Fair or foul? Fence grab costs Mayra Bueno Silva win at UFC Fight Night 186

Mayra Bueno Silva would’ve defeated Montana De La Rosa at UFC Fight Night 186 if not for a referee’s decision to deduct a point.

Silva mostly dominated Saturday night’s women’s flyweight bout, but it was a fence grab that cost her the victory and instead led to a majority draw at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas.

In Round 1, with De La Rosa working in the clinch against the cage, she attempted to transition for a takedown. Just as she was starting to drag her opponent down, Silva grabbed the fence to keep herself up.

Referee Jerin Valel saw it and immediately stepped in to call time. When he addressed Silva, he told her “it prevented the takedown” in reference to the fence grab. As a result, Valel chose to deduct a point.

Did it warrant a point deduction, or should it have just been a warning and a restart? FWIW, this writer thought it was egregious enough to dock a point. It’s worth noting that Silva didn’t bother to argue.

That made all the difference as, on all three scorecards, the judges scored the first round 9-9. The majority draw was the result of scores of 28-28 twice and 28-27 in favor of Silva. With that extra point, Silva wins a unanimous decision.

All three judges, as well as MMA Junkie’s John Morgan, scored a close Round 2 for De La Rosa. As for Round 3, well, we’re not entirely sure what judge Eric Colon was watching. All three scored it for Silva, but he was the only judge to award Silva a 10-8.

Nothing about Round 3 warranted a 10-8 – nothing.

But in the end, the only difference it would’ve made was a unanimous draw rather than a majority draw. No harm, no foul, but bizarre to say the least.

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