On the surface, Khabib Nurmagomedov's decision victory over Edson Barboza seemed to be one of the most dominating three-round victories in the UFC history. After reviewing the scorecards, that was confirmed.
The three cageside judges scored the fight 30-25, 30-25 and 30-24 in favour of the Dagestani grappling whiz. Combining the three scorecards, Nurmagomedov's total advantage was 16 points. That 16-point margin was the largest difference in the history of three-round UFC decisions.
Making the feat more impressive was the fact that the Nevada State Athletic Commission has yet to adopt the new scoring criteria for the Unified Rules which support a greater use of 10-8 round scores.
Additionally impressive was that this fight broke the record without the aid of point deductions.
Nam Phan has the ignominious distinction of being the only fighter on the losing side of this list twice, as he lost two decisive decisions to Jimy Hettes and Dennis Siver.
Biggest Combined Margin of Victory in 3-Round UFC Decisions * |
# |
Fight |
Scorecards |
Margin of Victory |
Point Deductions |
1 | Nurmagomedov def. Barboza | 30-25, 30-25, 30-24 | 16 | None |
2 | Siver def. Phan | 30-24, 30-25, 30-26 | 15 | None |
- | Prazeres def. Taisumov | 30-25, 30-25, 30-25 | 15 | Taisumov was deducted 1 point in round 1: Illegal Upkick
Taisumov was deducted 1 point in round 2: Grabbing the Cage |
- | Usman def. Yakovlev | 30-25, 30-25, 30-25 | 15 | Yakovlev was deducted 1 point in round 1: Grabbing the Fence |
5 | Petz def. Morgan | 30-27, 30-26, 30-23 | 14 | None |
- | Hettes def. Phan | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | None |
- | Dillashaw def. Watson | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | None |
- | Elliott def. Papazian | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | Papazian was deducted 1 point in round 1: Illegal Knee |
- | Cummins def. Kingsbury | 30-27, 30-25, 30-24 | 14 | None |
- | Smith def. Miller | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | None |
- | Maia def. Nelson | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | None |
- | Sanchez def. Rountree Jr. | 30-25, 30-25, 30-26 | 14 | None |
* - As of January 24th, 2018
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