Jon Anik was on broadcasting duties for last weekend’s UFC 314 event and it seems that the UFC’s matchmakers Sean Shelby and Mick Maynard weren’t overly impressed with his take on the main event between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.
“So I trotted out there on the broadcast, close to the end of the 3rd round, I said, ‘Diego Lopes might want to do something here, he’s in danger of being down 3-0,’” Anik recalled to MMA Fighting. “Now, I don’t know that Sean Shelby’s looking at me sideways after I say that, I’m doing the broadcast, but then DC audibly—if memory serves—brought it to my attention. So then I looked down and Maynard and Shelby are looking at me like I should lose my job, and not that I question myself, I know what I see. …
“And I since have done my homework about Round 4, and maybe I was in some part wrong to criticize [judge] Sal D’Amato, even though sometimes I don’t know what I’m watching relative to what I have learned, but yeah, I mean, I think at that point in time, Shelby wrongfully, I can say that respectfully, thought Diego Lopes might have been up 2-1.”
During the post-fight recap, Joe Rogan joked about Shelby’s take on the fight by saying on air, “Sean Shelby needs to get drug tested!”
And for his part, after having had time to rewatch the fight, Anik has acknowledged that he can now see some logic behind why judge Sal D’Amato didn’t give the 4th round to Lopes.
“I think there’s an argument for 50-45 Volkanovski based upon my rewatch and my sort of research in a retroactive way into the scoring,” Anik said. “Here’s the thing, if I could just say this in 20 seconds, the biggest punch of the fight was landed in round 4, and I would say, respectfully, shame on Diego Lopes for not following up. But Volk did land twice as many strikes in Round 4.
“I guess now I can understand why Sal would have scored that round for him, but I guess the way I’m saying if you land the biggest strike of the fight and you come somewhat close to maybe putting the guy away, is that not your round?” Anik said.
“But yeah, I mean, I gave 1, 2, 3, and 5 to Volk.”
