“I was robbed, everyone knows it.” That’s what Jared Gordon said after his fight with Paddy Pimblett in 2022. A similar furore occurred when Sean O’Malley was declared the winner over Petr Yan in their UFC 280 bout. The examples are abound, but the story is the same. ‘Robberies’ in UFC are a common occurrence, at least according to Joe Rogan. So much so that it affects fighters to even meet their daily bread.

Joe Rogan, on his October 7th podcast episode, sat with stand-up comic Sal Vulcano and talked about how UFC has had some questionable decisions. “It happens in the UFC all the time. There’s a bad decision, and it’s infuriating. It’s infuriating to the athlete, too, because, particularly in the UFC, there’s a win bonus,” said Rogan. The longtime commentator put the UFC judges under scrutiny and highlighted how there’s no recourse once it happens.

Joe Rogan explains how much a ‘robbery’ actually costs a fighter

Take the example of the Jon Jones and Dominick Reyes fight in February 2020. The judges gave a unanimous decision against Reyes, (48-47, 48-47, 49-46) based on a slender margin that favored Jones’ late showing and control, which cost Reyes’ light heavyweight title. Joe Rogan recalled this, stating Reyes was “robbed of a championship.” But Rogan is more concerned about the emerging athletes, who might not have resources like Reyes and Jones.

“If you’re a young guy and you’re starting out in the UFC and you have a contract and maybe it’s like 15 and 15. What that means is you get $15,000 to show and then $15,000 to win. So, if you lose, you only get that $15,000. So, those judges just stole $15,000 from you,” said Rogan.

“You’re struggling just to feed yourself, right? And if you’re getting $15,000 to fight, you have to pay for managers. You have to pay for your gym fees. You have to pay for nutrition. You have to pay for supplements. You have to, maybe you’re getting a massage once a week. You’ve got to pay for that. It’s like, you don’t have any money. Zero money… you’re barely getting by and they just stole 15 grand from you,” said Rogan. Despite the setbacks and wider furore, nothing much has been done regarding UFC judges’ questionable decisions.

In July 2025, the Association of Boxing Commissions approved major updates to unify the MMA judging criteria. The changes were finally approved in August and will look to provide “more in-depth explanations” of how judges score different rounds. Not just that, the update will also bring on a simple language around round scores, potentially ending controversial scenarios. But barring that, outrage, too, has been abound on judges’ decisions in UFC.

Despite outrage against the controversial decision, is there any recourse for fighters?

Kai Kara-France faced off against Amir Albazi in the main event of UFC Vegas 74. However, despite a tough showing, the fighter lost, owing to a controversial split decision. It is, however, to be noted that the bout was highly competitive and Albazi found success early, whereas Kara-France finally redeemed late rounds. That said, the fourth round still was statistically dominant for Kara-France, but the judges didn’t see it that way. Kara-France, though, didn’t hold back against the judges.

“That cost me $100,000, that loss. It cost me my ranking, No. 3 in the world. Where winning this fight would have just put me right back in with probably [Brandon] Royval to fight for the No. 1 contender. It puts me right back into where I want to be, which is the best in the world. It’s a tough one when you look at it like that and you take a step back, and you’ve got to think, what are these judges looking at? ” said Kara-France.

The recourse for fighters is scarce, too. It’s rare for players to get any remedy like Shogun Rua got in a rematch against Lyoto Machida in 2010. Still, if the case is too clear and the decision too controversial, the fighters do get bonuses. For instance, Dana White gave Jared Gordon his win money after the 2022 controversial decision. Whereas Sean O’ Malley later got a title shot. However, despite that, the issue persists, and it remains to be seen what happens after the new MMA updates are implemented.