“Was nowhere near 10-8” – ABSURD judges scorecard of Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega at UFC Mexico leaves fight fans fuming

Mike Bell, whose officiating career rose to viral fame after the infamous 10-8 scorecard from Noche UFC, does so yet again.

“Was nowhere near 10-8” – ABSURD judges scorecard of Yair Rodriguez vs. Brian Ortega at UFC Mexico leaves fight fans fuming

MMA fans react to controversial 10-8 scoring against Brian Ortega at UFC Fight Night 237 (Source: Instagram)

Brian Ortega put himself back in the win column, avenging his loss to Yair Rodriguez on Saturday. Their last fight was in shambles after Ortega popped his shoulder in Round 1. However, in their UFC Fight Night 237 rematch, Ortega managed to overcome his consecutive losses to Alexander Volkanovski and Rodriguez. Ortega challenged Volk for the featherweight title at UFC 266 in 2021 and lost via decision. But with Ortega’s momentous win, another entity gets back on the map – Judge Mike Bell.

Does that name ring a bell? It should. Top honcho, Dana White had slammed him hard over the controversial 10-8 round-changing course of Valentina Shevchenko vs. Alexa Grasso rematch. Grasso retained her UFC featherweight title at UFC Noche after a draw against Shevchenko that even had White fuming. And Michael Bell of the 10-8 fame does it yet again.

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Ortega didn’t start out well. Rodiguez pegged him and grounded him, with his infamous and wild striking. With a swollen eye and busted nose, he did, however, manage to avoid getting tagged, and dominated from the top position in Round 2. Subsequently, in Round 3 he went for a clinch and drop, transitioning into a mount.

With a fateful arm-triangle choke, he ended the matter at the 0:58 mark. But in a very rare scenario (pointed out by @SpinninBackfist), the official scorecard reads a 10-8, swapped at ends for the first two rounds. A prime reaction retorted – “Ortega came back from being finished and composed himself well. Not a 10-8. Second round was nowhere near 10-8 there wasn’t enough clear GNP.”

Fight fans react to Mike Bell’s scoring of UFC Fight Night 237 co-main feature

In the MMA bubble, a “10-8” scoring is when one fighter superseded the other by a substantial margin. With the ever-changing nature of the scope of fighting, there are always controversies around what gets a 10-8.

Brian Ortega defeats Yair Rodriguez
Brian Ortega defeats Yair Rodriguez (Source: Twitter)

But when one fighter wins the round by a large margin, it is always apparent. Brian Ortega’s short pitfalls in the weekend’s UFC Mexico card weren’t it though. All thanks to Mike Bell, who has been in the business from 2013 onwards, starting for Invicta FC.

He went viral on his controversial scoring of Alexa Grasso’s fight recently. He does it yet again with ‘T-City‘. Here’s how the fight bubble has reacted to it –

While Ortega did get chopped down with a leg kick, he recovered very well later; nowhere near a 10-8 differentiation. And the fans have concurrently sounded off on that. They have even called the likes of Bell a “casual” for the scoring.

Additionally, even in the first round, Yair Rodriguez made a mistake going for a sub that Ortega banked upon quickly, ending dominantly. He has managed to transition into dominant mounts and clinch-and-drag-down reach rounds.

This though, is quite reminiscent of submissions expert strawweight, Mackenzie Dern vs. elite striker Amanda Lemos, at UFC 298. Despite Lemos’ deadly slicers and body kicks, Dern managed to reverse back dominantly into a mount each round. Coincidentally, Bell had scored that a “10-9” favoring Lemos for the first 2. It was Dern’s brutal and bloody transformation in the fallout that veered that decision. This isn’t the case for Oretga; that, moreover, angered fight fans.

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