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UFC veteran judge Sal D'Amato has found himself at the receiving end of flak due to questionable scoring.
D'Amato has once again become the topic of discussion after his judging on Max Griffin vs. Jeremiah Wells, which took place on Feb. 10 at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Griffin returned to the win column after defeating Wells via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28). However, a controversy emerged regarding the scorecards.
In his post-fight interview, the victor took aim at D'Amato:
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''I cannot stand Sal D'Amato. If it was him, I don't know if it was, but they said it was him. The other judge, he has me on Neil Magny losing, he has me on numerous fights, he picks against me every single time.''
Griffin added:
''I don't know if I did something in the past life to him, if I did something to him but Sal D'Amato hates me.''
Catch Max Griffin's comments below:
MMA judges, particularly in the UFC, have been at the receiving end of public criticism owing to several controversial decisions in recent times.
Prominent UFC fighters, including Israel Adesanya, have been outspoken in their demands for judges to take responsibility for their decisions and called for an evaluation of their performance following fights.
What other scorecards by Sal D'Amato have attracted controversy?
Sal D'Amato's decisions are frequently criticized by both MMA fighters and fans.
He (along with Chris Lee) scored the Kai Kara-France vs. Amir Albazi fight last June 48-47 in favor of Albazi. This upset Kara-France's teammate and former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who took to X to criticize the two judges.
Prior to that, D'Amato was the only judge to score against Sean Strickland in his fight with Jack Hermansson. The two middleweights squared off in a five-round bout in February 2022, where Strickland won via split decision. The scorecards sparked debate because D'Amato was the only judge who saw Hermansson as the winner.
D'Amato's scorecard drew criticism from numerous MMA figures, including Michael Chandler and Strickland's coach, Eric Nicksick.
