ONE Championship Overturns Controversial Judges’ Decision
ONE Championship has decided to overturn a judges’ decision for a fight that took place last weekend in Myanmar.
The promotion announced on Tuesday that Ma Jia Wen has been declared the winner after originally losing a unanimous decision to Sagetdao Petpayathai at ONE: SPIRIT OF A WARRIOR.
ONE Championship announced the news over social media:
“ONE Championship has conducted an official review of the controversial bout between Ma Jia Wen and Sagetdao Petpayathai at ONE: SPIRIT OF A WARRIOR. The decision has been formally overturned by the ONE Competition Committee and Ma Jia Wen is now declared the rightful winner.”
ONE Championship has conducted an official review of the controversial bout between Ma Jia Wen and Sagetdao Petpayathai at ONE: SPIRIT OF A WARRIOR. The decision has been formally overturned by the ONE Competition Committee and Ma Jia Wen is now declared the rightful winner. pic.twitter.com/8po2uwFJ1z
— ONE Championship (@ONEChampionship) June 30, 2018
Obviously controversial decisions are nothing new in the sport of mixed martial arts but typically athletic commissions will only overturn a result if a scorecard was improperly added or there was some kind of other human error that led to the incorrect decision being announced.
In the case of ONE Championship, they asked as their own governing body overseeing fights, which means the organization assigns the judges at an event and now they are opting to overturn a controversial decision.
ONE’s move may be hailed as a promotion righting a wrong with a fighter who deserved the win actually being awarded the victory but it’s also a very dangerous precedent to set when an organization can arbitrarily decide to overturn a decision like this one even if the judges didn’t seem to get the correct call.
