By the time Sean Strickland and Jack Hermansson wrapped up their 25 minutes in the cage Saturday night, the reasonable assumption was that Strickland had cruised to an easy decision win.
But when Bruce Buffer started to read the scorecards, the fighters, broadcasters and fans watching quickly realized it wasn’t going to be a clear-cut unanimous decision. When a 48-47 score for Hermansson was announced, Strickland almost certainly had visions of historic bad judging results in his head.
A moment later, Strickland (25-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) had his hand raised for his sixth straight win thanks to a pair of appropriate 49-46 scores in his favor for a split decision over Hermansson (22-7 MMA, 9-5 UFC), who got a 48-47 from judge Sal D’Amato.
D’Amato gave Rounds 1, 3 and 5 to Hermansson. Junichiro Kamijo gave Round 1 to Hermansson and the next four to Strickland. Derek Cleary gave Round 3 to Hermansson and Rounds 1-2 and 4-5 to Strickland.
None of the MMA media outlets tracked by MMADecisions.com scored the fight for Hermansson. Of the 21 the site posted scores from, Nearly half, including MMA Junkie, scored the fight 50-45 for Strickland. Another 10 had it 49-46 for Strickland, and one had it 49-47.
D’Amato is a fixture judge at UFC fights, particularly in Las Vegas. The Strickland-Hermansson fight was his third main event in as many UFC cards so far in 2022, but it was the first split decision he was part of in nine individual fights that went the distance this year.
In 2021, D’Amato’s scores were needed in nearly 130 fights, including cards for Bellator and Cage Warriors. Eight times in that stretch, he was the dissenting judge in split decisions.
In the UFC Fight Night 200 headliner, Strickland outstruck Hermansson only 161-137 over the five rounds. But he also stopped all eight of Hermansson’s takedown attempts, according to the UFC’s official stats.
Hermansson posted on Instagram early Sunday to apologize for his performance and said not landing the takedowns led to his loss.
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