Jon Anik was on the call for the UFC 314 main event between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes, and after the third round, he felt there was a great case Volkanovski was up 30-27 on the scorecards. Not everyone agreed with that.
Anik served as lead commentator—alongside Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan providing color commentary—for the UFC’s recent pay-per-view event, which was capped off by Volkanovski regaining the featherweight title via unanimous decision. After the main event ended, Rogan said that matchmaker Sean Shelby “needs to be drug tested” after disagreeing with Anik’s take on the first 15 minutes of the fight. Anik was asked about where that moment stemmed from.
“So I trotted out there on the broadcast, close to the end of the 3rd round, I said, ‘Diego Lopes might want to do something here, he’s in danger of being down 3-0,’” Anik told MMA Fighting. “Now, I don’t know that Sean Shelby’s looking at me sideways after I say that, I’m doing the broadcast, but then DC audibly—if memory serves—brought it to my attention. So then I looked down and Maynard and Shelby are looking at me like I should lose my job, and not that I question myself, I know what I see. …
“And I since have done my homework about Round 4, and maybe I was in some part wrong to criticize [judge] Sal D’Amato, even though sometimes I don’t know what I’m watching relative to what I have learned, but yeah, I mean, I think at that point in time, Shelby wrongfully, I can say that respectfully, thought Diego Lopes might have been up 2-1.”
Volkanovski earned two 49-46 scorecards, along with a 48-47 in his historic championship victory. “The Great” looked sensational for most of the fight, outside of getting dropped in the second round and taking a big punch in the fourth round that seemed to stagger the now multi-time world champ.
After rewatching the fight, Anik understands anybody who scored the action a clean sweep for Volkanovski despite those two big moments for Lopes.
“I think there’s an argument for 50-45 Volkanovski based upon my rewatch and my sort of research in a retroactive way into the scoring,” Anik said. “Here’s the thing, if I could just say this in 20 seconds, the biggest punch of the fight was landed in round 4, and I would say, respectfully, shame on Diego Lopes for not following up. But Volk did land twice as many strikes in Round 4.
“I guess now I can understand why Sal would have scored that round for him, but I guess the way I’m saying if you land the biggest strike of the fight and you come somewhat close to maybe putting the guy away, is that not your round?
“But yeah, I mean, I gave 1, 2, 3, and 5 to Volk.”
