White blasts judge who scored fight for Costa: 'It was f-----g nuts'
UFC CEO Dana White tore into MMA judge Dave Tirelli after he turned in a shocking scorecard for Sean Strickland versus Paulo Costa on Saturday in Newark.
Tirelli scored the UFC 302 co-main event in favor of Costa by a wide margin of 49-46. However, he was overruled by judges Chris Lee and Sal D'Amato, who had Strickland winning 50-45 and 49-46, respectively.
"It wasn't weird, it was f-----g nuts is what it was," White said of Tirelli's scoring at the postfight press conference. "Insane. That guy should never (judge) a big fight again. They should kick him back down to the minor leagues and let him work on his judging. It's unbelievable. How anybody who isn't an absolute f-----g lunatic could call that fight a split decision, I don't even know what to say about that. It's insane. That guy shouldn't be judging big fights."
Strickland clearly outworked Costa over the course of five rounds and edged him out 182-158 in strikes. It was a relatively timid fight overall in which Strickland fought behind his jab and used pressure to shut down Costa's offense.
White said he was impressed by Strickland's performance but expected a much different kind of fight.
"I thought (Strickland) fought a beautiful, perfect fight," White said. "He's a very awkward guy to fight in how he throws those teep kicks, his hands are so good, he's very elusive, beautiful jab, and he basically picked Costa apart and shut him down."
White added: "I expected (Costa) to come in and turn it into a street fight. Eventually. My thought process in the first two rounds, I was like, 'OK, they have a game plan that he's sticking to. He's chopping that front leg, trying to get him, and then he's gonna turn this into an absolute street fight.' And a street fight never came. I think that Strickland was way too unorthodox for him and kept that jab in his face and kept pressure on him, basically the same way he did (against Israel Adesanya)."
Strickland returned to the win column after dropping the middleweight title in a split-decision loss to Dricus Du Plessis at UFC 297 in January.