10 worst judges' decisions in UFC history

#5 Nik Lentz vs. Tyson Griffin, UFC 123 – November 20th, 2010

Nik Lentz's win over Tyson Griffin remains baffling years later

After a dull decision win over Andre Winner at UFC 118 that garnered serious hate from the fans, the word on the rumor mill was that the UFC would set wrestler Nik Lentz up with a nightmare opponent in his next fight. That turned out to be true, as they matched him with top ten ranked Tyson Griffin – a seemingly stronger wrestler with far superior stand-up, too. Griffin had lost his last two fights, and this was his chance to regain some momentum.

It was pretty clear to most viewers that across all three rounds, Griffin did just that. Sure, Lentz managed to secure some takedowns, but he also succumbed to more from Griffin, including some powerful slams in the early going. Griffin also got the better of the striking exchanges and even had Lentz in deep trouble in the third round, knocking him down twice with right hands. Most observers scored the fight 30-27 for Griffin and indeed, no other score seemed possible.

Except somehow, it was possible. While one judge scored the fight correctly, awarding Griffin a 30-27 win, the other two both saw it 29-28 for Lentz, and so he somehow escaped with a victory, despite doing very little to have earned it.

The bad decision was widely forgotten as it was the opener of the prelim card back in the days before every fight on each UFC show was televised, but viewers who have stumbled upon the fight on UFC Fight Pass in subsequent years would probably still be confused by how the judges saw things. It was a call that simply didn’t make sense by anyone’s standards.