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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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