
Sources of Bias
There are several possible sources of bias that could have affected the members and order of this list. Those sources include:
- Loser Bias: Fans who disagree with the outcome are more likely to submit a scorecard than those who are content with the decision.
- Geographical Bias (Fans): Sometimes certain countries generate more traffic than others, which could lead to a bias in fan voting.
- Geographical Bias (Media): The media scorecards tracked on this site are predominantly submitted by US-based media members.
- Small Sample Size: with thresholds set at 6 media members and 15 fan scorecards, it is quite possible that those small thresholds could yield results that vary significantly from the general MMA populace.
- UFC Bias: Because of the dearth of media and fan scores in other organizations, very few non-UFC decisions meet the thresholds for consideration.
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Once again, Sal D'Amato and Derek Cleary flip-flopped at the top of the list of the busiest judges, with D'Amato coming out ahead in 2020. D'Amato regained the title with 77 complete UFC scorecards, which bested Cleary's 65.
Cleary and D'Amato submitted UFC scorecards in a whopping 29 events in 2020, which obliterated the previous record of 22, which was also jointly held by those two.
Third busiest was Michael Bell, who finished with 58 UFC decisions, 20 more than he had in 2019.
Chris Lee finished 2020 with 44 UFC decisions. 2020 was the 10th consecutive year in which Lee finished in the top four.
Returning to the list in 2020 after absences were Dave Hagen and Junichiro Kamijo. Making their debuts on the list were Fight Island adjudicators David Lethaby, Clemens Werner, and Anders Ohlsson.
Dropping off the list from the previous year: Dave Tirelli, Mark Collett, Guilherme Bravo, and Tony Weeks.
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