Retro Theft Review: Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero 2

Few things infuriate MMA fans more than an incorrectly branded fight, though the term “theft” tends to be neglected and often biased. With Robbery Review, we’ll take a look at the controversial fights and determine if the judges were properly criticized for their decision or if experts need to examine their own knee jerk reactions.

Robert Whittaker is easy to like. Whether it’s for his exciting style or personable personality, there is a lot for a fighting fan to appreciate, so you know it takes a lot for someone to try to take down your reputation. However, there is one result on his resume that sticks out like a sore thumb and has remained a point of contention since it happened at UFC 225 in Chicago on June 9, 2018.

For some, the predominant image of Whittaker’s second fight is not that he goes the full five rounds and leaves as champion, but rather aspiring challenger Yoel Romero (lost weight for the contest and was ineligible to win the title) almost finishing Whittaker. Romero has been called the most dangerous fighter at 185 pounds and in his second fight with Whittaker, he showed that perhaps he deserved to be called the best as well.

Whittaker won on points, but should Romero’s dominance moments weigh more heavily with the judges?

What was the official result?

Robert Whittaker def. Yoel Romero by divided decision.

How was the fight?

The tension in this one was palpable, especially considering how entertaining and hard-fought his first meeting was at UFC 213. It didn’t even matter that Romero lost weight. This feels like an award fight is supposed to feel.

Through the first two rounds, the champion was on point. Lots of movement, clever use of feints and an early focus on Romero’s legs. There wasn’t much activity from Romero in the first round, but you get the feeling he wasn’t interested in winning on the scorecards anyway. Every time he even hinted at an offensive outburst, the crowd reacted.

Romero came out more aggressive in the second round, but he also respected Whittaker’s power. Whittaker constantly played Romero, doing his best not to allow Romero to get into any kind of rhythm. A hard blow from Whittaker caused Romero’s right eye to swell. Whittaker seemed to be awake after 10 minutes.

Then the third round happened. Amazed. Romero began to land and 30 seconds later he staggered Whittaker with a strong right hand to the jaw. Whittaker’s glove touched the mat. Romero was a little crazy and couldn’t find the final follow-up shot, although that’s credit to Whittaker’s survival skills as well. The two fighters were entangled and Whittaker always got himself in the right place so as not to lose his head and shoot with his own shots. For a moment, it seemed that Romero was gassing, but another attack began with two minutes remaining. Whittaker hung up there with him.

The fourth round started in a tone closer to the first two rounds. What was different is that we now knew how much damage Romero could do to Whittaker. With Whittaker sticking out his left hands, the comment team speculated that his right hand may have been broken (Whittaker confirmed this in his post-fight interview, saying he was numb from hand to elbow). The volume favored Whittaker, but Romero increased again in the last 90 seconds. He staggered Whittaker with his left hand and followed with a solid right. Possibly very little, very late.

Romero’s urgency increased another notch in the fifth round and 90 seconds later he dropped Whittaker with a huge left hand. From the backseat, Romero scored with many punches as Whittaker dangled by one leg to save his life. They ended up fighting the fence and Romero kept going on a trip so he could start more land and pounds. Whittaker’s defense remained, but he was strictly defensive in the final round. That was enough to keep Romero from finding the end.

On a less analytical note, holy shit this fight was incredibly good

What did the judges say?

Sal D’Amato scored it 48-47 Romero.

Chris Lee scored it 48-47 Whittaker.

Brian Pucillo scored it 48-47 Whittaker.

The first three rounds and the last were easy to score, with the three judges giving Whittaker one and two and Romero three and five. The fourth round turned out to be the difference, as Lee and Pucillo scored it for the champion.

10-8 were not awarded.

What did the numbers say?

(Statistics by UFC statistics)

For the most part, the numbers reflect the majority opinion of the fight. Whittaker won rounds one, two, and four, while Romero easily took rounds three and five.

Just counting the significant punches, Whittaker actually had the most dominant round of the fight, beating Romero 33-9 in the first round. He won the second round 29-20 and the fourth round 34-20. However, even given the margins by which he won, it would be difficult to argue that Whittaker deserved a little more than 10-9 for his efforts.

Romero’s victories in the round were equally impressive (36-18 in round three and 26-14 in round five), plus he had a drop in each of the two rounds he won.

Going through the area, Romero landed 76 absurd head shots (33 in the third round!) At Whittaker’s 57, while Whittaker overcame the body shot battle 23-19 and overwhelmingly won the leg shot battle 48- 16.

Romero scored three takedowns, two in round three and one in round five. He was credited with six land shots in round three and 14 in round five.

What did the media say?

Of the 28 points of sale accounted for by the MMA Decisions, five scored the fight for Whittaker, 15 scored it for Romero, and eight saw the fight as a 47-47 draw (meaning Romero won a 10-8 on those cards. ).

Five of the media members who scored the Romero fight gave him a pair of 10-8 for a score of 48-46 in his favor.

What did the people say?

(Data derived from MMA decisions and MMA verdict)

In a rarity in MMA decisions, the top voter obtained a draw verdict of 47-47 with 37.4 percent. Second at 26.9 percent, 48-47 Whittaker. However, the next three scores are a form of “Romero defeated Whittaker” for a total of 27.5 percent.

If you think Whittaker didn’t deserve to win the rematch, that’s almost 65 percent agree.

Verdict MMA users gave the champion the slightest advantage.

That scoring system takes the cumulative total of each fanatic submitted score (filtering aberrant scores such as random 10-7 if they comprise less than one percent of the total) in each round and is divided by the number of scores submitted to determine the winner of each round and also in its entirety.

The Verdict MMA scores presented were quite conservative, with the fifth round being just over 10-9 in Romero’s favor (he won the round by 109 points). Whittaker’s first and Romero’s third canceled each other out, so Whittaker’s second and fourth made up the difference and won the final score by 17 points. That narrow margin adds to the robbery argument.

MMA Fighting did not conduct a Twitter poll at the time, but you can read some reactions to the judges’ decision in the following response thread:

How did I rate it?

At worst for Whittaker, a draw.

I just can’t see a solid justification for two 10-8s. In the fifth round, Romero was undoubtedly close to ending the fight. Not only did he drop Whittaker, but he followed up with several precise hits to the ground, and it took Whittaker to clear the cobwebs and tie Romero up. The fights have stopped for less, is what I’m saying.

That said, Romero left the door open for a 10-9 when making trips for the remainder of the round that did not lead to a more significant offense. Whittaker left in the fifth round, but Romero’s attack slowed considerably after that fateful blast. One has to wonder if that takedown occurred later in the round, would that have influenced the importance of the judges?

The third round was a 10-9 for me to watch the fight again, although I’m definitely thinking twice after seeing that it was statistically Romero’s best round of the night.

Without the benefit of analyzing the numbers, I had it 47-47.

It was a robbery?

There was a lot of the “Joe Rogan effect” here, as he later blindly told Romero that “a lot of people thought you were going to make the decision” (actually, the crowd reacted positively when the decision was read). outside). Romero told Rogan that he thought he had won the belt and that he hadn’t been given the proper amount of time to lose weight, so he certainly felt some kind of way about it.

Last week, I argued that Max Holloway’s winning rounds felt more significant than Alexander Volkanovski’s and that you can present a much stronger case here in which Romero deserved at least a real 10-8. As impressive as Whittaker’s heart was and as much as he was able to respond with his own punches throughout the fight, from the third round on he felt as if Romero’s fight was lost; which unfortunately for him, according to two of the three judges, he did.

That’s not fair, nor is it fair to say that Whittaker should bear the loss. Maybe he didn’t do enough to win, but he certainly did more than enough to hold on to his belt, and therefore …

The final verdict

It is not a robbery.