When the 15 minutes between Tai Tuivasa and Jairzinho Rozenstruik ended, everyone watching knew the result. There was no real reason to look at the judges’ scorecards. Even Tuivasa’s family would have agreed that Rozenstruik won the fight.

But Howie Booth disagreed. Unfortunately, the UFC judge was one of the only three people in the arena whose opinion on the bout mattered. Despite the lopsided statistical difference, MMAfighting latest news shows Booth awarded Tuivasa a 30-27 victory.

While the other two judges backed Rozenstruik with the same score, many people thought UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer had read Booth’s scorecard wrong. But the UFC investigated the judge’s reasoning following the fight and concluded it wasn’t an error.

Booth, who was originally scheduled to score the co-main event, was immediately removed from it. It is unlikely we will ever know what Booth was thinking, but the UFC is rightfully sensitive to judging issues.

Poor scorecards damage the integrity of the sport and can lead to questions of fight fixing. Here’s a more in-depth look at the Tuivasa fight and some other head-scratching decisions in UFC history.

Rozenstruik Dominated, Plain and Simple

Tuivasa hoped being back in Australia to fight would help revive his career. While he is still a ranked heavyweight, that may only last a little while longer as he is mired in a five-fight losing streak. But Tuivasa’s fight plan against Rozenstruik appeared to be one of a fighter who lacked conviction.

Instead of trying to make the fight ugly, Tuivasa attempted to be patient and wade in from a distance to land his power shots. But that played right into the hands of Rozenstruik, an excellent kickboxer and counterpuncher. As a result, Tuivasa never got close to connecting regularly with Rozenstruik.

Rozenstruik landed more strikes than Tuivasa in all three rounds. Neither man attempted a takedown. Rozenstruik finished with a 91-37 edge in significant strikes. He was undoubtedly a deserving winner, according to MMA news sites.

While Rozenstruik was lucky enough to get his hand raised, not all UFC fighters were so fortunate. There have been many fighters who have been on the wrong end of a judge’s decision. Here’s a look at a few of the most notable ones in UFC history.

Bad Decision May Have Helped Bisping

There was a lot of outrage in 2007 when the future UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping got his hand raised in a fight with Matt Hamill. Even a partisan crowd booed the British fighter after he was awarded the victory.

While Bisping would eventually admit that he likely didn’t deserve the victory, he was initially defiant about it. However, the statistics from the fight show that Hamill had legitimate beef. Hamill scored six takedowns against Bisping and mostly controlled the Englishman on the mat.

However, Bisping outlanded Hamill on the feet in the second and third rounds. Anyone looking at MMA breaking news will see that Hamill earned a 30-27 decision from one judge, while the other two scored it 29-28 for Bisping. Bisping used some of the heat from the fans after this victory to play up more of a heel persona.

Hamill was fortunate that his career didn’t suffer much as a result of the loss. He would go on to fight many more times in the UFC. He never got another shot at Bisping.

Would Sugar Show Still be Raging?

Sean O’Malley has proven himself to be a capable UFC bantamweight champion. But it’s easy to think he may have needed longer to climb the ladder had his fight with Petr Yan at UFC 280 been scored differently. Most people who have watched this fight agree that Yan won the second round and O’Malley won the third.

But the first round was where two judges sided with O’Malley to give him a controversial victory and set him up for a title fight. Yan was able to takedown O’Malley six times during the fight.

He also finished with a 97-91 edge in strikes landed. However, Yan’s punches didn’t have the sting that O’Malley’s did. In the third round especially, O’Malley landed some power shots that had a major impact.

Still, a solid third round shouldn’t have covered up the work Yan did in the first two.

Gaethje’s Strong Third Round Gave Him Controversial Win

Justin Gaethje fought an excellent third round against Rafael Fiziev at UFC 286. But Gaethje’s first two rounds weren’t very sharp. It was assumed, going into the third round, that Gaethje would have to finish Fiziev to win the fight.

While Gaethje had an impressive third round, no one knew what the judges’ scorecards would say. While Fiziev outlined Gaethje, all three judges seemed to have different ideas of how the fight went. Two judges scored the fight 29-28 for Gaethje, while the third scored the fight as a draw.

Would Open Scoring Help?

There is a thought that open scoring could help fighters make the right adjustments in fights. The concept is that the judges’ scorecards would be posted every round so people knew what the score was. This would provide fans, commentators, and fighters with insight into what is going on.

However, open scoring has also faced criticism for making fighters less likely to push to try and get a finish in the final rounds. If a fighter knows they have a commanding lead, they may be more willing to sit back and take fewer risks. With this situation at UFC 305, it is unclear what motivated the judge to turn in such a poor scorecard.

The UFC was right to correct the issue so quickly. Letting Booth continue to judge would have resulted in the promotion losing the faith of the fans and fighters. Everyone likely breathed easier, knowing it was the last fight he would score.

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By Dean McHugh.