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Mario Bautista recently weighed in on his last fight against Da'Mon Blackshear at UFC 292 and concurred with the general consensus regarding the judges' questionable scoring.
While Bautista was initially booked to face Cody Garbrandt last weekend, the former bantamweight champion was forced to pull out due to injury last week. Garbrandt was replaced by Blackshear, who secured a rare twister submission win at UFC Vegas 78 just days prior.
While Da'Mon Blackshear started the fight strong and secured a few good takedowns, he couldn't control Mario Bautista as he wanted. After a more striking-intensive second round, it was clear that Bautista had a larger tank than his opponent. He used his time and energy well, landing solid strikes and burning time via clinch control till the final bell sounded.
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Bautista won the fight via unanimous decision, with one judge confusingly scoring the contest 30-27. While many agreed that the 30-year-old deserved to win, fans weren't happy about how the judges scored the fight.
In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Mario Bautista claimed that while he expected to win, he too disagreed with the judges' scorecards. He stated:
"I was confident I won. I was a little worried once they said unanimous, in my head after the fight I was like,"It's going to a split." This was a close one... Like I said, I was confident that I won. It's just, I don't think I won unanimously. Especially not 30-27. I'm on board with a lot of people, I don't know what that judge was watching."
UFC 292: Mario Bautista on Sean O'Malley's title-winning performance against Aljamain Sterling
A new bantamweight king was crowned at UFC 292. Sean O'Malley defeated Aljamain Sterling via an incredible second-round knockout to claim the 135-pound strap. 'Suga' is now the youngest reigning champion in the UFC and is on an impressive six-fight unbeaten streak.
Interestingly, Mario Bautista and O'Malley train together at the MMA Lab gym in Glendale, Arizona. Given their close relationship, Bautista was unsurprisingly confident in the mercurial striker's abilities to overcome any challenge thrown by the 'Funk Master.'
In the same interview with Sportskeeda MMA, Mario Bautista discussed the UFC 292 headliner and weighed in on Sean O'Malley's performance. He said:
"Sean did amazing, you know? Just my confidence in him, to begin with, was high. Once he defended that first takedown, that's it. If he could defend that first takedown right off the bat, it was going to be a good outcome for him... He just goes out there and sniped him and got the job done."
