Adriano's team (left) will ask for the result of the fight against Leo (left) to be annulled.
The fight between Brazilians Leo Santos and Adriano Martins at UFC 204, an event held last Saturday (08), has not yet ended. The duel, which Leo won in a split decision by the judges, generated controversy when judge Jeff Mullen was absent from his seat for the entire first round and only returned to the scene in the opening seconds of the second round. Adriano's team announced that it will request the result of the match to be changed to 'No Contest'.
“He doesn't see the fight for about 15s or 17s, there's time for a knockdown to happen and for the guy to get up. We and the athletes are required to maintain the highest degree of professionalism, we are constantly observed and required to maintain the highest degree of professionalism. I want to know who is making these guys do the same thing. This is absurd” complained Alex Davis, Adriano’s manager, on the Combate channel website.
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The duel between the Brazilians would initially be the second on the preliminary card. However, on Friday (07), the fight between Ian Entwistle and Rob font was canceled due to Entwistle not making weight and the fight between Leo and Adriano was moved to the opening of the show. This sudden change may have caused confusion among the judges assigned to the first fight of the night.
Furthermore, central referee Kevin Sataki, responsible for the duel, is also to blame for the problem, as he did not follow the protocol of checking whether judges were in their designated seats.
Faced with such confusion, the UFC released an official statement about the incident explaining what happened. The organization guaranteed that it will review all protocols in events where there is no athletic commission and it is responsible for the judgments.
UFC statement on the case
“At the UFC 204 event on October 8 in Manchester, England, a judge was not in the appropriate judge's chair during the first round of the Adriano Martins vs. Leonardo Santos fight. Judge Jeff Mullen was sitting in the front row of the committee area, and was observing the fight. Upon noticing that Judge Mullen was not in his proper seat at the end of the first round, Marc Ratner, Senior Vice President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, asked Mullen if he believed he could adequately score the round from his point of view. Judge Mullen confirmed that he had observed the entire round and that he could appropriately score the round.
As a result, Mullen filled out his scorecard for the first round, and took his appropriate judge's seat to observe and score the remaining two rounds of the fight. After the fight concluded, all three judges' scorecards were tallied and the decision was announced. Although the fight resulted in a split decision for Santos, it is important to note that all three judges scored the first round 10-9 in favor of Santos. To ensure a similar incident does not happen in the future, the UFC has revised its protocol for starting any and all fights that take place in territories that do not have an applicable athletic commission or federation.”
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