"Let the people decide" - Aljamain Sterling tweets out scoring rules justifying 10-8 rounds against Petr Yan

Aljamain Sterling is still upset that his dominant rounds against Petr Yan at UFC 273 weren't awarded 10-8 scores from the judges.

The undisputed bantamweight champion has been fighting back against detractors and trolls on Twitter who argue he should have lost a decision to Yan. Judges rendered the fight a split decision with two 48-47 scores going to Sterling and one 48-47 score going to Yan.

The debate largely surrounds the first round, where neither fighter did any significant damage. However, Aljamain Sterling argues the real controversy rests in him not receiving any 10-8 scores for his dominating second and third rounds against Yan. 'Aljo' took to Twitter to post up the official scoring criteria from the Unified Rules of MMA to make his point. He said:

"I’ll just leave these here and let the people decide. Either way, #GiveMeYourTears"

The rules aren't likely to settle any debate surrounding the fight. 10-8 scoring in mixed martial arts is still rare despite efforts by athletic commissions to encourage judges to use them. Just like referees are extremely hesitant to deduct a point from fighters for illegal actions, judges generally err on the side of giving 10-9 rounds unless the explicit criteria is met:

Judges shall always give a score of 10-9 when the judge has established that one fighter has dominated the action of the round, had duration of the domination and also impacted their opponent with either effective strikes or effective grappling maneuvers that have diminished the abilities of their opponent.

While Aljamain Sterling dominated the action for the duration of rounds two and three with effective grappling and strikes, they did not diminish the abilities of Petr Yan. As the rules state, judges can 'consider' giving a 10-8 if there is no diminishment of abilities, but there is nothing technically incorrect with them scoring a 10-9 round in these cases.

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Aljamain Sterling wants his haters to fill out an apology form after beating Petr Yan at UFC 273

Few fans or sports pundits were giving Aljamain Sterling much of a chance to defeat Petr Yan at UFC 273. The abuse Sterling received from people on social media before and after their rematch was so intense that he fired back with his own Twitter troll. Shortly after the win he posted an 'apology form' for all his haters to fill out.

After a year of poor treatment from fans, Sterling is clearly enjoying the opportunity to dish some heat back at the haters who doubted him.