For all intents and purposes, it appeared that Sean
Strickland would cruise to a unanimous verdict when the
fifth-round horn signaled the end of his
UFC Fight Night 200 headlining matchup with Jack
Hermansson.
It was quite the surprise, then, when it was announced that
cageside judge Sal D’Amato submitted a 48-47 scorecard in favor of
Hermansson. While Strickland still emerged victorious thanks to a
pair of 49-46 tallies from judges Derek Cleary and Junichiro
Kamijo, it was nonetheless a close call that should have been
avoided.
While D’Amato had a dissenting view of the fight, all 21 of the
unofficial media scorecards tracked by
MMADecisions.com saw the bout in favor of Strickland. Eric
Nicksick, who is Strickland’s head trainer at Xtreme Couture in Las
Vegas, took to Twitter to criticize D’Amato’s scorecard, complete
with the hashtag #firesal.
“Not even one media member scored it for Jack,” Nicksick wrote. “I
know we won, but if this guy is still judging, he will continue to
make egregious decisions and ultimately cost fighters their careers
and livelihood.”
Not even one media member scored it for
Jack. I know we won, but if this guy is still judging, he will
continue to make egregious decisions and ultimately cost fighters
their careers and livelihood.
#fireSal pic.twitter.com/g70PizTsuO— Eric Nicksick (@Eric_XCMMA)
February 6, 2022
Sal D’Amato has served as a cageside judge for numerous UFC events
over the years. It is unclear if his controversial scorecard will
result any future ramifications from either the UFC or the Nevada
State Athletic Commisison.