Judges Gonna Judge: Was Petr Yan robbed of a win against Sean O'Malley at UFC 280?

Welcome to “Judges Gonna Judge,” where our MMA Junkie staff panel revisits the most controversial decision that occurred over the weekend.

This week, we take another look at the UFC 280 feature bout at Ethiad Arena in Abu Dhabi, a bantamweight matchup between former champion Petr Yan and rising contender Sean O'Malley.

This bout certainly did not lack action from beginning to end, meeting expectations of a bout between top names in the UFC’s bantamweight division. After 15 minutes, the judges were split with two scoring the contest in favor of O’Malley.

However, the unofficial judges watching at home were not split at all. All 26 media scores submitted to MMA Decisions scored the bout for Yan. In fact, seven of those scores did not find a single round for O’Malley.

Official judges Ben Cartlidge and David Lethaby turned in 29-28 scores for O’Malley, while the dissenting judge, Vito Paolillo, issued a 29-28 in Yan’s favor. The judges differed on Round 1, leading to the split decision result.

MMA Junkie’s Matthew Wells, Nolan King and Danny Segura put on their judging hats and break the fight down by each round.

If you need a refresher on the official scoring criteria before we dive in, you can check it out here.