“Mike Bell got way too much into that” - Jon Anik drops F-bomb in passionate rant arguing for rule change in judging after Noche UFC debacle

UFC commentator Jon Anik has joined the list of pundits offering their perspective on the disputed fifth-round scorecard in the Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko rematch.

Grasso and 'Bullet' went head-to-head for the flyweight championship at the Noche UFC event. Their showdown quickly became a nail-biting exchange that stretched the entire 25 minutes. However, when the verdict of the match was announced, it stirred up controversy. The fight was declared a split draw, with the judges' scorecards showing 48-47, 47-48, and 47-47.

The surprise came from cage-side judge Mike Bell, whose 47-47 scorecard raised questions and caught everyone's attention. His decision faced intense scrutiny, especially for designating Round 5 as a 10-8 round favoring Grasso.

During a recent episode of the Anik & Florian Podcast, Jon Anik shared his thoughts on the prevailing issues with judging in MMA and expressed his disapproval of Bell's decision:

"Everything that was going on in that building [T-Mobile Arena] that was the fifth minute of the fight and Mike Bell got way too much into all of that. Give me some non-elite judges, page in all the fu*king non-elite judges out there and put them in a room without any fu*king noise. Such an impossibility to get a long-term change with the rules. I just think that there's gotta be a way to just get more judges to try to figure out a way to lessen the margin for error."

Check out Anik's comments below:

---

Jon Anik reflects on Sean Strickland's knockdown of Israel Adesanya at UFC 293

Sean Strickland pulled off a significant upset victory by claiming a unanimous decision win over middleweight champion Israel Adesanya at UFC 293.

Strickland landed a powerful right hand that knocked down 'The Last Stylebender' with less than a minute remaining in the first round. Although 'Tarzan' couldn't finish Adesanya in that round, this moment marked the beginning of his complete and dominant performance throughout the fight.

Jon Anik recently looked back on the instance when Israel Adesanya experienced his first knockdown in his UFC career against Sean Strickland.

During an interview on MMA Fighting on SBN, the UFC commentator stated:

"If I don't use my diaphragm properly in those moments, often times I can come to the brink of passing out and seeing stars. This was one of those moments, where I'm seeing complete stars, feel like I'm gonna throw up because I didn't breathe properly. And I thought that I was about to call Sean Strickland knocking out Israel Adesanya in round one to become the UFC middleweight champion of the world."

Check out Jon Anik's comments below (from 7:30):