LAS VEGAS – Danny Barlow had a scary call on Saturday night.
The UFC welterweight was one scorecard away from losing to Nikolay Veretennikov, as his UFC on ESPN 61 bout ended in a split decision reading favoring him. However, many online thought Barlow (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) had a clear victory over Veretennikov (12-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC) during their main card bout. But perhaps more interestingly, the scorecard favoring Veretennikov gave him all three rounds.
Although many online freaked out at the 30-27 scoring for Veretennikov, Barlow wasn’t sweating it.
“That’s what happens when you go to the decision,” Barlow told reporters at the UFC on ESPN 61 post-fight interview. “It’s out of my hands once it goes to decision. When I heard it, no, I wasn’t bothered by it. But yeah, it is what it is.
“Once the call got to the judges, I’ve seen some crazy things happen. So I just pretty much like, yeah, I felt like I won, so I wasn’t worried about it. But like I said, you’re going to have some judges that make those type of decisions.”
Outside the odd scoring, Barlow was happy with his performance and what he was able to display in the octagon. He did expect the fight to be more intense, but all in all, was happy with the win.
“It wasn’t a surprise because we definitely was prepared,” Barlow said regarding his performance. “We were prepared in the clinch, and I actually felt bigger than him in the clinch. He was a very big and strong guy, but that’s another thing I felt like we were successful in. Our gameplan was successful. I wasn’t really surprised by anything. … I expected him to be a beast, especially him coming off all those wins and finishing guys. I was expecting it to be more of a dog fight.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC on ESPN 61.
