Anderson feeling 'robbed' after re-watching loss to Rua
What should have been a career highlight for Corey Anderson at UFC 198 turned into a complete letdown.
Last Saturday in Brazil, "Beastin 25/8" put in a solid 15 minutes of work against Mauricio Rua, a former light heavyweight champion and the first top-10 opponent of Anderson's young MMA career. When the scorecards were read, however, it was Rua who took the split-decision win.
The partisan crowd cheered loudly for "Shogun," and at the time Anderson didn't see much amiss with the scorecards. It wasn't until he was convinced to review the performance that he thought things should have gone his way.
"We got in the locker room and my coach was furious and kept bringing it up. I was like, 'Man, I got my health and I'm healthy enough to get back in the gym. We go back to the drawing board. I did my best and we came up short. It's not that big of a deal to be upset about,'" Anderson told MMAjunkie. "I grabbed my phone and started seeing all the stuff people put on social media. I read through it for about 30 minutes and that's when it started getting to me.
"I got back to the hotel and took it on my own to find an illegal copy of my fight and I watched it. That's the point where I was hurt and felt like I really got robbed."
Another factor that contributed to Anderson's subdued reaction to the result was that he expected the judging might go Rua's way. Brazilian fighters are known for getting favorable scores when fighting on home soil, and Anderson was already expressing his doubt to ring announcer Bruce Buffer before the official call was made.
"I mean, in the cage, when it happened, I was talking to Bruce," Anderson said. "I said, 'Tell me, Bruce. Tell me now before you say it on TV, I didn't get it, did I?' I knew I didn't do enough in Brazil to get it in the judges' eyes. He said, 'I can't say anything.' My coach was saying, 'What are you talking about? You did. You pulled it out; you won that fight.'
"I was like, 'Coach, we're in Brazil. We didn't win that fight. I'm not putting my hands up.' … I just knew, in my mind, they weren't going to give it to me. Not in Brazil."