Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland didn’t exactly send 2022 off with a bang.
In the final UFC main event of the year, Cannonier narrowly won a split decision over Sean Strickland after five rounds of technical–and occasionally uneventful–striking. The back-and-forth contest produced one of the stranger sets of scorecards you’ll see, with two judges scoring the fight 49-46 for Cannonier and the other 49-46 for Strickland.
While the middleweight bout was light in drama, that didn’t mean there wasn’t plenty for fighters to talk about, particularly in regards to the dearth of meaningful exchanges and the peculiar scoring.
Ode’ Osbourne offered Sean Strickland some tough love, writing, “Love Sean, but you can’t act like a lion and fight like a cat.”
Middleweight rival Derek Brunson called scorecards “crazy”, and asked if MMA needed “a real scoring method .”
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Check out more reactions from the MMA community here.
Love Sean, but you can’t act like a lion and fight like a cat #UFCVegas66
— Ode’ sbourne (@OdeOsbourne) December 18, 2022
Solid fight . Crazy score cards ! #UFCVegas66
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) December 18, 2022
Comedy for judging 49-46 one person , 49-46 other person . Too subjective and opinionated. Can we get a real scoring system … #UFCVegas66
— Derek Brunson (@DerekBrunson) December 18, 2022
It is a finish or Idk who won!!!
— Jamahal Hill (@JamahalH) December 18, 2022
Surprisingly enough Cannonier has done more talking throughout the fight lol #UFCVegas66
— Vince Morales (@vandetta135) December 18, 2022
Those stats super tight
— Kai Kamaka III (@kaiboikamaka) December 18, 2022
Both were good fighters. I was able to get Cannonier, but I can see the judges going in either direction.
— Funky (@Benaskren) December 18, 2022
Strickland is pissed, but he should’ve showed more urgency. 49-46 going opposite ways, weird cards again. @VerdictMMA what you got?
— Funky (@Benaskren) December 18, 2022
Who the heck is winning?
— Sodiq Yusuff (@Super_Sodiq) December 18, 2022
Crazy score cards
— Gregory “Robocop” Rodrigues (@gregory_mma) December 18, 2022
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/12/17/23514748/you-cant-act-like-a-lion-and-fight-like-a-cat-fighters-react-to-listless-ufc-vegas-66-main-event?rand=96749