Jose Aldo loses and the MMA community screams “robbery”

Jose Aldo lost to Mario Bautista by split decision in the pay-per-view portion of UFC 307 at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Aldo was disappointed with the decision, apparently believing he had done enough to win. Others in the MMA community – including you really – agreed with him. After the official judge's scorecard was read, several people in the MMA community hit out at X with spirited, pro-Aldo posts.

Lightweight contender Renato Moicano kept it short and sweet. He called it a “robbery.”

Verdict MMA's scorecard, which aggregates online results from users, showed Aldo winning two of the three rounds.

Veteran MMA columnist Shaheen Al-Shatti said he scored the fight 30-24 for Aldo. He was only joking, but he felt Aldo deserved the decision.

A former Aldo opponent, Conor McGregor, was very vocal about the decision and the referee's reluctance to separate the fighters. At the same time, Bautista decided to lean on the Brazilian icon at the Octagon fence.

According to my scorecard, Aldo won the second and third rounds, which would have given him a 29-28 victory. Judge Chris Lee scored for Aldo, but Derek Cleary and Mike Bell gave Bautista the same score.

The question you might be asking yourself if you hadn't seen the fight is how Bautista won. He won the fight through strength of control, but it didn't come through takedowns. Bautista failed on all ten of his takedown attempts, but he successfully pinned Aldo to the fence.

I didn't shoot for him the last two rounds because he didn't deal any damage in those sequences and landed very few hits. Bautista didn't even try to submit. He settled for taking on Aldo, prompting a chorus of boos from the crowd.

If you look at the fight stats below, you'll see that Aldo outscored Bautista in significant strikes in the last two rounds and that he also scored at a higher strike rate in all three rounds.

It's easy to see why Aldo was upset. However, Aldo's reluctance to move away from the fence cost him a loss. Had he been more active in that position, the outcome might have been different.

Here's a look at all the results from UFC 307.

UFC 307 Pay-Per-View card results

• (c) Alex Pereira defeated. Khalil Rountree Jr. via Round 4 TKO – Pereira retains UFC Light Heavyweight Championship.
• Julianna Peña defeated. (c) Raquel Pennington via split decision (29-28×2, 28-29) – Pena wins the UFC women’s bantamweight championship
• Mario Bautista defeated. Jose Aldo by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Roman Dolidze defeated. Kevin Holland via TKO at 5:00 of the first round (Holland was injured in the first round and could not continue)
• Kayla Harrison defeated. Ketlen Vieira by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)

UFC 307 Preliminary Card Results

• Joaquin Buckley defeated. Stephen Thompson via KO at 2:17 of round 3
• Iasmin Lucindo defeated. Marina Rodriguez by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• Alexander Hernandez defeated. Austin Hubbard via split decision (27-30, 29-28, 29-28)
• Cesar Almeida defeated. Ihor Potieria by unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 30-27)

UFC 307 Early Preliminary Card Results

• Ryan Spann defeated. Ovince Saint Preux by submission at 1:35 of Round 1 (Guillotine)
• Tecia Pennington defeats Carla Esparza by unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 30-27)
• Court McGee defeats Tim Means via submission at 3:19 of round 1 (rear-naked choke)