Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Roxanne Modafferi vs Antonina Shevchenko

Here's the match video of Roxanne Modafferi vs Antonina Shevchenko from yesterday's UFC show in Russia. This is one of these fights where I'm going to have to explain some things because no one else will do it. Antonina was favored coming into this fight mainly because of her sister Valentina. But what I thought and this fight proved is that Antonina is a carbon copy or a pale imitation of her sister. That means she does the same things as Valentina but doesn't do them nearly as well. And what really failed her in this fight was her lack of any kind of takedown defense. Antonina wins this fight if she keeps it standing. Roxanne won this fight by split decision and fans are questioning that. So I'm going to explain the judges decision too. And I'm going to explain why I ignore useless stats like "significant strikes". For the first half of round one, Antonina was getting the best of Roxanne with strikes. Then Roxanne took her down and won the second half of the round. So it was a close round that could be scored either way. I scored it 10-9 for Roxanne. Two of the judges scored it 10-9 for Antonina and the third judge scored it 10-9 for Roxanne. This is the judge that scored the fight in Valentina's favor. Between rounds, Antonina's coach Pavel Fedetov told her she won the first half of the round and she needs to block takedowns. Roxanne's coach John Wood told her to keep taking Antonina down. Round two was very similar to round one. I scored it 10-9 for Roxanne. I thought it was more decisive than round one. The judges who scored round one for Antonina scored round two 10-9 for Roxanne while the third judge scored it 10-9 for Antonina. Based on the judges scorecards, the match is a draw going into round three. I have Roxanne winning. And I scored the third round 10-9 for Roxanne so I scored the fight 30-27 for Roxanne. Two of the judges scored round three 10-9 for Roxanne and the third judge scored it 10-9 for Antonina. So that's how you get a split decision. Two judges scored it 29-28 for Roxanne and the third scored it 29-28 for Anronina Look, it was a close fight and how anyone scores a fight is purely subjective. I thought Roxanne's takedowns and ground control were the determining factors. The judges can interpret the same thing differently. That's how judging in close fights has always been. Different strokes for different folks. Also during the fight, John Gooden made a big deal out of Antonina's "significant strikes" advantage. To his credit, Paul Felder shot that down. I ignore most of those phony baloney stats. Some unknown person decides what is significant? I'm not going to let that influence me. I don't need any help. And it would influence the judges but they don't see those stats. Any of those stats that you see during a fight broadcast should be taken with a grain of salt. Anyway, this was a big win for Roxy except I thought Antonina was overrated in the first place. Enjoy the video!