10 worst judges' decisions in UFC history

#1 Randy Couture vs. Brandon Vera, UFC 105 – November 7th, 2009

Randy Couture's questionable win over Brandon Vera is probably the worst decision in UFC history

Sometimes a decision is so bad that it can turn a crowd against a fighter who they were initially completely behind, and that was certainly the case with the decision that I feel is almost certainly the worst in UFC history. The fight in question? The 2009 clash between former UFC Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight champion Randy Couture and once-top prospect Brandon Vera in Manchester, England.

When the fight was announced as the main event of UFC 105, it was clear that to most fans at least, the main drawing card was Couture. He’d always been pushed as a cult hero by the UFC and while he’d fallen off the top of the mountain with losses to Brock Lesnar and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, he was still the betting favourite to beat Vera, who had never quite lived up to the early potential he showed in his early UFC career.

But Vera had an ace up his sleeve – despite most analysts giving Couture a grappling advantage, Vera actually had a sneakily underrated clinch game, honed during his earlier days at the USA’s Olympic Training Centre as a Greco-Roman wrestler. And so when Couture came in looking to impose his usual gameplan of dirty boxing from the clinch and takedowns, ‘The Truth’ was ready for him.

The first round probably went to Couture, as he was the more aggressive of the two although the clinch exchanges were largely even. But the second round saw Vera dominate, shrugging off Couture’s clinch attacks before dropping him with kicks and knees to the body. The third round followed a similar pattern, and this time it was Vera who secured a takedown, moving into a dominant mount position to apparently cement his victory.

Only when the judges’ scores were read as a unanimous 29-28, it was somehow in favor of Couture, not Vera. Despite chanting for Couture in the early stages of the fight, the British fans showered the cage with boos, recognizing an awful robbery, as Vera simply slumped on the steps leading up to the Octagon, shaking his head in disbelief.

It remains the worst decision I can recall in the UFC simply because, in some of the other bad calls, the winning fighter at least did some damage – in this fight, it appeared that the judges had given Couture the win simply due to his ability to secure a largely neutral position – the clinch. It was baffling at the time and it remains baffling today.