Sherdog’s 2024 Robbery of the Year

In a year filled with questionable scorecards from mixed martial arts judges, no one deserved to be more infuriated at the incompetence shown than Carlos Leal Miranda.

The 30-year-old Brazilian is seemingly hitting his peak athletically and able to put all of his aspects together inside the Octagon. However, instead of being on a three-fight winning streak right now, “The Lion” is coming off a unanimous decision defeat to Rinat Fakhretdinov after the two clashed at UFC 308 on Oct. 26 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. How did he lose his UFC debut? Well, nobody is really sure.

Over 15 minutes of action, “The Lion” was clearly in control over Fakhretdinov. Leal was able to repeatedly stuff the takedown attempts of his opponent, blocking 17 of 19 attempts to bring the fight to the ground, and managed to handedly outstrike the Russian on the feet by landing much heavier punches. Yet when the official scorecards were read, the judges all scored the fight for “Gladiator,” with Hadi Mohamed Ali even giving him a ridiculous 30-27 scorecard. Michael Bell and David Lethaby saw it 29-28 in Fakhretdinov’s favor.

What was an outrageous injustice to Leal at least made Sherdog’s “Robbery of the Year” an easy decision, as he won the distinction by a landslide. All three of Sherdog’s scorers saw the fight 30-27 in the favor of Leal, which was not an unpopular opinion. In fact, according to MMADecisions.com all media scorecards had the fight in the favor of Leal, with 11 of 16 giving him a clean sweep. Fan voting also goes overwhelmingly in Leal’s favor, as Fakhretdinov was unable to land effectively on the feet or bring the fight to the ground.

“I truly believe I won that fight against Rinat Fakhretdinov and was wronged by the judging,” Leal said on Instagram. It’s hard to find many people who will disagree with him, although his opponent naturally was one of them. Fakhretdinov blamed the commentary team and did not understand why anyone was surprised by the decision. He was dumbfounded by reactions at the UFC 308 post-fight press conference.

“First round was pretty close,” the Russian admitted. “It could’ve gone either way. I didn’t have any doubt the second or third round was mine. After your words, people will say again the Arabs bought the decision.”

Regardless of what fans and the media think, “Gladiator” stays undefeated inside the Octagon with five wins and a draw to his name. Leal, meanwhile, learns that MMA isn’t always fair.