Sean Strickland blasts judges for giving split decision to Jared Cannonier

Image courtesy @strickland_mma_ Instagram
Sean Strickland [Image courtesy @strickland_mma_ Instagram]

Sean Strickland lost a razor-close split decision to Jared Cannonier at UFC Vegas 66. After calling himself a "sore loser," Strickland stated his unhappiness with how judges scored the five-rounder.

In a video uploaded to Instagram after the loss, 'Tarzan' explained that he was upset at the judges for giving the fight to Cannonier when it was he who inflicted the most damage and wobbled 'The Killa Gorilla' multiple times during the fight:

"You know guys, I'm a fu****g sore loser. Hats off to Jared but again. You have judges who don't know how to fu****g do their job. [When] You actually look at the scorecards when you look at the significant strikes and you look at how many times I wobbled him and you have people, experts in the field come up to me and say, "Yeah man, I don't know how you lost that one, you landed way more, the score cards should say it." It's evident that I won."

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Although the fight was easily one of the closest bouts of the year, the final scorecards reflected a split-decision win for Cannonier. Judges Derek Cleary and Junichiro Kamijo scored the fight 49-46 in favor of 'The Killa Gorilla,' while Sal D'Amato saw the fight as a 49-46 for Sean Strickland.

Based on the official stats for the event, 'Tarzan' slightly edged out the 38-year-old in terms of strikes. Strickland also scored a takedown and enjoyed 48 seconds of total control time during the fight.


Jared Cannonier reignites title dreams after win over Sean Strickland

During the post-fight interview at UFC Vegas 66, Jared Cannonier revealed that he is still hunting for the middleweight gold. The No.3-ranked contender said that he is hoping to fight a higher-ranked opponent in his next rodeo.

'The Killa Gorilla' has said that he would like to fight anyone ranked above him. Either former champion Israel Adesanya or the winner of Paulo Costa and Robert Whittaker could be his next possible opponents in the octagon.

"I would definitely like another tile shot, sooner rather than later... At this point I'm ranked No. 3, I just beat No. 6 [Sean Strickland]. I believe Whittaker and Costa are scheduled to fight next year, Adesanya haven't rescheduled the rematch [against Alex Pereira] yet, so anybody above me that'll get me to the title fight or the title fight is what we are shooting for."

Watch Jared Cannonier talk about his title hopes below:

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Edited by Allan Mathew
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