Sherdog.com’s 2014 Robbery of the Year

2. Benson Henderson vs. Josh Thomson
UFC on Fox 10
Jan. 25 | Chicago

Aside from the Diego Sanchez-Ross Pearson debacle, no other fight in the sphere of mixed martial arts embodied the word “robbery” better than Henderson’s split decision victory over Thomson in January.

A large majority of media members who scored the five-round bout ruled in favor of Thomson, including all three Sherdog.com virtual judges: TJ De Santis, Chris Nelson and Jordan Breen, who turned in scores of 49-46. Two of the three appointed judges saw things differently, though, as Brian Puccillo, 48-47, and Sal D’Amato, 49-46, both awarded the scrap to “Smooth.” The lone dissenter, Gabriel Sabaitis, scored the fight 48-47 for Thomson.

A glance at the Fight Metric statistics do show some striking disparities, as Henderson managed to land nearly four times more over the course of 25 minutes, with 114 of his strikes hitting their mark. In contrast, Thomson connected only 33 times. The lightweights both took each other down four times, but even with these numbers at its disposal, the “official statistics provider of the UFC” still scored the fight 49-46 for Thomson.

Afterward, UFC President Dana White did not mince words.

“The scoring was way off,” he said. “At the end of the day … I don’t know. It definitely wasn’t that wide of a margin. If you had Henderson winning, it wasn’t by that wide of a margin.”

The split decision victory was the third of Henderson’s career, with the first two also coming in hotly debated contests. The first was against Frankie Edgar at UFC 150, the second against Gilbert Melendez at UFC on Fox 7.

The fight did not net either Henderson or Thomson a shot at Anthony Pettis’ title, and both went on to lose later in the year. Thomson was involved in a second consecutive split decision, falling to Bobby Green at UFC on Fox 12. Meanwhile, Henderson was finished by Rafael dos Anjos in August.

Continue Reading » Rampage vs. Lawal