Fabio Maldonado has won an appeal of his decision loss to Fedor Emelianenko in June at Fight Nights 50 with the World MMA Association (WMMAA), overruling the Russian MMA Union according to a report from Karim Zidan at BloodyElbow.com.
Per the report, the fight has been ruled a draw after the WMMAA – which governs several countries and counts the Russian MMA Union as a member – had separate judges watch and score the bout.
Maldonado had appealed the loss with the Russian MMA Union, only to be denied because of an arbitrary rule that required an appeal to come 40 minutes after the decision was rendered. Emelianenko is the President of the Russian MMA Union, and the VP Radmir Gabdullin is the man who denied the appeal. With a clear conflict of interest, the WMMAA opted to have impartial judges take a look at the fight, and rendered a unanimous draw after giving Maldonado a 10-8 first round.
However, the Russian MMA Union is not accepting the decision, with Gabdullin openly refusing to recognize a new result.
“The WMMAA can express their views, but do not have the right to influence the judge’s decision on the Russian professional promotion,” Gabdullin said in an interview with Tass.ru. “This situation I regard as an unfounded attempt to take away a well-deserved victory from Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko.”
Penick’s Analysis: It’s clear the Russian MMA Union wasn’t going to give Maldonado a fair appeal, which is why it’s played out in this manner. Fight Nights won’t be overturning it, but Maldonado may be able to still claim it as a draw otherwise. Regardless, Emelianenko didn’t pick up a “well-deserved victory” in that fight, and anyone outside of Russia who watched that bout knows as much.
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BS, I had the fight 29-28 for Fedor and I don’t live in Russia. Landing one combo and the follow up and doing nothing else isn’t enough to win you a fight. The real question is, was round 1 and 10-8 or a 10-9. This is an issue that comes up all the time in every org. If it wasn’t Fedor involved no one would have even blinked an eye. The real story should be about how it was “overturned” by Fedor’s ex-manager who is in a feud with Fedor because he signed with a rival company.