Fabio Maldonado’s team to appeal controversial loss to Fedor Emelianenko

Fabio Maldonado came close to finishing Fedor Emelianenko in the main event of Fight Night Global 50 on Friday night, and his team isn’t happy with the majority decision loss in St. Petersburg, Russia.

One judge scored the contest a draw (28-28), while two others saw it 29-28 in favor of Emelianenko, scoring the first round a 10-9 in Maldonado’s favor despite the fact that the Brazilian almost knocked the legendary heavyweight out.

Maldonado’s manager Stefano Sartori released a statement to MMA Fighting revealing that they will appeal the "strange" loss to Russian MMA Union, which assigned the judges -- and is headed by Emelianenko.

We're very happy with Fabio’s performance, he made everything right inside the cage. One of our main goals was to show the world the fighter he truly is and what he can do when he is 100% focused, and we did that. But we went there focused on winning and we feel like the judges took that away from us. The promoters didn't agree with the result and most of the fighters who were there also think the result was strange.

Round 1 was clearly a 10-8 for us, Round 2 Fedor got a close 10-9 and round 3 was very close but we think Maldonado got the better shots. It was a least a draw, and we will appeal to Russian MMA Union to review this result.

Hours after the bout, Maldonado spoke with MMA Fighting and said that a draw was "the worst-case scenario."

"I have the utmost respect for Fedor, he’s the most humble fighter I’ve ever met in my life, and I’m happy that I fought here. But I think I won the fight, right?" Maldonado said. "I didn’t lose that third round. In the worst-case scenario, give him the third round and it’s a draw. He didn’t win that fight. Judges saw what nobody else did. He was better in the second round, but that was not a 10-8. And I have no doubt the first round was a 10-8.

"For the love of God, he almost fell several times. Everybody knows (the first round) was at least 10-8, or even a 10-7. He punched me close to the fence, but I was there because I really wanted him to attack."

http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/6/19/11972550/fabio-maldonado-s-team-to-appeal-controversial-loss-to-fedor

Doubt anything will come from this but who knows. I agree with the decision but I could also see it being a draw. It would be impossible for Maldonado to have won though. He only won the first round.

The whole debate is, was the first round 10-8 or 10-9. 1 judge saw it as 10-8, 2 of them saw it as 10-9. The controversy is really being blown out of proportion I think because it involves Fedor fighting a guy he was supposed to smoke easily and how rocked he was in the first round. I just hope it doesn't get turned into a NC or anything.

I cant think of a fighter who is more heavily criticised for everything and anything he does or has done in his career. I truly hate the general UFC fan who hates on fedor because Dana told them so. The MMA media are just as bad.

The talk around Fedor is a joke...and now the mma media are saying that fedor picked the judges and the ref...and that russians were in favor of fedor winning and that the russian referee was allowing fedor to recover.

It's such bullshit. Both of them put on a war. It should have been a draw and is a contender for FOTY in my eyes.

MMA fans have no respect.

^Yup, the only reason these idiots hate Fedor is because dana told them he is a bum...and he only said that because he couldn't sign him. Before that he talked good about Fedor. He is really disrespectful, lies constantly and his people believe and do anything he says.

It's just cult like behavior. Dana white worshipers are the lowest common denominator in MMA. Honestly, I hope the ufc does sell and these people lose their god and leave MMA altogether as they are truly garbage human beings.

Maldonado's appeal was denied already: http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2016/6/20/11977710/maldonado-appeal-denied-by-russian-mma-union-vp-fedors-old-training-partner

Except for the period in the first round when Fedor was rocked Fedor was better. I judge the whole fight and Fedor won, all this 10-8, 10-9 nonsense doesn´t show who was truly the better fighter.

Glad it was over turned already. At worst it was a draw but a win for Fedor made sense too.

Lol at the appeal getting shot down so quickly. How can you win a fight if you gass out in the first and you have minimal output the next two round which are the majority of the fight. I'd like to see compustat numbers for this fight.

God of Thunder wrote:Except for the period in the first round when Fedor was rocked Fedor was better. I judge the whole fight and Fedor won, all this 10-8, 10-9 nonsense doesn´t show who was truly the better fighter.

I agree, and I said before that by 'Global MMA Rules' (a term which OneFC employs) I'd have it a draw.

On second thought though, I am no fan at all of 10-point must system in MMA, and I believe in scoring fights as a whole.

I also believe that there are almost never really draws, if you score the fight precisely. There's something which distinguishes one fighter over the other.

Maldanado scored highly in terms of damage, but it wasn't enough to claim a victory, given Fedor's success throughout the entire rest of the fight.

stu3ufc wrote:I cant think of a fighter who is more heavily criticised for everything and anything he does or has done in his career. I truly hate the general UFC fan who hates on fedor because Dana told them so. The MMA media are just as bad.

The talk around Fedor is a joke...and now the mma media are saying that fedor picked the judges and the ref...and that russians were in favor of fedor winning and that the russian referee was allowing fedor to recover.

It's such bullshit. Both of them put on a war. It should have been a draw and is a contender for FOTY in my eyes.

MMA fans have no respect.

Amen, brother. I suppose when you're on a big pedestal then it's easy to be many people's punching bag but Zuffa Zombie is a disease that needs to be cleansed in MMA.

I don't know if it's true or not but I know you could make accusations about anybody. Hell, The UFC picks the referees and judges used for international events. Most countries don't have athletic commissions either. I'm not accusing the UFC of doing it but my point is that you can say that anywhere. To me, it's like the accusations of PRIDE.

We knew if Fedor did anything short of dominate that he would be hung out to dry and now, I think it's MMAmania saying he's not good enough for the UFC. Oh yes, I'm sure Fedor will cry in his sleep that the zombies don't think he's worthy of being initiated into their private club.

To me, it's another case of the 10 point system being absolute bullshit and it's needs to go away. Again, there's nothing there to tell us what's a 10-8 round. I hate the Unified Rules.

Rocksoldier84 wrote:

stu3ufc wrote:I cant think of a fighter who is more heavily criticised for everything and anything he does or has done in his career. I truly hate the general UFC fan who hates on fedor because Dana told them so. The MMA media are just as bad.

The talk around Fedor is a joke...and now the mma media are saying that fedor picked the judges and the ref...and that russians were in favor of fedor winning and that the russian referee was allowing fedor to recover.

It's such bullshit. Both of them put on a war. It should have been a draw and is a contender for FOTY in my eyes.

MMA fans have no respect.

Amen, brother. I suppose when you're on a big pedestal then it's easy to be many people's punching bag but Zuffa Zombie is a disease that needs to be cleansed in MMA.

I don't know if it's true or not but I know you could make accusations about anybody. Hell, The UFC picks the referees and judges used for international events. Most countries don't have athletic commissions either. I'm not accusing the UFC of doing it but my point is that you can say that anywhere. To me, it's like the accusations of PRIDE.

We knew if Fedor did anything short of dominate that he would be hung out to dry and now, I think it's MMAmania saying he's not good enough for the UFC. Oh yes, I'm sure Fedor will cry in his sleep that the zombies don't think he's worthy of being initiated into their private club.

To me, it's another case of the 10 point system being absolute bullshit and it's needs to go away. Again, there's nothing there to tell us what's a 10-8 round. I hate the Unified Rules.

yeah i agree with both of yous'e as for the fedor haters those fuckers will find anything thing to hate on the guy and for what ? cause he didn't sign with the ufc how pathetic is that ? as for the whole fedor " i'm close to signing with the ufc" that is just click bait from those zuffa run media sites . Not to mention maldando could of been juiced up to the gills . i scored like everyone else for fedor or at worse a draw

8) cheers fellas


it really annoys me! fedor never even said he was the GOAT! he's too humble!

stu3ufc wrote:8)  cheers fellas


it really annoys me! fedor never even said he was the GOAT! he's too humble!

Yes he is