Calvin Kattar enters UFC Vegas 63 off a close split decision loss to Josh Emmett, a loss he admits he isn’t quite past.
For Kattar (23-6), the issue is bigger than just himself. Rather, he sees the judging problem in MMA, and bringing in some accountability, as important for the sport moving forward.
“I mean, really the thing that I want to stress, not to go back too far and sound like a poor sport or anything like that — we just want accountability for the judges and things like that,” he said during this week’s UFC Vegas 63 media day. This Saturday, Kattar will take on the surging Arnold Allen. “That’s really it. We have a bad day in the office, we pay for it. Mistakes happen, it’s part of the game, there’s human error involved in everything. Just, we want to see something in place with the commission to hold some accountability to the judges that might have got it the wrong way. I think it’s important for the sport moving forward.”
Kattar has summed up the issue nicely. More difficult is finding a solution, though he did have one suggestion.
“The only thing that I heard that really makes sense is, to me, it seems like a no brainer, is if one guy out of the three, or girl, whoever, sees something different that the other two, than alright, what did you see?” In that case, continued Kattar, if that one rogue judge has a bunch of incidents where they go against the other two judges, then the question is to be asked — “what are you seeing all the time? That’s I guess mainly the biggest thing. More accountability for what they saw when they went against the two other judges that are doing the same job they are.”
For Kattar, the Emmett loss is the first loss where he believes he actually won. But as he put it, “this sport’s very humbling, it’s always on to the next no matter what, even after a win or a loss. We understand we’ve got a tough competitor ahead of us, and to not give him my full focus would be a mistake. So all hands on deck for this one, and all the focus is on Arnold Allen.”
Watch the full UFC Vegas 63 media day scrum with Calvin Kattar above. The event takes place this Saturday, October 29, 2022 at the Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.
