"Sal D'Amato needs to be banned" - MMA X explodes over "Terrible" UFC Vegas 98 scorecards as veteran judge dissents in three split decisions 

Veteran MMA judge Sal D'Amato's controversial dissenting scorecards at UFC Vegas 98 have ignited a firestorm of criticism from fight fans.

The recent spate of questionable judging in MMA judging has ignited a debate on the quality of judging in the sport. Many fighters are now concerned about going the distance in fights, fearing it might put them at the mercy of unreliable judging.

This feeling was reaffirmed this week as D'Amato was a dissenting judge on three split decisions at the recently concluded UFC Fight Night.

In the prelims bout between strawweights Julia Polastri and Cory McKenna, D'Amato saw the fight as 29-28 in McKenna's favor, while the other officials had the bout 30-27 and 29-28 the other way.

Similarly, the judge scored Daniel Rodriguez vs. Alex Morono 29-28 for Morono, while his fellow officials ruled the fight 29-28 for 'D-Rod'.

The controversial official scored the UFC Vegas 98 flyweight main event between Brandon Royval and Tatsuro Taira 48-47 in favor of the Japanese national, while the other two scorecards had the fight 48-47 for 'Raw Dawg'.

Suffice it to say fight fans were furious with D'Amato and took to social media to vent their frustrations with his judging.

@onpapermma wrote:

"Sal D'Amato needs to be banned from the sport, I'm a giant Taira fan but giving him Round 1? Multiple split decisions tonight because of his incompetence."

@koroshiya616 @BlaneHenryTFL wrote:

"We gotta do something about Sal D'Amato. Dude is terrible."

@Long_Live_Sox opined:

"Sal D'Amato is such a waste of oxygen. Dude gets every single fight wrong and gets paid for it."

Check out a few more responses below:

Screenshots courtesy: X

Interestingly this is far from the first time D'Amato has come under heavy scrutiny. His controversial scorecards have been a topic of contentious debate in the fight community on multiple occasions, with even former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya once publically criticizing his ruling.